Gunship
1st May 2004, 18:19
:sad: It looked like more air-show derring-do. Ian Groom's buzzing, smoke-spewing stunt plane descended, spinning, during a rehearsal a half mile off the beach in Fort Lauderdale.
Then, as beachgoers watched agape, it thudded into the ocean. The impact sheared the wings off the Russian-made, single-seat Sukhoi SU-31 and shot a geyser of water skyward.
Groom, a renowned aviator and veteran of a decade's worth of Fort Lauderdale Air & Sea shows, was killed.
The air show will go on today without one of its mainstays. On the day he died, Groom, of Naples, turned 58.
At a beachside news conference Friday afternoon, a deeply shaken Wayne Boggs, ''air boss'' of the McDonald's Air & Sea Show since its debut in 1995, spoke about the tragedy.
''The pilot was a very dear friend of mine,'' Boggs said, his voice cracking.
Pilots performing maneuvers do so in what is essentially an invisible, three-dimensional offshore ''box.'' No boats, or other aircraft, are allowed in the box while the aerial maneuvers take place.
It was 2:15 p.m., and Groom had just entered the box. He was about one-third of the way through his routine when he climbed to between 2,500 and 3,000 feet and began a flat spin, a maneuver he had performed countless times in countless places.
Boggs compared the spin to an incident in the movie Top Gun. In that film, Tom Cruise's friend and navigator, Goose, dies while ejecting from their jet after Cruise loses control and the jet fighter goes into a flat spin.
''The pilot will go into what is known as a spiral and descend vertically [with the aircraft more or less level], then the pilot pushes its nose down to create lift,'' Boggs said of the maneuver.
With Groom's plane at 500 feet and still descending, Boggs realized something was wrong. ''I figured he was in trouble,'' Boggs said.
Rick Socarras, a 38-year-old light-plane pilot from Boca Raton, said he blurted ''There is something wrong!'' as the plane plummeted.
The plane entered a spinning dive and hit the water nose-first. There was a moment of stunned silence, witnesses said, then a collective gasp -- before many beachgoers grabbed their cellphones.
It was Kids Day, and scores of students had been bused to the beach to watch the air show's practice runs. Most had left, however, by 1 p.m.
A Coast Guard boat churned toward the wreckage and ferried the pilot to shore.
Fort Lauderdale fire rescue paramedics waded out to the boat and placed Groom in a transport cart. Paramedics feverishly worked over Groom as they took him to the South Florida Regional Florida Disaster Medical Assistance Team, at nearby Birch State Recreation Area.
From there, Groom was taken to Broward General Medical Center. He was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m.
Kathleen Bergen of the Federal Aviation Administration said it's likely there was radio contact with Groom before the crash but added that whatever exchanges, if any, took place, would remain under wraps for now.
''We wouldn't release any information about his contact with the FAA at this time,'' she said. ``It would be released at a later date.''
Air show practices were briefly stopped but resumed after the pilot's body was recovered, Bergen said.
As a tribute, the Canadian Forces Snowbirds aerobatic team will do a ''missing man formation'' flight today with an empty space left for a fallen comrade, said air-show publicist Elaine Fitzgerald. The show will be dedicated to Groom's memory.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board were on site Friday afternoon, but it was not known how the weekend's events -- a million or so spectators are expected today and Sunday -- might affect their efforts. Weather was apparently not a factor in the crash.
Boggs said Groom's death was the first for a participant in the show. He said the weekend-long extravaganza celebrating the nation's military might would progress as it normally does.
''We don't want to sound callous, but the show must go on,'' Boggs said.
Mickey Markoff, Air & Sea Show executive producer released a statement:
''It is a sad day today as we say farewell to an outstanding pilot and a good friend,'' Markoff said. ``I want to thank our Emergency Medical Response Team that responded with precision, and we regret that for Ian there was simply nothing that could be done.''
Groom, a South African native who became a U.S. citizen in 1995, had done fewer air shows in recent years as he concentrated on training pilots for the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Since October 2001, he had instructed nearly 100 pilots on how to recover when an aircraft is out of control.
''I knew Ian well enough to know he would want everyone reminded that he was doing what he loved,'' Markoff said. ``Aviation was his passion." :sad:
From The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/8565117.htm?1c
:sad:
http://www.miami.com/images/miami/miamiherald/8567/73399022282.jpg
:sad:
Then, as beachgoers watched agape, it thudded into the ocean. The impact sheared the wings off the Russian-made, single-seat Sukhoi SU-31 and shot a geyser of water skyward.
Groom, a renowned aviator and veteran of a decade's worth of Fort Lauderdale Air & Sea shows, was killed.
The air show will go on today without one of its mainstays. On the day he died, Groom, of Naples, turned 58.
At a beachside news conference Friday afternoon, a deeply shaken Wayne Boggs, ''air boss'' of the McDonald's Air & Sea Show since its debut in 1995, spoke about the tragedy.
''The pilot was a very dear friend of mine,'' Boggs said, his voice cracking.
Pilots performing maneuvers do so in what is essentially an invisible, three-dimensional offshore ''box.'' No boats, or other aircraft, are allowed in the box while the aerial maneuvers take place.
It was 2:15 p.m., and Groom had just entered the box. He was about one-third of the way through his routine when he climbed to between 2,500 and 3,000 feet and began a flat spin, a maneuver he had performed countless times in countless places.
Boggs compared the spin to an incident in the movie Top Gun. In that film, Tom Cruise's friend and navigator, Goose, dies while ejecting from their jet after Cruise loses control and the jet fighter goes into a flat spin.
''The pilot will go into what is known as a spiral and descend vertically [with the aircraft more or less level], then the pilot pushes its nose down to create lift,'' Boggs said of the maneuver.
With Groom's plane at 500 feet and still descending, Boggs realized something was wrong. ''I figured he was in trouble,'' Boggs said.
Rick Socarras, a 38-year-old light-plane pilot from Boca Raton, said he blurted ''There is something wrong!'' as the plane plummeted.
The plane entered a spinning dive and hit the water nose-first. There was a moment of stunned silence, witnesses said, then a collective gasp -- before many beachgoers grabbed their cellphones.
It was Kids Day, and scores of students had been bused to the beach to watch the air show's practice runs. Most had left, however, by 1 p.m.
A Coast Guard boat churned toward the wreckage and ferried the pilot to shore.
Fort Lauderdale fire rescue paramedics waded out to the boat and placed Groom in a transport cart. Paramedics feverishly worked over Groom as they took him to the South Florida Regional Florida Disaster Medical Assistance Team, at nearby Birch State Recreation Area.
From there, Groom was taken to Broward General Medical Center. He was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m.
Kathleen Bergen of the Federal Aviation Administration said it's likely there was radio contact with Groom before the crash but added that whatever exchanges, if any, took place, would remain under wraps for now.
''We wouldn't release any information about his contact with the FAA at this time,'' she said. ``It would be released at a later date.''
Air show practices were briefly stopped but resumed after the pilot's body was recovered, Bergen said.
As a tribute, the Canadian Forces Snowbirds aerobatic team will do a ''missing man formation'' flight today with an empty space left for a fallen comrade, said air-show publicist Elaine Fitzgerald. The show will be dedicated to Groom's memory.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board were on site Friday afternoon, but it was not known how the weekend's events -- a million or so spectators are expected today and Sunday -- might affect their efforts. Weather was apparently not a factor in the crash.
Boggs said Groom's death was the first for a participant in the show. He said the weekend-long extravaganza celebrating the nation's military might would progress as it normally does.
''We don't want to sound callous, but the show must go on,'' Boggs said.
Mickey Markoff, Air & Sea Show executive producer released a statement:
''It is a sad day today as we say farewell to an outstanding pilot and a good friend,'' Markoff said. ``I want to thank our Emergency Medical Response Team that responded with precision, and we regret that for Ian there was simply nothing that could be done.''
Groom, a South African native who became a U.S. citizen in 1995, had done fewer air shows in recent years as he concentrated on training pilots for the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Since October 2001, he had instructed nearly 100 pilots on how to recover when an aircraft is out of control.
''I knew Ian well enough to know he would want everyone reminded that he was doing what he loved,'' Markoff said. ``Aviation was his passion." :sad:
From The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/8565117.htm?1c
:sad:
http://www.miami.com/images/miami/miamiherald/8567/73399022282.jpg
:sad: