| G222
Accident at RIAT 2002 |
| The pilot of this
Italian Air Force G222 transport plane certainly put on a
magnificent display, but it all came unstuck at the end.
After doing a very steep "Sarajevo" landing approach, which I've seen at
other airshows, he levelled out, but landed hard... |
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| The impact pushed
the plane back into the air. A little embarassing, but all
would still have been well if he'd kept the plane level. Instead,
it came in nose first, and the nosewheel hit the runway well before the
main gear. I was so shocked by what I knew was a very bad situation
that I didn't get a photo of him pitching downwards. |
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| I guess most of
the audience still wasn't aware that something was seriously out of the
ordinary, but from my position up in the press stand it was very obvious
that the nosewheel was badly damaged. Still, for a couple of
seconds it seemed as if no further problems were in store. |
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| But then the nosegear
finally gave up, jamming the tires between the fuselage and the runway.
Dragging along the tarmac, smoke started pouring out from the tires, alerting
everyone that things had gone wrong. The Italian press contingent
standing next to me started shouting "fotografo, fotografo!", but it was
too late - their photographer was inside the press tent getting a cup of
coffee! |
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| Smoke continued
to pour out as the plane skidded down the runway, its propellers still
spinning with some speed. Perhaps it's evidence of the pilot's
skill that the aircraft continued straight down the centre line, instead
of veering off to either side. |
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| Finally the heat
from the friction of the tires along the runway got so high that the rubber
burst into flames, which ironically resulted in less smoke.
If you look carefully, you'll see a strip of rubber from the tires bouncing
along the runway behind the plane! |
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| Although the flames
were spectacular, it was becoming clearer that this was no major catastrophe,
but just another of the military accidents which happen on a regular basis
but make little or no impact in the news media. However since
this was a very public accident, and since accidents at airshows bring
out some of the sensationalism which is part and parcel of the media, the
BBC ran a short
article on the accident, though perhaps one more low-key than the American
news media or the British tabloids would have done! |
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| At last the plane
came to a halt, the pilots wasted no time in getting out, and the emergency
services rushed out to get things under control. That's one
of the pilots on the left hand-side of this photo, perhaps wondering how
many years his salary would be docked before he would finally finish paying
for the damage! |
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| I was pretty excited
by this whole turn of events once I got over the initial shock and when
it had become clear that this wasn't a catastrophic accident.
It took 10 or 15
minutes before I realized the flip side of the accident; the runway was
now blocked, meaning that the show was severely restricted. A few
planes from other locations flew by, the helicopters and harriers could
still do their thing, and a few aircraft like the Hawk display team took
off and landed even with the G222 still immobile on the runway.
However, for the
next five or so hours the show didn't go on, which of course was pretty
disappointing. |
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