Well today I witnessed my first aircraft crash. It was a gorgeous blue Hawker Hunter Mk. 58 owned by Bob Guilford.
I had never seen a Hawker Hunter before and my very first thought about the aircraft on the takeoff roll was, "man, this airplane is gutless!" It took up an incredible amount of runway, and it appeared that the pilot really had to yank her off the ground toward the end. Once airborn the wings really rocked back and forth as if she was very unstable and remained extremely low.
I really thought it was odd and tried to convince myself that it was the pilot just rocking the wings, lik e to wave. But something still seemed wrong.
It went off into the distance for a few minutes, and then I watched it start to come back to the airport. I noticed the airplane rolling back and forth quite rapidly and I immediately commented to my mom right next to me, saying, "holy cow, that plane looks about as stable as--" I brought my camera up to look closer, noticing it descending.... then stopped mid-sentence saying, "Where's this guy going?!" A second or two went by, and I saw it was continuing to get lower, raised my camera, shot my one pic of her partially obscured behind the trees, one completely behind the trees as I continued to pan, then saw some a ball of fire and smoke. And it was utter silence! I knew from the second I noticed that airplane oscilating back and forth that something was wrong. I can't even explain what it was like seeing that airplane dissappear behind the trees.
It was the 2nd to last aircraft to fly for the airshow (this one was only a static display and was heading home after it was going to do a fly-by) and they ended the show right there.
Very sad, first time I've seen an airplane crash like this. I've witnessed my fair share of engine failures on takeoff and nose-overs... but never anything where anyone died.
And the kind of creepy thing is that when the aircraft arrived on Thursday(? or friday) right on takeoff her droge chute just tore right off the airplane! The pilot instantly goes, "damn" over the radio.
As soon as I get home to a computer with DSL I'll post a couple pics for you all. Some of the said aircraft and of the rest of the show.
My prayers go out to this poor pilots family!
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