British military jet in deadly airshow crash | World Defense

British military jet in deadly airshow crash

Redheart

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British military jet in deadly airshow crash - Al Jazeera English

A military jet taking part in a British airshow has crashed into a busy main road, killing seven people and injuring 15 others.

The Hawker Hunter fighter jet, which was participating in the Shoreham Airshow near Brighton in southern England, hit several vehicles on a nearby road as it crashed on Saturday afternoon.

Witnesses told local TV that the jet appeared to have crashed after it failed to pull out of a loop manoeuvre.

They said a fireball erupted near trees and huge plumes of thick black smoke rose after the crash.

West Sussex Police told the AP news agency that seven people died at the scene and one patient with life-threatening injuries was taken to hospital. Another 14 people were treated for minor injuries.

The plane crashed just 400m from families who were watching the airshow, a local radio station reported.

The police said all of the casualties were believed to have occurred on the road, and no one on the airfield was believed to be injured.

The country's Air Accident Investigation Bureau attended the scene, as the road was closed in both directions.

Crashes at British airshows are rare, but in 2007 the pilot of a World War II Hurricane died at the Shoreham Airshow after performing a barrel-roll.
 

Corzhens

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It not last year, it was the other year when an air show crash occurred. The air force planes were having a formation when one plane lost its step and collided with another plane. With this thread, there are 7 dead people because of that crash. Now, this question: What is the main purpose of an airshow? And why do planes need to execute risky maneuvers? Well, to me there is no use for that since an airshow only poses danger to the public.
 

Susimi

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In a recent conference the police have said that the death toll has increased to 11 and they expect to find more bodies once they start to remove the aircraft wreckage on Monday.

It's just terrible that this has happened but why did he perform a loop at such a low altitude? Questions are being raised as to why he did not eject from the plane and in a way I think it was good he stuck with the plane, but that still doesn't clear him from performing that manoeuvrer that low.
 

Psyche

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I assume the general height of the maneuver was pre-approved. But either he passed out or there was a malfunction before it was completed. At that height ejecting would be pretty much impossible because there would not be enough height for the chutes to deploy.

Whatever happened it is going to be tough on the pilot of he makes it. There is always a debate about whether/where/how these displays should be held.
 
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