Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Blue Angels jet crashes during air show, killing aviator

skoker

skoker

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 6, 2005
1,839
0
Yet again I get to be the bearer of bad news:

Here's the latest update:

vt1.1845.jets.ap.jpg

(CNN) -- A jet flying in formation with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels precision flying team crashed into a Beaufort, South Carolina, neighborhood, causing an "enormous fireball" during an air show, authorities said.

The Navy aviator was killed Beaufort County Coroner Curt Copeland said. The F/A-18's pilot is the only known fatality.

Fred Yelinek told CNN he saw the crash occur about a mile from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, which was holding the two-day show. He said the jet came down about 100 yards from him.

Yelinek said the jet struck a stand of pine trees, and pieces of the plane hit homes, but he didn't see any catch fire. The pieces were "as big as a hand but no larger," he said.

Pieces of a tree and the plane crashed into the home of a neighbor, Yelinek said, but she was uninjured. Pieces also hit other houses and smashed car windshields, he said.

"Most people were very shaken but unhurt," the witness said.

"I was working on a pump in the yard across the street from the initial impact, and I heard the Blue Angeles go over ... in a full, tight formation," Yelinek said.

"And then, four or five minutes later, I hear them coming again, expecting to see pretty much the same thing. But I didn't hear any strange noises. And then it was the crashing sound of pieces of the airplane coming through the trees in the yard across the street."

"And then a huge fireball, maybe 200, 300 yards further on down. The debris started from the first impact with a pine tree, which was maybe 100 yards from my location."

"Part of the tree and the debris went through a house in that yard, then the main body of the airplane continued on about 300 more yards and hit about one city block further down at the intersection of Shanklin and Pine Grove roads.

"There's a lot of houses on all four corners of that intersection. And there was a lot of fire at that intersection, and continuing thereafter."

Another witness, Gerald Poop, said the six jets had been flying for about five minutes before one of them turned south, toward the Broad River.

"I saw him go down lower than the trees, and next I saw a big black cloud of smoke," said Popp, who also lives in Beaufort.

Justin Cooke, an off-duty air traffic controller at the base, told CNN that some of the runways used in the air show are near military base housing, which gets constant flyovers from the base's jets. But he said he didn't think the jet crashed into the base housing area.

"From my understanding, northeast of base housing is a residential area," Cooke said.

Although he was unable to confirm the jet had struck there, he said "one of my Marines said the power was out temporarily, and stuff had knocked off their walls from the impact" of the crash.

"The base is on lockdown," Cooke said.

While the cause of the crash is unknown, he mentioned that birds pose a frequent problem to jets flying in the area, and can cause a crash.

"On an F-18, you have two motors, and if they take [a bird] in the engine, it could cause engine failure and shut that down," he said. He said the plane is capable of flying in excess of 450 mph.

Although Cooke was not at the show, he said he has extensive knowledge of the show's program.

"Sounds like they were completing the show" when the jet crashed, he said.

The aerobatic maneuvers were to be repeated Sunday as part of the Low Country Blues Festival. The show also featured other aerial demonstration teams and civilian and military aircraft displays.

CNN meteorologists said the weather in Beaufort, which is near Savannah, was clear.

The last crash involving the Blue Angels was in 1999 in south Georgia. Two aviators were killed when their F/A-18 jet crashed while trying to land during a training flight.
Click to expand...

It's a rush transcript looks like, because that guy's last name goes from Poop to Popp.

RIP to the victim and my condolences to the family.
 
So incredibly sad. I may not be the biggest fan of the military (or rather what it's being used for), but seeing the Blue Angels fly is a breathtaking experience.
 
RIP to the pilot.

Glad no one else on the ground was killed.

When doing maneuvers like the Blue Angles and Thunderbirds do, there is very little reaction time when something goes wrong. Gut feeling is either an altitude error or an engine stall/failure.
 
sushi said:
RIP to the pilot.

Glad no one else on the ground was killed.

When doing maneuvers like the Blue Angles and Thunderbirds do, there is very little reaction time when something goes wrong. Gut feeling is either an altitude error or an engine stall/failure.
Click to expand...

Early things I've heard from people who were at the show is that they suspect a bird ingestion, due to a high migratory bird content in the area today, but taken with a grain of salt as things of this nature need to be.
 
skoker said:
Early things I've heard from people who were at the show is that they suspect a bird ingestion, due to a high migratory bird content in the area today, but taken with a grain of salt as things of this nature need to be.
Click to expand...
Sounds reasonable.

The more articles that I read, what I gather is the plane lost power and the pilot probably tried to direct it towards a less crowded/dense area to crash hitting a tree along the way.

I remember being on some high risk flights and airshow demonstrations, if something goes wrong, those on the ground come first. Not being noble. Just the way most military pilots think -- at least the ones that I've been around and flown with over the years.

This example comes to mind when a Thunderbird pilot made an altitude error. This picture was taken at less than one second before impact. I have a couple of videos of this incident including the cockpit one. This guy stayed with his aircraft until the last possible second (eight-tenths of a second before impact) to avert hitting anything including the control tower which is where the photographer was standing that took the picture.
 

Attachments

  • DavisTbirdEject2.jpg
    DavisTbirdEject2.jpg
    202.3 KB · Views: 241
sushi said:
All kinds of images come to mind.

That's what happens when they want to be the first to release the story. Names and facts can get messed up.
Click to expand...

I guess:

picture3zq2.png


Anyways, the typo has been corrected on CNN.
 
sushi said:
Just seeing if you were paying attention! ;)

And it looks like you are I am glad to see! :)


Glad to see.

Now, should I edit my post?
Click to expand...

Sad bunch we are, some poor guy dies and we are making fun of CNN's comical misspelling of a witnesses last name.
 
article said:
While the cause of the crash is unknown, he mentioned that birds pose a frequent problem to jets flying in the area, and can cause a crash.
Click to expand...

Oh how I love that. It was the "birds" that were in the way, and pose a problem for the jets flying in the area. Guess what? Humans don't naturally fly. If anyone is in the way, we're the ones posing problems to birds.
 
I heard he clipped the top of a pine tree, but its worth noting we have a lot of buzzards in the area he went down. Turns out its a deer crossing and they get hit all the time then the buzzards feed on the roadkill. This happened a few blocks from me.
 
SRSound said:
So incredibly sad. I may not be the biggest fan of the military (or rather what it's being used for), but seeing the Blue Angels fly is a breathtaking experience.
Click to expand...

being a "huge" fan of the military and military history, but not of this war in iraq, i also agree that seeing the blue angels is amazing, freakin' amazing...they were doing practice moves just above my house not too long ago

while it's rather rare for this type of accident, it's always a possibility every time they go up and it's very sad

it's very strange that it takes a very special officer to be a blue, yet they do what they do for practically nothing...just the pay of their rank and then a little extra, compared to a friend of mine who has a brother that was a long time major league baseball, prima donna and world series star who made more than all the blues put together for 3 decades...yes, i did the math

...and he never once risked his life...well, outside of psycho female baseball fans who may charge him in the parking lot, but that's another thread

anyway, these guys and gals in the blues and thunderbirds are a real promotion team for pilots and aviators, in general, for the armed forces
 
This is sad, I highly admire the Blue Angels. I wanted to go down and see the show since I live in the upstate but was actually up in the air around the same time the crash occured in a glider. I hate reading about Aviators that go down.
 
Dont Hurt Me said:
I heard he clipped the top of a pine tree, but its worth noting we have a lot of buzzards in the area he went down. Turns out its a deer crossing and they get hit all the time then the buzzards feed on the roadkill. This happened a few blocks from me.
Click to expand...

you live in Beaufort? i dont live far at all from where the plane went down...i could actually see it from my dock. i saw a burst of black smoke right over the trees from the sixth plane after flying real low. real sad i always watched them when they came from town from the yard/dock. sad...
 
A terrible tragedy - it has indeed been a bad week.

Fortunately, nobody on the ground was killed, but one fatality is one too many...:(

I too have watched these demonstration teams and it's a truly breathtaking experience, made even more amazing when you consider the skills and risks involved.
 
I used to live near Annapolis and seeing the Blue Angels perform is truly a breathtaking experience. My sympathies to the families and friends of the brave pilot.

And I think I'm going to agree with everyone else about the events of the past week.:(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back