More likely a mechanichal failure. This was a race. These pilots push these planes to the absolute limit.
Candor7 wrote:
RIP Jimy Leeward.
My guess is too many Gs pulled and resulting black out.
Looking at the comments on YouTube right now, it looks like there's a comment from someone who was their and who knew one of the pilots following this guy. The report from the other pilot is that part of the elevator broke off the plane and it became uncontrollable.
Racing, whether it's cars, boats or airplanes, often pushes machinery to the limit and beyond (into failures). With airplane racing, the speeds are higher, and you have gravity and that third dimension to deal with. Failures result in crashes.
I'm not sure how many of the spectators thought through the risks they were taking. The pilots know. Somehow they believe they won't hurt anyone but themselves if something goes wrong.
I'm not sure what the future of events like this will be.
The pilot being 80 years old adds a number of other “likely” issues...
Off road racing has suffered a similar fate. Last year a crash in Lucerne Valley CA killed a number of spectators.
The races still happen but the costs/safety regs are making them fewer and farther between.
It’s a terrible thing when it happens, whether on the ground, water or sky. But there is no such thing as ‘safe’ when racing is involved. It’s just impossible.
That said, I would hate to see this event ended.
Thanks for the update. What a tragedy.I am amazed that an aeleron failure would cause a dive in, but at speeds like that , maybe the elevators could not keep the AC up if one aileron was forcing the AC down, it did not appear to be spinning or rolling in the vid.