Spitfire accident in France, 11/06/17

[treadigraph]

Christophe Jacquard's Spitfire XIX has gone over on to its back whilst taking off at Longuyon-Villette. The pilot (not Jacquard) seems to have emerged relatively unscathed, less happily a woman spectator was hit by debris - fingers crossed that her injuries aren't serious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-uQqXKBYAg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-uQqXKBYAg)


:(

[oxenos]

Slowing it down shows that there was no up elevator applied as the power was applied - just port rudder to match the torque. Up elevator was not applied until the prop tips were already hitting the ground. At that point starboard rudder was applied, as the prop tips digging in started to pull the nose to the left

[crewmeal]

DM showing a video....

Spitfire at French airshow nosedives into the ground | Daily Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4594672/Spitfire-French-airshow-nosedives-ground.html)

[jack11111]

Does anyone else see the right tire blow out and then the strut dig in to the turf flipping the aircraft over?

[oxenos]

Jack1111, I think what you are seeing are the prop tips hitting the ground and throwing dirt to the side.
Take from another forum :-
"great care must be taken on runup because if the tail begins to rise the limited prop clearance and high polar moment produces an inevitable strike no matter how quickly the throttle is closed."
"Yes, you had to be careful on take-off with any Spit, and hold the nose up a bit to keep the prop tips off the ground."

[Fareastdriver]

Maybe he was used to taking off on concrete and hadn't realised the extra drag the grass has on the wheels.

[topgas]

Distinct lack of fire cover - in one video at least 10 minutes have elapsed from incident to end of video and only fire cover was a few hand held fire extinguishers. No ambulance, casualty extraction method possibly justified (by dragging him along the ground) but could have made injuries worse. Autogyro taxying after crowd had been invited onto airside another worrying point.

[Wander00]

C'est France - all very casual. Just as well no post-crash fire. Hope pilot and spectator recover OK