Eleven people are now confirmed dead after a jet at the Shoreham Airshow in the UK crashed into a busy road.
The vintage Hawker Hunter fighter jet plummeted into nearby traffic after attempting a loop manoeuvre yesterday.
Seven deaths were initially reported but more bodies were recovered from the accident site.
The plane’s pilot remains in a critical condition.
Assistant chief constable Steve Barry of Sussex Police said the recovery operation was likely to take some time.
“As a result of the scale of devastation the recovery process is necessarily complex and thorough, and the work of those undertaking it cannot be understated,” he said.
“Removal of those who died will carry on today and is likely to continue throughout tomorrow.”
The aircraft crashed onto the A27 road near the south coast city of Brighton and hit several cars, creating a fireball and sending thick black smoke billowing into the air.
“He’d gone up into a loop and as he was coming out of the loop I just thought, ‘You’re too low, you’re too low, pull up’,” the BBC quoted eyewitness Stephen Jones as saying.
“And he flew straight into the ground either on or very close to the A27, which runs past the airport.”
The crash happened about 1:20pm (local time) on Saturday.
Shoreham Airshow cancelled its event, which was due to run into Sunday.
They are the aerial equivalent to NASCAR.
I saw a pilot “auger” into the ground at a small air show in Oregon many years ago. He was trying to do a “lumshavock” (sp?), where you go straight up, cut the engine let the front tip over, and then pull out of the dive. He never got the plane restarted and went straight in, about 100 yards in front of me. Sad, sad to watch. The announcer quickly told the crowd the show was over and we all slinked away.
Increase GDP to replace aircraft and to reduce the population.
WTF? I call it a Hammerhead Stall. Just as the aircraft reaches the top, kick rudder and correct into a dive; or you can pitch forward, kick rudder and spin. In combat, it can turn the table on a SOB on your tail. Crop sprayers use it to quickly reverse direction with minimum loss of energy.
“The Thunderbirds are like a goddammed bunch of trained monkeys. They’re f#*king circus performers. They get out there over the desert and perform the same maneuvers over and over. That’s not flying. You could take a goddammed bunch of old ladies and train them to do the same thing. Then they go off and do an air show and strut around in their pressed uniforms like they are f#@king movie stars. They are good for recruiting; I admit that. They might be the best recruiting tool the Air Force has. But what they do has nothing to do with combat flying. It’s all about appearance and not about flying an airplane. I wouldn’t have anything to do with a crowd. All they do is work for cocktail and pussy circuit.” John Boyd
“The plane’s pilot remains in a critical condition.” ———– from the article
He survived?? How is that even possible? Unless he ejected, but I didn’t see evidence of that.
Anyway, the purpose of military airshows is clear; 1) make the masses feel gooood about their tax dollars being used to buy this fancy schmancy shit, 2) increases “patriotism” … USA!USA!USA!, or whatever other country, 3) military recruiting.
“You could take a goddammed bunch of old ladies and train them to do the same thing.”
—– John Boyd quote
“John Boyd may be the most remarkable unsung hero in all of American military history. Some remember him as the greatest U.S. fighter pilot ever — the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than forty seconds. Some recall him as the father of our country’s most legendary fighter aircraft — the F-15 and F-16. Still others think of Boyd as the most influential military theorist since Sun Tzu.”
———–
Who the hell am I to argue with John Boyd?
Nevertheless, his comment above is pure bullshit hyperbole.
Yeah, you could never train a bunch of old ladies to be on time for a church social, let alone a airshow.
“Who the hell am I to argue with John Boyd?”
The fact that you contradict yourself in the next sentence is conclusive you would argue with him. However, I am not surprised since you present yourself as a god on this site.
Irelia
Suck my nuts, ya stupid cunt.
Why is the focus on old ladies and not the trained monkeys sentence? What a joke. Clearly, it’s not worth my time anymore to respond to such stupidity.
Irelia and Russia Is Strong …. two douchebag newbies who are lowering the collective IQ of TBP.
“Why is the focus on old ladies and not the trained monkeys sentence?”
The F-16 could not be flown by a monkey that’s why. An old lady could at least understand a few basic rudimentary commands to take off, possibly even land, even though any high G turns would no doubt crush her frail body.
A stupid fucking simian would probably pull the eject lever after the cockpit was slung with his own shit.
Modern combat aircraft are amoung the most complex machines on the planet. Pilots that fly them are amoung the best in the world and train very hard for the positions. Its kind of an insult to them to wonder if a chimp or an old lady could do their highly specialized and intense job.
What a joke. Clearly, it’s not worth my time anymore to respond to such fucking stupidity.
My older sister is a bigshot on the airshow circuit. It’s her life. It’s a spectacle, lots of people love air shows, and it might help recruiting. I enjoy the blue angels, they have a giant free show on the beach here. Saw a guy named ian grooms die about ten years ago, in that same hammerhead stall, during the friday practice.
You ungrateful , unpatriotic slimming little toads of the underworld. Have any of you ever been to an air show . Much better then a Damn car race and faster. Those jets are beautiful machines and a marvellous bit of engineering. You idiots need to come out from under the TV or internet and get a life.
The pilot of that Hawker Hunter ( truly a beautiful airplane even though they don’t intentionally design military jets for ‘style’ it had it) was a commerical airline pilot and ex RAF Harrier instructor. In every way a qualified pilot but… he doesn’t fly a 1950’s Hawker Hunter every day and the old analogue cockpit instruments and controls are a world away from the computerized fly by wire and heads up displays on military and commercial airliners today.
I used to read a lot of aviation magazines and one incident stands out in my memory of ‘air show’ problems. Not saying this happened but the Hawker did not seem to have any mechanical issues it was just too low so it or something similar could have happened. A vintage aircraft pilot took off to do an airshow. His altimeter was set for the altitude of the airport he took off from. He landed at the airshow at another airport that was 1000 feet or so closer to sea level than the one he had taken off from. He forgot to reset his altimeter. He did the same thing as that Hawker Hunter pilot did.
Stucky, now there you go again calling Female TBP’ers the “c” word. Shame on you!
As far was the “why” in military air show? IMO it’s a dick measurement tactic.
The Shoreham Show is purely civilian, and the Hunter in question was a civilian restored aircraft. It is interesting to note that the Hunter in question had the Avon 200 engine, which should have had more than enough thrust available to complete the manouvre (10,000 lb), so maybe there was a problem (flame-out or turbine surge??).
There a re a LOT of preserved 1,2 and even 3-seater Hunters out there, and that aircraft has proved to be a VERY successful export for Hawker-Siddely Aviation, with nearly 2000 built, some of which were in active service right up to 2014 (Lebanese Airforce). The prototype held the World Speed Record (on the original Avon 100) for a short while too, so a very capable but easy-to-maintain aircraft, which is why they are popular with historical jet enthusiasts (along with the Vampire!)
Irelia says (quoting John Boyd):
“The Thunderbirds are like a goddammed bunch of trained monkeys. They’re f#*king circus performers. They get out there over the desert and perform the same maneuvers over and over. That’s not flying. You could take a goddammed bunch of old ladies and train them to do the same thing. ……. But what they do has nothing to do with combat flying.”
Well, I was a member of an Air Force aerial demonstration team (some of the maneuvers are quite difficult), and I had 140 combat missions before that. What am I, Irelia? A trained monkey or an old lady? Or both?
Been to both civilian and military airshows.
Over 5000 people have died in Texas traffic accidents this year.
Stuff happens…
The pilot didnt crash intentionally.
Military airshows are what those pilots practice all the time and mostly without an audience. And no, beebs, going to one of them has nothing to do with (my) patriotism…just always liked aircraft.
Sucky says: “Irelia and Russia Is Strong …. two douchebag newbies who are lowering the collective IQ of TBP.”
Sooo, you believe in monopolies, huh?
Kill Bill ,glad you like air shows and don’t call me beebs.
SSS says:
Irelia says (quoting John Boyd):
“The Thunderbirds are like a goddammed bunch of trained monkeys. They’re f#*king circus performers. They get out there over the desert and perform the same maneuvers over and over. That’s not flying. You could take a goddammed bunch of old ladies and train them to do the same thing. ……. But what they do has nothing to do with combat flying.”
Well, I was a member of an Air Force aerial demonstration team (some of the maneuvers are quite difficult), and I had 140 combat missions before that. What am I, Irelia? A trained monkey or an old lady? Or both?
_____________________________
Hiroyoshi Nishizawa is impressive. Anywhere from 50 to more than 100 kills depending on who you believe. Never lost a wingman and was never shot down, flying the zero long after it had become obsolete. He died as a passenger in a transport plane.
US military performers including C-5 Galaxy, F-22 Raptor Demo Team and Navy’s Blue Angels were joined by the Canadian Snowbirds and CF-18 Hornet Demo. The Planes of Fame Air Museum will hold its annual airshow on May 1-3, Chino Airport, California.
I was asked to be on many show worthy crews while in AWACS.
Pure and simple…. PROPAGANDA.
I saw at least three nasty crashes at air shows in person. None this bad though… usually just some stunt planes or old WWII plane that shouldn’t be flying anyway.