Jane Wicker - Wing Walker Dead at OHIO Air Show !

[Jetranger]

Breaking News :

out of OHIO / USA

Famous Wing Walker / Jane Wicker dies at Air Show Crash in Ohio

Story : http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/22/19091607-two-dead-after-stunt-plane-carrying-wing-walker-crashes-at-ohio-air-show?lite

[MASABI TROOPER]

It´s a risky job..................

[wifesaysno]

Not for the faint of heart.

They went down doing what they love: flying in an airshow.

Blue skies!

[jetjockyfly]

As a fellow aviator, this is truly sad May they both rest in peace... blue skies forever!

As to a cause of the accident, I had a close look at the rudder seconds prior to the accident. A couple of clips on you tube shows some interesting things. To me it looks like a rudder failure, but that's just me.

[wifesaysno]

Tried avoiding watching the video until you mentioned that. There really does appear to be a major control system failure with how suddenly it rolled into the ground. REALLY hate the youtube comments on the video.

[jetjockyfly]

I agree. Some of those comments are really not nice. Basically I think people with no grasp of aviation & what it takes to fly a plane. Sudden directional change like that will almost certainly happen only with some kind of critical control surface failure Couple that with the altitude the pilot had to work with, it seems they had no chance. Truly very sad

[ozzy72]

Just heard about this, a tragic loss. My daughter loves watching the wing walkers at UK airshows. RIP

[c130lover]

Such a shame. She lived in my county and I met her several times. She was an incredible woman.

[expat]

I agree. Some of those comments are really not nice. Basically I think people with no grasp of aviation & what it takes to fly a plane. Sudden directional change like that will almost certainly happen only with some kind of critical control surface failure Couple that with the altitude the pilot had to work with, it seems they had no chance. Truly very sad

You should try reading some of the comments from the armchair experts that hang out over at http://avherald.com/h?list=&opt=1
A good website for up to date cigar tube incidents and accidents, but some of the contributors, calling them idiots is an insult to idiots...

Matt

[jetjockyfly]

Thanx Matt for the link. I've checked it out. Some of those armchair experts really have no grasp on flying a plane or even remotely know what can really go wrong with a plane like the airshow incident in question here. True... calling them idiots is an insult to idiots

I once had a rudder failure while flying a Cessna 177. Happened in heavy weather on approach to a small dirt strip over here in SA. Not fun at all. Things can change very quickly. Managed to land safely but only just & it wasn't one of my smoothest landings either.

In this case the aircraft was inverted... happened really fast so I can only imagine that the pilot didn't even have half a chance... very sad indeed

[Steve M]

Ms Wicker was at our local air show the first week in June. The weather was so bad I left early and didn't catch her act. I don't even know if they left the runway that weekend.. My condolences to her and her fiancee and her boys. Also to the pilot, a 40 year veteran of the air.

[C]

The only good thing is that it was such a short time between it properly going wrong and hitting the ground. Only a second or two.

From the camera angle available - and I'm sure the NTSB have far more videos and stills, and comparing it to the same manoeuvre being flown at previous shows the rolling action may be different like this one~ 11:00 is the same pass.

The nose pitch up before the roll in this case appeared lower (compared to a previous display), and led to an application of down elevator early(to raise the nose while inverted) at about 100deg AoB, which caused to roll to skew to the right (towards the crowd line). At the same time, the roll rate appears to slow appreciably until they get almost inverted (which is doesn't on others, note the nose is still quite nose low), when there's a large application of up elevator, accompanied with right roll (it's hard to tell if this is the aircraft "departing". Then it's game over as they run out of height.

I'm always a pessimist when I see "brave pilot saves school/nuns etc", but actually, I have a suspicion in this case, he (the pilot) made a mistake, which was fairly terminal anyway, and has taken the aeroplane in a safe direction. If so, a brave decision.

RIP.