WIX Archives
Re: Air Show Miracles correction
Posted by Roger Cain on Tue Sep 16, 2003 12:35:03 AM
In reply top Air Show Miracles posted by Scott WRG Editor on Mon Sep 15, 2003 06:13:14 AM
The first accident was at Mountain Home Air Force Base, which is near Boise, Idaho.
The second accident was with Bill Cornick at the Moffett Field Air Show in Mountain View (just down the road from my home, but I was at the Reno Air Races instead). Article below from the San Jose Mercury.
Posted on Sun, Sep. 14, 2003
Stunt plane crash halts Moffett expo
PILOT IS UNINJURED; AIR SHOW TO GO ON TODAY
By Peter Delevett
Mercury News
Guy Reynolds and Mary Henderson were heading out of Saturday's Air Expo at Moffett Field when they decided to wait for an act called the ``squirrel cage,'' a three-plane stunt competition.
``It seemed like it was going to get interesting,'' said Henderson, of Santa Clara.
It got a little more interesting than anybody bargained for. A few minutes into the high-speed showcase, pilot Bill Cornik plowed his Curtis Pitts biplane into the tarmac and skidded several hundred feet.
Cornik was not hurt and stopped to wave to the crowd before an ambulance took him to Stanford Hospital for observation. But his plane was mangled, and the 4 p.m. crash brought the squirrel cage -- and the first day of the Air Expo -- to an abrupt halt an hour before the show was set to end.
``You hate to see something like that,'' said Reynolds, who said he'd been going to air shows at Moffett since 1978 but had never witnessed a crash before Saturday.
He and others who saw the wreck said it looked like Cornik was doing a series of ``roll'' maneuvers too close to the ground. Cornik's left wing appeared to hit the runway, sending the plane tumbling.
There was no explosion, and many in the crowd at first seemed unsure the plane had crashed. Spectators were seated several hundred feet from where Cornik hit.
Steve Teatro, executive producer of the Air Show Network, who has organized air shows for 10 years, said ``Bill Cornik is the grandfather of the squirrel cage.'' Some consider the maneuver risky, but Teatro said that local officials and the Federal Aviation Administration approved all of the pilots' maneuvers. The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.
The crowd at the former Navy air base in Mountain View was sparser than the 50,000 or so planners had expected. Teatro said the late summer heat had thinned turnout, but he expects cooler temperatures to bring more spectators today.
Today's events include an exhibition by the U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter team. The fighters were supposed to cap off Saturday's performance, but the crash cleanup delay caused the Air Expo to miss the window of time in which the jets were authorized to perform. The air show will open with a tribute to the astronauts killed in the space shuttle Columbia accident. It also will feature an exhibit celebrating 100 years of aviation history.
Two dozen aircraft, including the specialized 747 used to transport the space shuttle, are on display. Performers will include stunt jets, biplanes, a World War Two P-51 Mustang and helicopter acrobatics.
Teatro was upbeat despite Cornik's crash. ``It was a great show,'' he said. ``We're going to do it again Sunday.''
: Two accidents this weekend that for once had happy endings
: . The first was one of the Thunderbirds went down at Idaho
: ?airshow center and fireballed, luckily away from the gcro
: wd and the pilot ejected safely. Thanks goes to the pilot
: for diverting the plane away from the crowd before ejectin
: g.
:
: The second was a biplane (Pitts?) that dug in a wing and s
: macked into the runway at a San Francisco airport, crumple
: d up and slid down the runway in ruins. The amazing bit is
: the pilot WALKED away from the wreckage.
:
: Airshow accidents are always bad, but it's nice to hear on
: es where everyone is safe.
:
: Scott