Ramstein Crash Anniversary
 

26 years ago at Ramstein Air Base in Germany occurred one of deadliest airshow crashes of all time. During the display of Italian Air Force aerobatic team Frecce Tricolori, three of the planes collided and crashed killing more than 70 people.

Full Story: Aviation News 2014 - Aerobatic Display Teams and Demonstration Squadrons

Heard about it from our local CAA Surveyor when recounted it as he was in the RAF and present that day at the show . Also my other half's uncle who is a coachdriver from Norfolk was hired with a coach to take an aviation enthusiast tour to Ramstein a little time after the tragedy and they heard the whole story.

As I have been a longstanding member of the heavy metal community in my neck of the woods, and do like some Rammstein music it never twigged till a friend explained, that the band chose to name themselves after the tragedy, which I found it a tad distasteful, However it appears the bands front man denied it and claimed they called it after a piece of large door monuments.

Thankfully, the Frecce Tricoleri have been performing without incident for over a quart of a century - did see them RIAT - not bad show,

Looking forward to their new mount :) which I took shots of at Farnborough

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ps0d60f079.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ps9235be45.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ps200e073f.jpg

Cheers

Except that they are supposed to be getting M346s and that's the SIAI Marchetti S211 in whatever form its called this week.

And it never sold very well first time round Haiti Philippines and.......

V1

@V1

Nope they are getting the M345 which is the one at Farnborough,

Cheers

Ah ok, so they changed their minds (ok I last paid attention to the team in 2012) And at that time they were supposedly getting 346s....:ooh:


V1

Ramstein Crash Anniversary
 

I once had the doubtful privilege of a listening to a lecture from an RAF doc who'd been involved with treating some of the civilian casualties at Ramstein. Their biggest problem was triage as the worst affected were making the least noise. The really badly burnt in the fuel fire had practically all the surface nerve endings on their bodies burnt off so they were wandering around, deep in shock, feeling little or no pain. the less badly burnt were screaming in agony. The latter were treated first. most of those who'd taken the brunt of the fire died as they needed immediate hospitalisation. A salutary lesson for airshow organisers.

Interesting about the burn victims -- and while we are on the topic of airshow safety - have seen pics in Testing Colors - (pub by Ian Allan) - and theres pics during the 70s, 80s and early 90s of Raspberry Ripple Wessex and Sea King with bambi buckets and fire crews (almost reminds me of the USAF Air Rescue Service HH-43 'Pedro' crews) around RIAT and Farnborough.

I have not seen any response in any of the RIATs I have attended in the last 11 years? Unless the yellow SAR cab parked up by the U-2 hangars is not for display but for emergency response?

Cheers

The RIAT SAR Sea King parked northside is indeed for emergency response, you may have heard it referred to as "Fireball".

Similar outcome could still occur today.

Well known in First Aid training.

IIRC the riat emergency helos c/s Fireball and Pedro are always parked in nonpublic areas. Fireball was primarily a first response cab for an off base crash and would deliver a small team to a site with a limited fire fighting/incident management capability. Pedro was the casevac cab.
It was always accepted that any static helos could be tasked to assist in a mass casualty situation, hence the helo static area was always separate from the main static display so it could easily be cordoned off to allow cabs to start and reposition at the casualty clearing station.
RIAT always runs a disaster exercise during the week before the public days which invariably involves a ramstein type event.

The organisers at RIAT Fairford came close to another Ramstein scenario when the two Russian Migs collided. One fell into the live aircraft park and the other fell between a village and a caravan park.

Indeed that was a memorable day-I was working in the Emergency Services Control Room at the time!
Thankfully no one was seriously hurt although the Belgian Air Force C130 crew had a close shave. You're absolutely right it could happen again as there will always be a risk at this type of event. I would say from experience that Riat is probably best equipped to deal with this type of scenario compared to smaller events.
During my time with Riat the emergency services team was the largest team on site. IIRC we had 4 Crash Cat 5/6 Crash Combines, 3 mobile incident teams- each with doctors, paramedics, triage, and ambulances etc.... plus a RAMC Field Hospital with attached Surgical Team and Aeromed etc...
I assume the setup is still similar?
BTW I suspect the RAF doctor mentioned earlier was the same gentleman was the Riat SMO during my time?

PD, I was there too.

I've sent you a PM about it.

S.

The primary medical helicopter (UH60) at Ramstein was hit in the crash, the pilot subsequently being one of the fatalities.

There were a number of (non) designated helicopters that were readily available for evacuation soon after the crash, one of these being a Puma of 230 Sqn flown by Chips Carpenter.