Il Frecce Tricolore-Ejection at Turin 16 Sept 2023
 

Video footage of one of the pilots ejecting at very low level.

Unconfirmed reports of injuries and a fatality on the ground.

Having seen the team before on several occasions it looks like this is a mishap during a display take off.

If reports correct, hit a car on road, one child died and another plus parents injured.

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/345619

Film, it possibly hit one of the two cars seen in the film? :sad:

https://video.repubblica.it/edizione...cbo=v2-Pag0gsq

Doesn't really matter which car it hit, . So tragic for the family. A five year old child died, terrible for the team as well.

Agreed, I didn’t try to infer otherwise, sorry if it sounded like that.

I can't imagine what this family is going through, as apparently they were trying to rescue the poor child from the car but their efforts were in vain.
May she rest in peace.
Her brother and parents suffered non life-threatening injuries, although the brother appears to be in more serious conditions.
The pilot ejected but suffered burns (condition unknown).
At Torino Caselle Airport (TRN), all operations are suspended at least until midnight.
The aircraft (callsign Pony 4) became "uncontrollable" after a possible bird strike upon takeoff.
The "Frecce Tricolori" team was directed to the city of Vercelli, where it was scheduled to perform a flyover, which was promptly cancelled.
An aerobatic display scheduled in Torino for tomorrow afternoon in occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Italian Air Force was also cancelled.

(Source: Adnkronos news agency)

Is this just another "example" of countries using obsolescent (obsolete?) and relatively ageing (and thus "cheap"?) platforms for their national formation teams - and the unfortunately somewhat predictable consequences of pushing those airframes and power units "almost to the limit" without really ensuring that they are actually still fully capable of withstanding the stresses involved ?

PS: that crash looked to me like some form of power unit failure (I am happy for one of the Mods to delete that comment if it is felt to pre-judge the issues).

PPS: FWIW, i was at Shoreham and saw that crash, and also at Duxford when the Skyraider hit the Mustang and caused it to crash - I seen quite a few airshows in my time!

Reports are it was caused by a bird strike.

This makes the type as well as the fact that it was the Frecce rather irrelevant, power loss and consequenct accidents caused by this can happen to any single engine jet and occasionally even to rather large airliners.

My question is the size of the airshow box. From what I can see the same crash sequence would not have put anyone in danger at a North American airshow. With respect to the Shoreham Hunter crash, that airplane would not have been allowed to fly in a North American airshow as the aerobatic box was not big enough for Jet Aircraft according to FAA and Transport Canada rules.

If true, in general terms, I recant my comment about the power unit - OTOH, air show displays are almost always (& have to be!) done at low level - where bird strikes are a definite and well-known hazard!. Therefore, maybe, more strike resistant jet engines should probably be considered as "necessary" or at least "strongly advised".

In which case the some of the power plants in older airframes are (but not always!)) more likely to considered vulnerable to bird strikes than modern ones.

Please don't assume that I'm against formation displays at airshows because I'm not, but the aircraft involved do need to be suitable for the likely conditions - and that must include possible bird strikes, given the number of times those have been shown to happen, being included in the risk assessments which should be performed prior to the shows.

BTW: OTOH, I understand that some very old jet motor designs are very bird strike tolerant - maybe someone with more knowledge might like to enlarge on that point?

Not sure of the relevance: as I understand it, the team were not displaying, they were departing to display elsewhere. There are plenty of runways with roads adjacent to them in North America, as I recall.

That is correct alfaman, they were taking off from Turin (where they are temporarily based due to performances scheduled for today and tomorrow) and were meant to conduct a flyover in Vercelli, a nearby city.
Both events have been cancelled.

Aftermath:

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....3c14fe55fb.jpg

I did not pick up on that, I thought they were at an air display.

Tragic circumstance. Waddington has traffic lights stopping traffic on the A15 with aircraft landing at that end. No idea if the lights are on for take off. If the airframe and engine components are safe in life, age is not an issue. Engine ate a bird and was trashed? Pilot made correct decision. Seems the effect of ejecting with the equal and opposite force on the airframe caused the nose to be forced down thus shortening its glide path plus pitch down with nobody at controls. Nobody at fault.

Could be Waddington, coningsby or a few other RAF stations.

The only potential relevance of this being a display team is that it MAY have involved a formation take off. If so then they MAY have lined up further down the runway and potentially used less than full power for take off, thus moving the crash site position. To my eye the aircraft looked way too low energy to have got airbourne then joined up to fly through. Had that been the case then a zoom climb to force landing attempt or at least a higher ejection would probably have ensued.

A few years back the Blue Angels lost an aircraft in Smyrna, Tennessee while practicing for the upcoming airshow. Smyrna airport is pretty much surrounded by built up areas.
The difference is that the pilot of that aircraft chose to stay in the jet so he could point it where it would do the least damage. Just sayin'.....
RIP Capt Kuss

Irrelevant & not true. M339PAN, the Freccie Tricolori version, have between 2500-4000 hrs (designed for 10000 hrs) and are maintained more rigourosly than standard issue AMI aircraft so "obsolescence" does not come into play. Also, birdstrikes, and that looks like a quite possible if not probable cause of loss of power, has very little if anything to do with aurframe or engine TT.

SO much utter nonsense posted on this thread!

Aircraft suffered a loss of thrust at a critical time; pilot ejected. Sadly the aircraft subsequently struck a car with fatal consequences.

The loss of a pilot is a tragic event so my sympathy’s to his loved ones but the accident report into the Smyrna crash does not really reflect your statement.

A Snowbird aircraft had a birdstrike, Western Tanager, departing Kamloops towards a residential area. The passenger did not survive ejection and the pilot was seriously injured. I believe the ejection seats were replaced.

Globe and Mail
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No aircraft is immune to engine failure caused by a bird strike, occurs to airliners often enough.

Temporarily operating from Torino/Caselle because the nearby Torino/Agnelli was to be the venue for today's display to mark the 100th anniversary of the Italian AF (which will not now happen).

Nutloose. Apparently the car involved was a SMART. Not one of the two in shot. Meant no offence earlier. Regards, John.

A quick look at Google Maps confirms this as being the north end of the runway at Turin airport (TRN-LIMF).As seen in the photo, the aircraft after having impacted the car, came to rest at the edge of the field, stopping only 450 feet (roughly 140 metres) short of a group of houses.Tragic as this is, makes one wonder how very different the outcome could have been.
Aplologies as I cannot post urls/images yet.
Turin airport will remain closed until 24.00 of September 17.

Staying with an aircraft is all very commendable but I suggest maybe just a fanciful idea. Once you get to the point it's time to eject most likely the aircraft is coming down in that spot whether you are in it or not.
Once you go below minimum control you are not going to influence that outcome. Best to pull the handle and hope for the best.
It's clear in this instance that the pilot lost the engine at the worst possible time. Low and slow. He had just few seconds to react and save himself. He could not predict the aircraft would hit the car even if he could see it. Most likely when he pulled the handle the road was clear.
Just one of those things.

Thank you :)

RWY 36 TODA is 3750 m. In this case, I wouldn‘t during normal operations expect a light jet to crash through the fence at the far end. In other words, I wonder whether one could/should put a question mark on an airshow-style take-off (all of the aircraft seem to very low) from an airport during normal operations, where corresponding precautions have not been taken (such as stopping traffic on the crossing road).

Double standards
 

Is it because the aircraft in question is Italian that we are allowing more latitude for people to spout absolute horsesh1t?!

Every single engine jet in history has had a ‘dead zone’ on every take off it has ever done (unless taking off from a ludicrously long runway). There will be a period where an engine failure will leave ejection as the only option. Not enough runway to land back on, and not enough energy to make it back to an alternate landing surface.

If, as the video suggests, this was an engine failure at low altitude (bird strike seems a very likely reason) there was absolutely nothing the pilot could do. If he’d stayed with the aircraft he would be another fatality. He couldn’t have steered it anywhere.

If we are looking to blame the age and type of aircraft then you probably need to scrap every Hawk and F16 (and most training aircraft) in the world as well.

This accident is simply a case of desperately bad luck and timing with a tragic outcome.

BV

It was indeed a formation takeoff.Another video has surfaced and it seems to be shot from the east side of the runway, most probably from the spotting point (or slightly north of it) which can also be found on Google Maps.

No point in having seats fitted if you are not going to use them.

Sadly, it was just one of those things.

Terribly tragic accident - heartfelt condolences to the parents and family of the poor child who was killed in the ensuing accident...and my thoughts go to the team as well...they must be feeling absolutely terrible...nobody's fault..."fate is the hunter"...

From loss of power to impact there are about 12 seconds. What do you think you can manage beside ejecting, which was probably the only check list line item for this case.

Be interesting to understand what sort of bird caused the failure. You would think a jet engine could withstand say a Pidgeon impact. Are the engines really that frail?

Garbage! He screwed up the manouevre and ejected too late, none of which has anything to do with the incident in question

?

Pretty sure that birds are more likely to get out of the way of a flock of jets than just one, if anything, but they still get strikes. Birds forget to give way to jumbo jets, so just not sure that there is much to debate about added birdstrike risk from a formation takeoff. These guys had a fair amount of energy already, but not sufficient to allow a turn back, and there was no great choices remaining. The decision speed for an turn back is dependent on the runway geometry (the minimum height loss/energy loss to reposition to a runway). A 180, would have a decision speed somewhere near 180 kts with a low drag index. It can be possible to do the turn below that, but not much less for a straight winged jet like a 326, 339, SMR, SOKO, L-28, IS-2, S-211 etc. The L-39 will need a bit higher speed, a Fouga, a little less. Even with routine practice, it is a high risk event.

Traffic stoplights might be a response, but there can be a fair spread laterally on the trajectory of an abandoned aircraft or an aircraft that needs to be abandoned. Consider the Red Arrows ATB practice out of Valley, where it didn't work out but the wreckage missed all 3rd parties. Being near any airport comes with a slightly elevated risk.

The engines are not frail, but they are intolerant of taking a mass down the core. Any damage to a blade will cascade downstream, and the blades are running anything up to 20K plus for small N1's, and 30K for the N1. The blades have high radial loads on them, many are running root loads well over 20 tons, with the tip running mach 1.6 or more. Hitting a bird on one of these engines will curl the blade forward normally, and that will twist the blade to a higher AOA, and higher out of plane forces which help the blade tear itself up.

If a bird is a problem on a fan blade or compressor and is considered to be "frail.... ", try catching a piece of 80gm plain paper with a tail rotor blade of a Robbie.

The video linked in the very first post was shot from the road running along the eastern and then northern edge of the airfield (the same road the victims were driving along).