Video of Ukrainian Air Show Disaster

CNN, MSNBC | 07-27-2002

[SlickWillard]

CNN:
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MSNBC:
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[SlickWillard]

The MSNBC footage includes a second angle.

[SlickWillard]

Have you followed this story?

[Gunrunner2]

No.
Just caught a glimpse of it.
Will check it out.

[Gunrunner2]

Just looked at the video.
Wow.
Hi-G turn, followed by a nosedive and an almost gentle nosedive, resulting in an attitude that the pilot HAD to know couldn't be recovered from (such a low altitude). My initial uninformed comment. . .I think G-LOC ("black out") and the jet went in. No mechanical malfunction.
Now, to be sure I'd like to know his exact planned flight profile before I can make a more forceful determination.

[BrooklynGOP]

ping!

[Pharmboy]

If they can barely afford jet fuel, what the hey are they doing having air shows??

[Dog Gone]

Weird. I'm getting a "No Such Interface Supported" error message, and I have Windows Media Player.

[SlickWillard]

Weird. I'm getting a "No Such Interface Supported" error message, and I have Windows Media Player.

Two questions:

1) Which version of Windows Media Player are you using?
2) Which link is giving you problems?

[Gunrunner2]

I think you are trying to download. . .won't work (I tried and got the same thing). Just click on the link.

As far as being out of bucks and being broke, the Russians certainly are. In 1995 the South African Air Force was hosting their 75th anniversary air show and the Ukraine showed up. I was on the ramp when the Ukraine showed up and they wouldn't shut down their engines until they were paid for the fuel to be there--I am serious. The SAAF did tell all air forces they would pay for fuel to/from the event, and Ukraine was really holding them to it. Add this to the fact that when we were getting ready to leave, the SAAF police and customs people showed up and started to go through our jet. The SA Defense Attaché (he is a nice guy and he flew with us in our KC-10 from Wash DC to SA) told me not to worry, as they were "searching" our KC-10 so they would not embarrass the Ukraine's. Why? Because the Ukraine people stayed in the Officer billets on base (we stayed in hotels), and when they left, they took everything, from beds to light fixtures in the room, to the bicycle racks outside.

[RicocheT]

The pilot ejected, so no black out. Probably engine stall and too steep and angle to recover. You can't overfly the crowd on airshows as a crash endangers the spectators.

[Dog Gone]

I have version 7.01. and I get that error message immediately upon clicking on any of the links for Media Player. I've tried them all.

I recently downloaded a patch from Microsoft.com. Perhaps that's buggered it up.

I'm hesitant to delete the player and download it again from scratch, but maybe that's what's required. Hmmmmm.

[FreedomPoster]

If you figure out how to delete MS WMP, let me know what you did.

My take is that this looks like a major league screw up on the part of the pilot, with some kind of mechanical failure still a secondary possibility.

[dighton]

$$$ for CNN video.

They have GOT to be kidding.

[Dog Gone]

"This allows us to offer more video to no viewers, which is a heck of a business model. Seen our stock price lately?"

[AK2KX]

Looks to me like a classic stall-spin at low altitude. Slow speed, steep turn -- watch how the inside wing drops and it snaps right over.

I've done those at altitude to make myself aware of the danger of tightening your turn onto final if you overshoot on base leg. This kills a lot of pilots.

[IncPen]

Thanks for the input, always great to hear from someone who knows what the cluck is going on...

[Texaggie79]

ping

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Thank you for the ping. I couldnt get the CNN version to show. Odd...

But on the high speed msnbc version, just before the aircraft went parrallel with the ground, it appears that there was some object near the aircraft. Do you guys see it? Bird ingestion maybe?

[Tennessee_Bob]

I don't think it was an ingestion. Only smoke trail off the engines came as he started to try to pull it out - kind of like when you started applying power on an F100-100. It was a combustion trail, not a debris trail. Judging from the comments being made by the talking heads and analysts, I'd say it was too heavy an aircraft for low-level aerobatics, combined with a low budget military (read it as crappy maintenance), and not enough training time for the aircrew. A maintenance and aircrew failure.

[Texaggie79]

I see something off to the right, but that was too far away to be of any consequence.