I just saw on the news that the Thunderbirds lost one of their aircraft at a recent show in Mountain Home, Idaho. Did anybody happen to be at that show?
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/09/14/id.airshowcrash.ap/index.html
At least nobody was hurt badly.
Hated to see that but thank God the pilot punched out safely…Good thing he didn’t hesitate a half second more.
We can replace the F16…[:)]
Glad they were no casualties! You know I was supposed to go to the Ramstein airshow, that year when the Frecce ploughed into the crowd…!? But decided against goping the day before.
Glad to see the Zipper got away from the doomed A/C well that’ll be the first one they lost since the formation went in back in 1980, I seen them have bird strikes and land with damaged planes but never loose one, and I was staioned at Nellis when they converted over to the ole Lawn Darts, hate to see the beautiful plane going down but we live in a perfect world and make inperfect things, hope to see the CAPT up in the air soon,
Ugly Butt Deadly Effective Hawgs
cuda
You scared me there for a second because I thought my sense of time was off, but that crash happened 1982. I saw them just before that at my first airshow and I knew it wasn’t as early as 80.
Glad nobody was hurt!!
I was at the air show in Niagara Falls when the ol Blue Angels collided. This was when they were still flying there scooters. Unfortunately one pilot was lost[:(].
Hey cuda,
The crash of 80 or 82, is that the show where the first 4 a/c or so followed the leader into the ground?? Or did that happen when they flew their Talons?
Flaps up, Mike
Butz,
I’m pretty sure that’s the crash you are talking about, where 5 went down at once, waiting for the leader to pull out of a dive. Tragic day.
They lost one in Cleveland to a bird strike. I think that was after '82.
Just for the record:
January 18, 1982, saw the catastrophic “Diamond Crash” occur during a practice over Range 65, now referred to as “The Gathering of Eagles Range”. The team was conducting a line abreast loop maneuver, when a malfunction of the commander/leader’s aircraft proved to be fatal for the four pilots of the Diamond formation. Those involved were: Maj. Norm Lowry, commander/leader; Capt. Willie Mays, left wing; Capt. Pete Peterson, right wing; and Capt. Mark Melncon, slot. Due to this catastrophe and the transition to a new aircraft, the Thunderbirds did not perform any aerial demonstrations during the 1982 demonstration season.
I was work Talons at the time of the '82 crash at HAFB NM. We did the 6oo hr inspections for the T-Birds there, that crash was like a persnel loss to all of us there too. GLAD to see the pilot got out, a plane can be replaced a life can not. Bob
They did lose an aircraft in Cleveland over Labor Day weekend in 1981. The show was over and the team was leaving for it’s next show when Thunderbird #1 ingested a seagull on takeoff.
If I remember correctly, the pilot ejected but his chute malfunctioned.
The T Birds Diamond formation went down between seasons late 1980 to 1981 and for 2 years they didn’t do anyshows, the 81 year was cancelled and 82 they anounced that they where going to fly the F-16’s but didn’t perform, April 83 they came back with the F-16’s after droping the T-38’s, I was stationed at Nellis AFB at that time with the 474 TFW and helped their maintenance people work on their new planes
Ugly Butt Deadly Effective Hawgs
cuda
I have to say I stand corrected, I researched the crashes of the Birds and they did crash before the 82 season, sorry for the confusion I Think this Iraqi dirt & heat has messed my brain up a little bit, my BAD sorry again
Ugly Butt Deadly Effective
cuda
Thank goodness Capt. Stricklin was able to eject and that he was (relatively) unhurt, although I’m not sure what “minor” injories are.
I do understand that any ejection is a potential injury for the pilot - apparently very few pilots escape injury when they eject, regardless of the circumstances.
Better that getting dead, though.
The loss of the aircraft is lamentable, but in reality, the pilot is an irreplaceable, precious commodity.
Anyone know what the number was on the bird that went down. Thinking of doing it as a small tribute.
Hey guy’s;
The plane that does the Split S would be #6 and the news said the plane was trying to recover from the take off’s emediate split s manuver when the plane began to have problems keeping in control, the investigators think the engine may have failed but who knows, as for the pilot he’s generally grounded for about 6 months for spine compressability injuries from being ejected from the plane and thats called a minor injury, and he might be a little shorter then when he first flew the mission
Ugly Butt Deadly Effective Hawgs
cuda
Speculation, but is there a definitive answer?
That T-Bird crash in the Talons was due to FOD jamming the flight leader’s control and not allowing him to pull out of the dive; since the diamond formation flies with visuals on The Boss they all went in together…
BTW, FOD is what we call Foreign Object Debris, basically any foreign object floating around unsecured; tools, fasteners, etc.
That F-16 pilot will be a bit shorter but at least the life support people got him out!As the saying went in the Navy/Marine Corps-“The last to let you down”
Might seem a “minor” injury now, but will guarantee that in about 25 to 30 years it will come back to haunt the person who has it. About 5 years ago I started to have really bad back pains. Doctor just told me it was approaching old age, so I finally let my wife talk me into going to the Chiropractor. She x-rayed me and a one of my lower disks had been collapsed to about 1/4 of origional thickness (which makes the nerve holes between the bones smaller, thereby inflicting pain). Her first question was “How many times have you been ejected out of an airplane?”. I was forced to tell her I had never been ejected from an airplane, but had fallen off (or out of) several over the years. To you younger guys out there I would make this suggestion. If you are under thirty I know you think you are immortal. You ain’t, believe me. At leat try to think about the consequences when you do something. Right now your body is writing checks which Mother Nature will cash when you get older.
Murphys 6th Rule of Combat:
The bursting radius of a hand grenade is always 2 feet farther than you can jump.
qmiester is 100% correct. My knees are worn out from too many years of hard concrete aircraft parking ramps. The hearing in my right ear is so bad I may soon need a hearing aid. All from 26 years of screaming jet engines. As George Burns once said, “If I had known I was going to live so long, I would have taken better care of myself”.