Alert and sharp photographer in the right place at the right time gets spectacular sequence of an ejection and crash (linky). The second shot is just unreal, with the pilot separating from his seat with the parachute opening while his jet is a few feet of the ground. In the last shot the empty ejection seat is seen falling just outside the fireball.
This was a Canadian Forces CF-188 Hornet practicing for an air show on Friday in Calgary and there were no serious casualties apart from the jet.
3 comments:
wow, even for a non-plane lover, those shots are incredible!
Matt wants to know what caused the crash.
Hi Matt! The cause isn't known yet, and won't be officially determined for a while (after the investigation). Anything outside that investigation is speculation and I am only an enthusiast rather than an actual expert. In my laymans view of the pictures and video of the crash though, I wouldn't be surprised if the cause was something to do with one of the engines. Looking at the pictures one of the engine nozzles is wide open and the other almost closed, which isn't normal. That could imply a lot of things that may have affected the outcome, or merely that the pilot knocked one of the throttles back as he ejected. The video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEjDVjQfEKI&feature=player_embedded )though is almost identical to another crash caused by an engine failure during the same type of manouvre. The high-alpha pass looks cool, but the aircraft is low and slow, with not a lot of wiggle room for anything unexpected. Without having access to all the pertinent information though you can't say for sure (it might have been somethign else entirely), and it would be unwise to say it was definitely this or that :)
Post a Comment