Posted on 01/26/2008 1:26:17 PM PST by varina davis
5 dead after crash at "fly-in" community runway
Associated Press - January 26, 2008 2:44 PM ET
OCALA, Fla. (AP) - Florida Highway Patrol says five young men are dead today after a car they were riding in crashed after traveling off an airport runway.
The runway is at the exclusive "fly-in" community of Jumbolair Aviation Estates.
The crash at the community, which is also the home of actor John Travolta, happened at about 3:45 a.m.
According to a preliminary FHP investigation, a 2008 gray BMW with 5 occupants, ages 18 to 20, was traveling at a high rate of speed on the airstrip.
As it neared the end of the runway, the car traveled off the end of an 85-foot high embankment. It became airborne for 200 feet and struck a large tree.
At impact, the vehicle split in half and the car's engine separated from the vehicle, scattering pieces of the car over about a 200 square foot area. FHP says 3 of the five occupants were ejected from the vehicle and all were pronounced dead at the scene.
ARRGGHHH!!!
You just gave me a 1970's high school Physics flashback.
Don't do that any more!
Midnight? Hell, 8 o’clock!
Very gracious reply, thanks.
: )
keeper
So, was the tree going 18 MPH or did gravity increase the car's speed?
The vertical component of their speed would have been about 50 mph.
Actually CNN noted that they hit the tree 15 ft above the ground changing these numbers to about 65 mph when they left the embankment, and about 80 mph on impact (45 mph vertical component). Either way they left the embankment at a very high speed which probably indicates they underestimated the braking distance required.
I’m willing to bet the brake lights were on at impact.
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