Spanish Eurofighter Crash - Albacete

[paidworker]

Sadly a spanish Eurofighter has crashed in Albacete. It is reported the pilot did not have time to eject. RIP.

https://twitter.com/PoliciaAlbacete/status/918433816875761664

[Jorge Newberry]

pilot confirmed dead. apparently returning from national day fly past in Madrid

Accidente Eurofighter: Muere el piloto del avión tras el desfile (http://www.elperiodico.com/es/politica/20171012/accidente-eurofighter-6348681)

[Vendee]

pilot confirmed dead. apparently returning from national day fly past in Madrid

Accidente Eurofighter: Muere el piloto del avión tras el desfile (http://www.elperiodico.com/es/politica/20171012/accidente-eurofighter-6348681)

Its good to see the Spanish press are as bad as the British press. The caption reads:- "One of the eurofighters of the Spanish armed forces." but the photo is actually ZH588, a development aircraft currently on display at Hendon.

[F-16GUY]

Third fatal Eurofighter crash within one month :-(

RIP.

[paidworker]

This witness interviewed in the video below from around the 40s mark states more or less that of four aircraft in low level formation broke one left , one right and one "up" to do a vertical loop . He does not state what the fourth did . It was the one that did a vertical loop that crashed he says not having time / height to recover and impacted the ground. He doesn't state in what attitude the impact was but does emphasis that it had no recovered level flight. The debris field as shown does not seem over a long distance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=65&v=iiSrLOoRN48

[Ka-2b Pilot]

Eye-witness photographs show the 4 aircraft break from a tight low level formation but two 'may' have touched and one rolled inverted and hit the ground. I have pictures on WhatsApp, not sure how to get them here.
blob:https://web.whatsapp.com/38723a53-a412-4d48-8925-f3eb2f689f1d
blob:https://web.whatsapp.com/041f6f6d-6475-4bf7-95f6-2a3779eafa66
blob:https://web.whatsapp.com/79b6abdd-bec5-48f8-9bdd-09da7bddef8a
RIP

[A_Van]

Again and again: altitude is too low even to eject, to say nothing about saving the plane after a human error (that might not be fatal if operated a bit higher)...


R.I.P. Condolences to the family...

[Ewan Whosearmy]

Images here:

Salen a la luz las fotos del momento en el que se estrelló el Eurofighter pilotado por Borja Aybar (http://casoaislado.com/salen-la-luz-las-fotos-del-accidente-del-eurofighter/)

Looks like a flat break. The images don't appear to confirm a midair, and they certainly discount the eyewitness testimony of the #3 jet looping.

[glad rag]

Jetwash from the two "flat breaking" aircraft?? Pic 3 (?) clearly shows a Typhoon sandwiched slightly astern between the two flat breaking aircraft....

RIP.

[Flap62]

Looks like poor fella breaking flat to the right overbanked (g-loc?) and pulled into the ground. In the last few years we’ve seen the Reds and the Blue Angels lose someone on the break to land after a display. Maybe time to review what’s going on?

[Distant Voice]

Again and again: altitude is too low even to eject, to say nothing about saving the plane after a human error (that might not be fatal if operated a bit higher)...


What happened to the seat's zero/zero capability?

DV

[MPN11]

Upside down and descending may diminish some of that capability

[flighthappens]

Looks like poor fella breaking flat to the right overbanked (g-loc?) and pulled into the ground. In the last few years we’ve seen the Reds and the Blue Angels lose someone on the break to land after a display. Maybe time to review what’s going on?

The blues haven’t had a crash on the break in the last couple of years, and the last blues crash attributed to GLOC was 2007. Their last crash was a split-S, more akin to the recent Italian Typhoon crash.

You are a better person than I if you can deduce the cause of this accident from those photographs.

[Ewan Whosearmy]

Jetwash from the two "flat breaking" aircraft?? Pic 3 (?) clearly shows a Typhoon sandwiched slightly astern between the two flat breaking aircraft....

RIP.

Looks to me more like the 'sandwiched' one is #3, while #4 is already breaking right.

[Flap62]

Flighthappens,

I did not “deduce” the cause of the accident from the photos, hence the ? After g-loc!

[H Peacock]

What happened to the seat's zero/zero capability?

A zero/zero seat's 'flight' profile is largely a function of the vector of the platform it is ejected from. A high RoD and/or high bank/pitch angle can often put the seat outside the designed envelope. Even with very little pitch or bank, many seats need a height of at least a 1/10th of the RoD to ensure surviveability. So going down (wings level) at say 3000fpm needed a height of 300ft!

[ORAC]

El último servicio a España del capitán Aybar (http://www.larazon.es/espana/se-estrella-en-albacete-uno-de-los-eurofigther-que-participo-en-el-desfile-del-12-o-IA16529818)

[SpazSinbad]

Google Translates the above URL:

https://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.larazon.es%2Fespana%2Fse-estrella-en-albacete-uno-de-los-eurofigther-que-participo-en-el-desfile-del-12-o-IA16529818

[glad rag]

Looks to me more like the 'sandwiched' one is #3, while #4 is already breaking right.

You may well be correct.

I was trying to formulate, from those images, how the aircraft could have ended up in such a disastrous attitude in such a short amount of time and distance... reminds me of the shocking speed/rate of the German Navy Tornado departure video...

RIP

[Easy Street]

From the sooty exhaust trails it looks as if the aircraft were pushing the throttle up as they broke. The furthest aircraft away in those photos looks to have moved ahead of the next furthest, which seems to be the accident aircraft. At low fuel mass (end of sortie...) the acceleration would be massive even in dry power so it would be very easy to pull in front if 'leading' with throttle instead of manoeuvre when actioning the break. It would be interesting to know whether the Typhoon FCS should be able to cope with jet wash (well, jet blast at that distance) at such close quarters, or would the disturbance send the system into convulsions?

[EAP86]

ES I believe that the Typhoon FCS is designed to minimise the response to jet wash and wake turbulence but I'm not going to say how. I think I'm right in saying it was an incident during EAP (!) flight testing which alerted designers to the need for protection.

EAP