Wing Walking Stearman in the Sea at Bournemouth Air Show
 

Reported as an incident, one of the wing walker's aircraft is down in the sea near the Sandbanks Ferry. The air show has been stopped for a while. It appears that the two crew are safe. That could be the third accident involving their aircraft this year.

Bournemouth Air Show
 

Biplane and its wing-walker ditched in sea, away from main display area. All reported rescued.

Watching the video of the ditching I'm surprised the wing walker is reportedly uninjured.

On a slightly lighter note a witness is reported to have seen the Police and RNLI “looking for the black box” ..:confused:

If your going to have to put it down on water, do it on the doorstep of the RLNI HQ.

And that they didn't hit a boat! That must be one of the most crowded stretches of Poole Bay on one of the busiest days of the year!

I had watched the two aircraft flying above my house as they waited for their display slot, must have been just minutes before this accident. So glad to hear nobody has been badly hurt.

Went down town to watch the evening display to find it's been cancelled due to the crash.
Nobody died, so what happened to "The Show Must Go On".
It was the Typhoon I wanted to see.

It sounds as though she relocated to the front cockpit before the ditching!

I hope so as she wouldn’t have stood a chance if not🤞

I imagine they would train for a quick return to the cockpit for just this case.

What were the other 2?

From what I understand it's standard proceedure for the wing walker to travel in the cockpit only taking the wing for the display.
I would expect they have well drilled emergency proceedures and the wing walker would return to the cockpit under any emergency situation.
Be interested to know if the crew have any form of water escape training?

There were better places in Poole harbour to ditch, they were inches away from the chain ferry slipway.

Munnst, correct they do normally travel in the cockpit and are well practiced in getting back and forth between the cockpit and the SOW rig.

Don't know if he still inhabits this forum but one of our esteemed PPRuNers has an excellent tale from many, many years ago bringing together a Tiger Moth with an upstanding passenger, an unseen telephone cable and the River Trent... fortunately, of the dramatis personae, two were undamaged. I hope he is hard at work on his memoirs.

I am guessing the situation was sufficient that getting the plane down safely took precedent over location. On the other hand, its not a bad location, as its an easy swim to shore.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/160511...ncident-plane/

good old “accurate” Sun reporting! Witnesses saying the girl was still on the wing when it hit, both her and pilot “screaming” as they swam to the surface! ‘Desperately swimming to the dinghy!

I was on the seafront between the air show location and the sandbanks ferry yesterday afternoon when the two aircraft flew past, about 2 km from where the aircraft ditched. I could see the unoccupied wing walking positions quite clearly. The aircraft would have ditched maybe 1 to 2 minutes after I saw it.

If it was at the end of the display then the last pass is with the wingwalker standing on the cockpit rim (Arabesque?) then immediately into the cockpit.

Does anyone know what is happening with the aircraft? Has it been recovered yet?
Hopefully some concideration for the old girl unlike the recent Avenger which was basically pulled onto the beach and destroyed.