Thunderbird Airshow Crash in Idaho

[Airbubba]

Last plane to launch, would that be the opposing solo?

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September 14, 2003

Air Force Thunderbird Crashes At Idaho Air Show

By Editorial Staff and Associated Press

BOISE -
An United States Air Force Thunderbird F-16 has crashed at the Gunfighter Skies Air Show at the at Mountain Home Air force Base. Preliminary reports say that the pilot ejected safely.

According to witnesses, the jet was the last of the six to take off. It climbed straight into the sky and the pilot performed a barrel roll.

While upside down, the pilot maneuvered the jet into a dive. As the jet continued to dive, it appeared to have an engine failure when the pilot struggled to pull up.

The pilot ejected and parachuted to safety far from the crash site. He was treated by military medical personnel.

Emergency crews rushed to the scene to protect onlookers from possibly dangerous gas fumes and flying debris.

The Thunderbird team was from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

Eyewitnesses describe a crash and explosion that shook the nerves of the crowd of thousands. Military police were said to aked for all videotapes of the incident and were told they would be returned following an investigation.

The F-16 has remained the choice of the Thunderbirds for the last 20 years, the longest performance era of any one aircraft.

http://www.kbcitv.com/x5154.xml?ParentPageID=x5157&ContentID=x46394&Layout=KBCI.xsl&AdGroupID=x5154




Video clip here:

http://webcast.fiberpipe.net/idaho2news/idaho2news_ondemand195.htm

[willbav8r]

They made a fantastic display the day before at Reno. I do mean FANTASTIC! Glad he bailed out ok.

[OnFinal]

I was at the airshow yesterday and witnessed the crash. Not sure if they mentioned it on the news, but TBird 6 was not out on the tarmac for the majority of the show. It was towed out to join the rest of the F-16's about 45 minutes prior to the beginning of their show. They were working on the plane before bringing it out. Maybe just a coincidence? The greatest feeling was seeing the pilot stand up and wave at the crowd letting us know he was ok. The cheering lasted quite a long while.

I caught the crash on tape which I was asked to hand over (which many of us did) to help in the investigation. I hope I get it back, I cought some really good shots of a F-15 flying in formation with a P-51.

[MajorMadMax]

The Thunderbirds converted to F-16s after a fatal team crash in T-38s, back around Mar-Apr 1982 if I recall correctly...

Glad he got out, it's been a bad week for aerial demo teams!

Cheers! M2

By the way, why two threads on the same subject? Did you miss USAF Thunderbird Crash (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102486)? :}

[javelin]

I was at Reno as well and saw them display on the previous days. They were good, tight and professional, BUT, they fly over the crowdline and that is totally unacceptable. They arrived from behind and then proceeded to do group and solo passes toward the crowd and over the crowd. This has not been allowed in Europe for several years and as I recall, the Blue Angels were stopped from displaying here a few years ago when the organisers found out that they were planning to break the crowd line.

A grand display can be had in front of and to the side of the crowd, we are all educated now after crashes which have cost many unnecessary deaths and the thought of one of the solo aircraft having an engine failure during the display at Reno doesn't bear thinking about.

Wise up America, alter your thinking and change your airshows.

[M609]

They probably need a Ramstein type incident before they wise up........:sad:

[Ali Barber]

Just watched the Red Arrows do a practice today. There are set distances away from the display line (crowd line + a bit) when they have to manoeuvre away from the crowd. They are also allowed to overfly the crowd (by the looks of it) so long as they are heading back towards the "display" side of the line. There is little (or no - but can't guarantee anything) risk of a crippled jet coming down in the crowd. A lot of lessons were learnt at Ramstein and never forgotten.

[Zlin526]

Ali,

The Reds are not permitted to overfly the crowd at UK civilian Flying Displays. What they do at other shows is down to the military.

[tu chan go]

When I worked on an airshow participation committee in the early 90s, (after the Ramstein crash) there were different display distances for various types and teams. The majority were restricted to staying at least 500m away from the crowd, the Reds were 800m form the crowdline and the Frecce Tricolori (spelling?) were supposed to be 1000m away.

The only team to overfly the crowd every day of the display were..... You guessed it, the Frecce.

[willbav8r]

I had previously only attended airshows at Biggin Hill. Whilst at Reno I did wonder about;

a/ L39's and unlimiteds losing it as they make their turns from the east...

b/ some of the manoevres of the Drakken and the Thunderbirds..

making for a rotten day in the crowd line IF something had gone awry.

Stunning displays that they are, in my (little) mind it would not make any difference if they performed away from crowd lines, and limited turning/energy manouvres towards the crowd line.

I suppose there is something alike to the wild west about the Reno airshow - in more ways than one.

I'll still be going back next year :ok:

[B Sousa]

Javelin writes:Wise up America, alter your thinking and change your airshows.

Im sure those who plan the shows are more qualified than you as to safety. (Im speaking of the military teams) As to the Civilian Airshows, they do stretch things as far as possible because the crowds love it, until there is an accident......At which time there are more lawyers than spectators available.....
My best suggestion to you if they make you nervous is to watch the show on TV.

[Fox3snapshot]

Ali Barber...

I believe the shoppers at the Carrefour carpark got a good look at the Red Arrows solo boys egressing whilst packing their Ghee and Rice into the car!!!

Some new routines in the display it seems??? Though once again unfortuantely a little out of whack with a jet missing in the formation, they should get a spare airborne like the Italians do for redundancy.

See you on the 14th!

:cool:

[MajorMadMax]

B Sousa

Concur, well stated!

I think every aircraft presents some sort of "threat" to the objects on the ground below it. Much like meteors and bird$hit, most anything can fall from the sky and cause a problem. Of course if you spend all your time looking up for possible incoming projectiles, you are likely to fall down a hole. Life's like that...:}

Cheers! M2

[Zlin526]

B Sousa,

I seem to recall that the aces who parked the whole team of MB339's in the crowd at Ramstein were a military team, performing at a Military Air Display!

Javelin has got a point which is why, in Europe, we do it differently.

[Fox3snapshot]

Paleeease! It wasn't the whole team!

Just the facts would be nice!

:hmm:

[FJJP]

If you've watched any of the air display series on Sky tv then you might have picked up the fact that the single Italian jet that ploughed into the Ramstein crowd changed the way airshows are organised. Safety is now the emphasised number one priority. And it doesn't matter whether it is civilian or military in this country or anywhere else in Europe. The military rules were changed to reflect the CAP produced by the CAA. NATO has a STANAG (STAndard Nato AGreement) which is applied to military aircraft displaying, and the CAA has a rigid set of procedures and rules to apply to display authorisation.

UK Military airshow organisers watch rehearsals of ALL participating display aircraft and teams not accredited by the BritMil, CAA or STANAG. The assessor has to be of sufficient experience to make a judgement as to whether or not the display is safe; for example, a foreign aerobatic team would be watched by the Manager or Team Leader of the Reds. A helio or fast jet display pilot would assess the other displays for safety of execution; the CAA would send an assessor to check out foreign civilians.

During the display itself, the Display Director and/or the Flying Display Committee watch the whole thing and will red card and immediately stop any display that to them is/or has got dangerous or has broken the display line infringement rules.

The display can still be exciting and spectacular to watch even with the tight rules - you don't have to scare people to capture their attention.

[Didntdoit]

Zlin

Bang out of order! Terms like Aces and parked degenerate the memory of those that died on that tragic day. As for the whole team - go and read the Sun!

You are not even close to being witty.:mad:

[Zlin526]

Whoops,

Sorry, I totally forgot we live in a serious world. Maybe 'black humour' is helpful in coping sometimes.. It's certainly helped me out for a lorra, lorra years, matey.

Silly me, :(

[MajorMadMax]

Check out the stills....

http://www.dynamictruth.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000171

Cheers! M2