8/7/2002: Air show crash

[MaggieL]

Originally posted by andcal
Didn't a similar airshow crash similar to this happen somewhere in Europe sometime in the past few years?

Well, there was the accident with the Frecce Tricolori, the Italian Airforce Aerobatic Team that killed 70 people at Ramstein AFP in Germany in 1988. Or you make be thinking of the MiG 29 that went in at the Paris Air Show in 1989. I beleve no one was hurt in the Paris incident. Two MiG-29s also collided at at airshow at RAF Fairford in 1993

In the case of the Ramstien tragedy, the manuever being flowwn would not have been allowed under FAA airshow rules, becuase it involved an aerobatic maneuver with an aircraft flying across the showline towards the crowd.

The Blue Angels and Thunderbirds do have solo aircraft fly perpendicular to the showline...both face on to the spectatiors, as well as one heartstopping manuver they do where the crowd's attention is held by a low speed low pass down the showline while a second solo approaches from behind the crowd at maximum speed and minimum altitude; the spectators never hear the second aircraft coming until it passes overhead...stunning! But these maneuvers involve solo aircraft not in aerobatic flight at the time of the maneuver.