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Is this the worst air show season to date?


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I'm not sure of the statistics or even where to find them but I'm curious if this is a record of some sort. I can't remember an air show season being this bad before. It seems like every major air show/event/race I read or hear about seems to have an accident. Maybe it's just the compressed time frame of all the accidents or all the fatalities that makes it seem worse than it is?

Has there been a year this bad before?

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I actually did a quick glance at Wikipedia and the last comparable year was early 2000s. This year hasn't just been bad for airshows; Earthquakes all over the place, people in my local area getting shot/having freak accidents and dying the past few weeks--it's a bit odd.

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I'm not sure of the statistics or even where to find them but I'm curious if this is a record of some sort. I can't remember an air show season being this bad before. It seems like every major air show/event/race I read or hear about seems to have an accident. Maybe it's just the compressed time frame of all the accidents or all the fatalities that makes it seem worse than it is?

Has there been a year this bad before?

Yeah I think statistically it will be higher than average but still not as bad as some years. Didn't the blue angels lose a whole team once? And I remember the tricolors having a crash that careened into a crowd.

not a bad question though Jason

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Yeah I think statistically it will be higher than average but still not as bad as some years. Didn't the blue angels lose a whole team once? And I remember the tricolors having a crash that careened into a crowd.

not a bad question though Jason

It was the Thunderbirds during Winter testing 1982 I think. Frecce Tricolorie had their crash at USAF base Ramstein in Germany 1987.

Humanity would be nowhere if we did not push on after tragedy and loss. We don't need a world in proverbial bubble wrap.

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Don't be dissin bubble wrap! It's fun to pop!

Kind of a weird airshow season. It's been a bit hard on warbirds in general too, even when they aren't at shows, like the B-17 that went down earlier this year.

Alvis 3.1

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The Thunderbird crash in '82 was not at an airshow, and it did kill all four members of the diamond, but IIRC the solos were not in the formation when it went in.

The Frecce Tricolorie crash in 1988 at Ramstein AB killed 67 people when after a midair collision one aircraft tumbled into the crowd in a fireball of aviation fuel, one crashed into the medevac helicopter that was on standby in case of emergency, and one crashed down the runway. All three of the pilots involved died in the accident as well.

In 2002 at the Sknyliv Airshow in the Ukraine an SU-27 crashed due to pilot error. After the pilot and backseater ejected, the aircraft skidded into a parked IL-76, exploded, and cartwheeled into the crowd killing 77 people.

I'm pretty sure the '88 crash in Germany and the 2002 crash in the Ukraine both eclipse any and all crashes this entire airshow season in severity. Unless there have been a hell of a lot of crashes that didn't make the news...

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The poem, High Flight, has over the years become a mantra to pilots.

It is reproduced here as a tribute to, and in memory of pilots of all generations.

Both of the pilots killed this weekend were military veterans. Prayers for them and

the spectators lost in these tragic accidents.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew -

And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod

The high untresspassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee

No 412 squadron, RCAF

Killed 11 December 1941

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The Blue Angels had a couple of close calls on consecutive weekends this year also which led the The Boss stepping down and them recalling last year's Boss to take over ...

It does seem like 2011 has had some form of bad Juju for most folks ... :unsure:

Gregg

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I'll be heading to an airshow next weekend.

I try not to let the accidents of this year weigh on my mind too much.

I figure if the Red Arrows, who are slated to perform there, can get back to their routines and schedule in the same year after losing a member; their is no real reason for me to be too worried.

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