Shoreham airshow crash enquiry

[duke63]

It appears there were some quiet shocking lapses in standards and assessments, not just for this show but airshows in general.

When you have planes pulling stunts over crowds and built up areas, surely you should do some very strict risk assessments on the implications of things going wrong?

Quite astounding how little preparation they were doing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35773975" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Kwacky]

I see that the pilot had been questioned before.

[D41]

I can't help but feel that in accidents of this nature, a portion of the blame will inevitably end up being the result of human ego....although that can never be proven.....we all have our comfort zones on our bikes for instance, and we expand them slowly. gradually pushing our own envelop until it either expands. or breaks....this guy will ultimately be found to be at fault but whether he is to "blame" or not is debatable.

[kiwikrasher]

I worked on a fighter squadron (well two) for a number of years and I can tell you the displays they put on for air shows were heavy plan, risk assessed and practiced. Always first few times high and over water, then after numerous runs they would lower to display height still over water. Once they'd had a few runs and analysed the HUD tapes would they then authorize display height over land.

But it still does go wrong. My Squadron Leader (and dive buddy) crashed and died in an air show practice run. They bent the rules and paid for it.

[kiwikrasher]

http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article ... tid=203147

Article on it. The work load the flying staff were on at the time was huge. As ground crew we had already questioned it. I had been posted back to NZ about 3 months before this happened. What's not mentioned was it was right next to the Airfield, all the ground crew watched him go in. Was not a good scene.

[D41]

End of the day people are expecting to see someone doing something that is inherently dangerous....otherwise what would be the point?? I'm frankly surprised that more accidents of this type do not occur.....I know that over here air shows have been continuously "dumbed down" or stopped completely over the years....they'll soon be legislated out of existence. and then people will complain about that too.

[Deegee]

Kiwi, I watched a documentary about the Brit display team, "The Red Arrows" who are all serving RAF pilots, their annual display is practised and honed over water as you say, it's also approved by and signed off by the Chief of Air Staff.

Sadly I fear that cost constraints when planning an air show will make the amount of planning and assessing of risk that a military team might take over a display unrealistic for a civvy airshow that has to either break even or make money.

[duke63]

The people who lost their lives and all there families had a right to expect that the show was properly prepared and all those taking part knew the limitations of themselves and the planes they were flying in. This clearly was not the case here. I cannot believe the pilot had not rigorously practised what he was going to do and also that the airshow operators did not make checks to ensure this was the case. If something goes wrong in a plane, its highly likely lives will be lost.

Accidents do happen but this was one that could so easily have been avoided if others did what they were supposed to do.

[D41]

Amen to that!!