Posted on 08/21/2011 10:30:39 AM PDT by EveningStar
The pilot of the biplane that pancaked into the runway at Wheeler Downtown Airport before a stunned air show crowd Saturday described himself as obsessed with flying.
Bryan Jensen grew up on a farm in Iowa, took his first flying lesson when he was 13, soloed on his 16th birthday and as an adult flew jumbo jets for Delta Air Lines, according to a website promoting his passion for aerobatic flying. He’d been a stunt pilot the past 15 years, when not in the captain’s seat of a 747.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
Aviation ping
Clearly they were not prepared and it took them a long time to be on the way. The promoter of this event was not prepared.
His family and friends will be grieving, but not him. He died doing what he loved. His last thought probably was,
Boy...this is going to be a close one.
The crash happened at 1:30 into the video. A car pulls up about a minute later, obviously with NO fire extinquisher. The sirens from the emergency trucks do not sound for at least 1 minute and 30 seconds later and at 3:30 when the video ends they still were not at the crash location.
Totally inept emergency services at this air show.
It was 2 minutes and 15 seconds before any water was put on the burning plane.
Just sucks. No time for blame, sad loss.
Looks like the problem started in an uncontrolled tumbling maneuver, which used to be known as a “lomchevak”, with the airplane pitching and snap-rolling simultaneously. It exited in a spin and never recovered. Not exactly “pancaking into the runway”.
My T-38 flight instructor died practicing for an airshow in his Pitts Special.
Aviation is dangerous, and serious, business.
RIP Bryan.
Your post made me think of that old saw; “ There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots.”
I was at a drag race (local event) and a guy’s brakes failed, he ran into grandstands at the end of the strip (unoccupied) and his vehicle started on fire. I was not far from there.
I got into my truck and raced over there. I had two fire extinquishers and while I sprayed my buddy reached and unhooked the guys harness. I used both fire extiguishers.
After we had him out, I looked around and realized that no emergency trucks were yet there.
We went straight to the promoter and demanded he show us where he had fire extinguishers. There was not one that he had arranged for the event. I was furious. The guy was fine. His fire suit worked. My friend ended up with worse burns (on his arms) than the driver had.
The pilot died instantly upon impact.
It appeared to be a planned stall.. but I heard the engine sputter, not sure if the pilot blacked out (or maybe had heart attack?!).. but it appeared, to me, that there was little effort in recovering (hence, why I thought maybe a medical situation.. lack of throttle)..
Rest in Peace, my brother...
I saw a show on the History Channel a few days ago. It was about dangerous airports. In one video, a plane goes off the runway and before more the two or three seconds had elapsed, a crash truck was visible with it’s lights on heading for the plane.
This was in some third world South or Central American country. I thought that was unusually good response.
Yet another accident at an airshow today...
http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/homepage_showcase/accident-at-selfridge-air-show
True, He was dead when he hit and if he wasn’t nothing could have saved him.
His luck ran out.
Poor devil. RIP.
FWIW my instructor taught me if I went into a spin to just let go of the controls if I did nothing else and if there was sufficient altitude the aircraft would recover itself since a spin is an induced maneuver that the aircraft has to be forced into (full aft yoke and full rudder).
I went on to fly Army helicopters so fixed wing was left behind but was I taught right about spins?
Anyway, a sad moment and prayers for the pilot and family members. Sickening to watch in fact.
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