Ohio Air Show Accident

[AmigOne]

Horrific video of the accident in which Jane Wicker, the wing walker and Charlie Schwanker, the pilot lost their lives at the Ohio air show. I knew Jane and her ex-husband Kirk Wicker, also an acrobatic pilot, from the days I was based at Warrenton airport in Virginia. I have seen her do this particular routine many times and it is really impressive, but i have never seen it so close to the ground. Sad day for all the pilots of the DC area and of course for everybody else who knew her. A lovely and brave lady, may she rest in peace.

http://www.whiotv.com/news/news/local/wing-walkers-plane-crashes-at-dayton-air-show/nYSBY/

[Hank]

I saw that on the news tonight. I thought the Dayton Airshow was in July; it's just one Mooney hour away.

This flight was tragic, but I can't tell what went wrong. What would make the plane dive? Was it a stall? Did the pilot recover from disturbance as if not inverted? Did the walker hit an aileron?

[PilotDerek]

I watch it a couple times trying to see if there was any indication of what caused the crash. All I can guess is that the wing stalled and that close to the ground there was no recovery. IMHO. Very sad.

[jetdriven]

It looked like they were a little slow entering the maneuver and couldn't generate enough lift while inverted.

[AmigOne]

Having seen this maneuver many times before it seems to me that this time they were too low. She was sitting on the leading edge so unlikely that she hit the aileron.

[Dale]

There was a report I read about the weather, but I couldn't tell from the video if there were any high winds in the area or any other adverse conditions that may have had a effect on this crash. It is heartbreaking to read about a tragedy like this, I saw them perform at some other airshows and was so impressed with their proficiency doing these difficult stunts.

[Super Dave]

If you go frame by frame right around the 33 second mark, just as the airplane is about to become completely inverted, you can see the ailerons reverse and command the roll back to the right. I couldn't make out the elevator position, but the aileron reversal makes me wonder about pilot incapacitation or possibly the pilots harness coming undone while inverted.

[Seth]

That was hard to watch. 

 

I also watched it a few times to see if there was an odd command.  I'm curious if using rudder to keep the plane alligned with the runway during the roll and getting a touch too slow caused the wing to stall (kind of like a base to final turn with too much rudder and pulling back).  Wtih the extra weight on the edge of the wing, that may have been enough to drop it too fast for recovery (especially at the low altitude).  The other idea noted above that maybe the pilot became incapacitated or the harness coming undone may ring true as well.

 

Again, horrible.  Prayers to the family.

 

-Seth

[scottfromiowa]

Really sad and unfortunate, but NOT tragic in my eyes.  Kind of like watching the Walenda cross the Grand Canyon on a cable traveling 1400+ feet 1500+ feet from canyon floor...without a tether.  This stuff is tremendously dangerous and unforgiving.  Those that choose to do it know the down side.  Doesn't make it less sad/unfortunate, but is not tragic to me.  They died...and succeeded doing something they loved and were passionate about.

 

Connecting the dots on these practices leads me to one end...or another.  Man and Woman do some awesome...and CRAZY Shit that is FUN to watch...when it ends well and just plain sad when it doesn't.  Glad there is that passion to push the envelope, but these are really NOT accidents in the classic sense.  When you do a loop with someone on the end of your wing less than 500 feet AGL ya might have a fire.

 

This doesn't minimize my sadness for the loss of two human beings...BUT they died doing what they LOVE.  If only we could all exit doing that.

[MB65E]

I don't think anything was stalled or uncontrolled during the manuver. Started the half roll with too little pitch, (possible lack of horizon). He noticed the sink rate after inverted, was crossed up inverted, panic set in, tried to recover by rolling the opposite. Failed. Or he realized he was going to hit the crowd, and kept it out of the crowd. 30 degree heading change on a half roll into the crowd...Not good! +1 Scott, but I don't want mine to be a screw up on my part...

[AmigOne]

I knew them both, Jane and Charlie. Wonderful people, Charlie's hangar in Culpeper was behind mine. Jane had just become engaged to a fellow acro pilot. Charlie flew often his Extra 300 and I wonder if that had something to do with it. I mean, the roll rate is substantially different and like the previous poster said he started his aileron roll with very little pitch, probably like he would do in his Extra. Nothing left but to speculate.

[Jeff_S]

I don't know nuthin' about acro, but from a layman's perspective I think Matt may be right. It looks for some reason like the pilot lost spatial awareness in the maneuver and panicked, with no margin for error.  We may never know the full reality of it.  It's a haunting video.

[N601RX]

 Some of these airshow accidents happened over 100 years ago.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airshow_accidents_and_incidents