Aircraft pics

[Xplantdad]

It's crazy on the B52 crash video...after the plane crashes...you can still hear the engines racing...just for a second.

Too bad

[427TJ]

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Sam - what's a flat-hatter?

Nuch

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Sorry Nuch, it is a show off. In the military it is a loose cannon, a non professional aviator.

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More specifically, a show-off who flies his aircraft so low over the assembled brass and dignitaries at the change-of-command parade that their hats get flattened.

[Ngtflyr]

His squadron commander chose not to ground the guy, he decided to fly with him to ensure nothing like this happened and died as a result of his decision. The really sad part is that the Sq CC's wife and kids witnessed the crash.

[427TJ]

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It's crazy on the B52 crash video...after the plane crashes...you can still hear the engines racing...just for a second.

Too bad

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The pilot of that B-52, the loose cannon who could not be controlled, was so dangerous that it was getting so that nobody in his squadron would fly with him. For the airshow demo practice the squadron commander flew right seat for this guy and two more senior officers rode in two other positions on the airplane. The crash occurred because the pilot pulled the airplane up into a fighter-style pitch-up after a low pass. He leveled the airplane on downwind, opposite the direction of landing, but he had run the airplane out of airspeed during this maneuver and the B-52 immediately stalled and began to enter a left spin when it impacted. If you look closely you can see the (squadron commander) copilot's ejection system beginning it's sequence as his cockpit election hatch leaves the airplane over the copilot's seat. Sadly, his seat fired as the airplane hit the ground and he did not clear the fireball. The squadron commander, who had tried to get this guy grounded, had his own family there to watch the demonstration practice and they saw the whole thing.

[427TJ]

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His squadron commander chose not to ground the guy

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Because the mishap pilot had friends in high places and was close to retirement. The squadron commander could not ground him without suffering a career setback himself so he chose to go along and get along. It was all wink-and-nod stuff and career political BS and it got three good men and one idiot killed.

[nuch_ss396]

You know Bill, no one ever thinks that playing politics can
cost someone the ultimate sacrifice. Hell of a price to pay.

Nuch

[427TJ]

[ QUOTE ]
You know Bill, no one ever thinks that playing politics can
cost someone the ultimate sacrifice. Hell of a price to pay.

Nuch

[/ QUOTE ]

You can bet your last dollar that there was one hell of an ass-covering scramble as the investigators discovered all the cover-ups by higher-ups that kept that hot-dogging B-52 pilot on flight status. More than one career was terminated over this crash because of all the buddy-buddy back-slapping by the mishap pilot's higher-ranking pals. About the only consolation that came out of the B-52 crash was that a few of those officers, the ones who over-ruled the squadron commander's desire to ground the mishap pilot, had their own careers ended.

[Belair62]

how did the pilot screw up in that crash?

[Ngtflyr]

One other good thing to come out of it was that thru the use of this example it was beaten into the rest of us that "hotdogging" would not be tolerated, no matter how good or how many friends you had in high places.

Just goes to show you, there are bold pilots and there are old pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.

[47Hammer]

He thought he was Sierra Hotel.