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James Gosling Report of Reno Air Crash
Earlier today, a tragic crash at the Reno National Championship Air Races killed at least 12 spectators, and left at least 75 injured. Reader xmas2003 writes with a link to Java creator James Gosling's first-hand account of the crash, which he describes as "better than most of what is being reported in mainstream media so far."
i saw it first hand, the galloping ghost lost control and did a barrel roll over the stands and crashed 50 feet away from me into the edge of the box seats. it looked like its aileron got stuck and he couldn't correct it. i love the air races like no other and iv been involved with it literately my whole life, but i will never forget what i saw.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs98xkTIBQU
about the 3:30 mark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zusClmg4IQg :30 second mark
about the
Horrible looking, but amazingly not an explosion.
"Oh, you hate your job? There's a support group for that, it's called everyone, they meet at the bar."
It's hard to tell. When there's a problem where the pilot feels he needs to bow out, it's usual for them to declare mayday and climb up and around to land while the race continues. I was there, and when I first saw the plane climb I thought it was just another routine failure, but when he flipped over I could see it wobbling a bit, and it seemed like a control surface may have malfunctioned and stuck in a position outside its normal range of motion while the pilot fought for control. Also don't forget that it was windy all day. (I don't remember which way it was blowing)
As for claims of him having a heart attack or some other medical problem... It MAY be possible, but I don't think so. I personally think a person in his position would know better than to fly if he was in bad shape, not to mention the physicals they go through regularly.
It's not uncommon to have a vehicle accident with 5 patients and also declare that an MCI. That just means the first responders were overwhelmed by the amount of patients and injuries and they need to declare an MCI, which prompts a number of things: additional emergency personnel, overhead to manage the incident, notifies local hospitals so they can start taking action prior to patient arrival, etc.
He was 74, not 80, and he held a current 2nd class medical certification from the FAA. Most private pilots only have a 3rd class; his health was fine and almost certainly had nothing to do with it. You can read more about his credentials here: http://www.av8rdan.com/2011/09/before-assuming-age-was-the-cause-of.html Also, photos are circulating that show control surfaces missing from the aircraft before the crash. Something went wrong mechanically - please do your research before making mindless assumptions. http://corduroyplanet.blogspot.com/2011/09/chilled.html
Part of the tail came off, and he lost control. It was headed directly for the stands, and the pilot knew he was going to die.
His last act was to exert as much pressure on the stick as possible and avoid the stands. He succeeded and hit the boxes in front of the stands
We're talking hundreds dead versus dozens
US Airshows
Wrong.
This was an Air Race not an Air Show.
Was the race allowed to weasel out of those regs by not calling itself an airshow, even though that's exactly what it is?
The Reno Air Races operate under far stricter regulations than air shows. Unfortunately, sometimes aircraft fail in unpredictable ways. Nothing is completely safe.
"Second, air show performers Ã" both civilian and military Ã" are prohibited from performing maneuvers that direct the energy of their aircraft toward the area in which the spectators are sitting."
So much for that rule.
These aircraft travel at well over 400MPH. They can travel a long way in a very short time. There's also no way to determine which direction an aircraft might travel in the case of mechanical/control failure or pilot incapacitation.
It appears from the video that the pilot experienced a control failure. In that case, there's not much anyone including the pilot could do to avoid tragedy. The pilot appears to have lost all control of the aircraft, likely due to the aforementioned control system failure.
In this kind of scenario with no way to control the aircraft, the only way to be totally safe is to be outside of the distance the fuel onboard could carry the aircraft. This could be up to 100 miles or more in any direction, even with the limited fuel load of a race aircraft and depending on the point in the flight where directional control is lost.
The poor guy probably sacrificed his own life by staying with the aircraft and not bailing out/ejecting in a last-ditch attempt to try to avoid hitting the stands.
I hope the FAA employees, airshow promoters, and airport employees who approved the airshow plan are all charged criminally.
You may want to re-think your rant. The world cannot be made toddler-safe, and nobody would like living in it, even if it were possible. There is always an element of risk to practically any activity, even laying in bed at night under your covers.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
First, he was 74, not 80. I don't know where you get that bullshit. Second, the crash was due to mechanical failure. See photo here. Third, you think maybe because the guy is living life, racing fighter planes, is why he's above ground at the age of 74 when many of his peers are six feet under or pissing themselves at nursing homes? He passed the physical exams with flying colors, which include reflexes and eyesight. I'm sure he would be the first to disqualify himself if he felt even the least bit unworthy to fly.
Yes, you're the only one who thinks it's strange. Asshole.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
IANADoctor but I can't think of a medical emergency that causes that sort of erratic manoeuvring, passing out certainly doesn't. Moreover, the plane was already in trouble, since the pilot called in a mayday and started to pull up according to protocol when the fatal problems happened. Mechanical failure is simply more likely at this point: video showing the sequence of events
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
Pictures show the elevator trim tab broken off. At those speeds the aircraft needs significant nose down force to stay level, and if the trim tab breaks off then the aircraft will nose up violently (and violently at 4-500 mph is a violent action indeed). It is quite possible that he suddenly hit between 5-9 Gs (my bet is in the higher part of the range) while unprepared. The human body can't do anything in those conditions. Quite different if those forces are expected and you can prepare through breathing and muscle contraction, but he probably got smacked down and possibly slammed his head into the instrument panel (as this was on the straight which is a place for going through and changing settings, the easy and fun part of the race).
Broken trim tab:
http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQD53IBQjMbO0oqC&w=90&h=90&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.graytvinc.com%2Fimages%2Fplane%2Benlarged.jpg
No pilot showing in canopy during dive:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/09/16/us/20110917_RENO-IPAD-4.html
Evidence (photgraphs) suggest that the elevator trim tab broke off. Due to the speed making a nose up moment the plane was fairly probably trimmed pitch down. Elevator tab breaks off = plane pitches violently up, hurting or killing the pilot (imagine an instant, unexpected 9 Gs when you are setting the turboboost setting. BAM face in instrument panel!). The plane then careens up, past vertical, and down again, with the pilot probably incapacitated. The plane is at around 450mph when this occurs. It can travel quite far in a few seconds, and in this case that was,sadly, towards the spectators. Sad, but shit does happen. This is a racing incident, and has always been one of the risks of racing.
My heart goes out to all those who are injured or have lost a loved one.