Sad day at Duxford

[Tonyo - legion]

I went to the Flying Legends Display at Duxford on Saturday & thoroughly enjoyed the air display there. Included this year was a mock combat between a Fokker Dr1 & a Nieuport 17 BOTH with proper Rotary engines. all went well that day, however - on the Sunday (which i didnt go to) as the Fokker Dr I was coming in to land after its display, it was seen to bounce high then land on its wing which caused it to pitch up onto its nose. fortunately the pilot was unhurt. The first pics are of the aircraft in the hangar on the Saturday after the air show, the last is the crash on the Sunday (See pics below..). i dont know the extent of the damage to the machine, but as you can see from the photos enclosed, it was a real work of art

 

 

After that, there was a slight mid-air collision where the AH1 Skyraider was seen to hit a p51 mustang, although the skyraider landed safely ( albeit with a few feet of starboard wing missing) the p51 wasnt so lucky, The pilot managed to bale out & the aircraft crashed into a field next to duxford aerodrome. again fortunately both pilots were ok...

[+Olham]

As the prop looks okay and unbroken in the last pic, I would guess, that the rotary remained undamaged too.

 

The other accident is a great shame - I wonder how such it could have happened ?

Was it very windy? Did they fly too risky?

Loosing a complete WW2 fighter like the Mustang is a real pity.

[MikeDixonUK]

I was at Duxford on Sunday and saw the Fokker Dr.1 on its nose (it ended up pretty much in front of me) but I didn't see its transition from landing to nose down on account that there was a Corsair or some such parked in the way.

 

From my un-trained eye the only visible damage was to the leading edge of the upper starboard wing - I took some pictures of it, and of it after they righted it and pushed it to the flight line, so I'll post them later.

 

I only saw a brief glimpse of the P-51/A-1 mid-air, just these two Aircraft peeling away from eachother with two bits of wing/tail fluttering to the ground - after that they dropped behind the crowd/parked a/c - at our end of the Airfield it sounded as if he managed to bail out but was probably too low, thankfully they were wrong about the last part!

 

It wasn't very windy - the crash happened right at the end of the airshow, just after most of the Aircraft took off and did a mass flyby, then they split off into groups of three and four for a final fly by - after which they individually peel off to go in for landing, the mid-air happened while the group with 2 P-51s and the A-1 were peeling off to land, I think the A-1 may have turned too sharply and hit the tail of the P-51.

 

The commentators either didn't notice anything or are the best actors in the world, as they just carried on as usual - then about 10 mins later one of them came on (and sounded heartbroken) to tell us that there was a crash but the Pilots were ok.

 

Incidentally, the Fokker Dr.1 and Dr.1 vs Nieuport 17 segments were my highlights of the airshow, the way they twist around in the sky is something else! And I never knew they had any WW1 stuff there before we got there, so it was an added bonus.

Edited July 11, 2011 by MikeDixonUK

[+MigBuster]

oh - just seen this - the BBC have a report and video http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14110542

[MikeDixonUK]

Here are my photos of the Fokker incident (which is probably what you're most interested in):

 

This one was taken just before he nosed over - you can see the Corsair to the right, which is why I didn't see it actually happen:

 

 

No doubt we've all done this 1000 times before in OFF!:

 

 

Here and in the following pictures you can see that the port wheel has burst or some such, which might have been the reason for the crash - but I leave that to the more learned members of the community to investigate!

 

 

 

Here's a picture of it after they pushed it back to the Flight Line:

 

 

And a close up of the wing damage:

 

 

OFF Field Reporter signing off!

 

 

(Also, here's a blury picture of the A-1 and two P-51s in formation just before they crashed, the P-51 in the middle is the one that crashed I think:)

 

 

I'll post less dangerous looking pictures later.

Edited July 11, 2011 by MikeDixonUK

[Shiloh]

You were "Johnny on the spot" with that camera there Mike - nice work!

[+Hasse Wind]

Great pics, thanks for sharing them.

[UK_Widowmaker]

There won't be any warbirds left flying at this rate!

[Shiloh]

That's a good point Widow. I do get that people want to see these planes fly which is great but why do they have to fly them so close together where you risk collisions such as these?

[tranquillo]

The damage doen't look too bad on the Fokker - just a bit of the leading edge and the last 3 ribs. The "saw tooth" sheeting on the front/top of the wing probably helped lessen the damage.

[+Polovski]

Terrible as the crashes were it's great that you were there to record it Mike - mind you they might request you don't attend next year !

[MikeDixonUK]

Well, I made sure to take lots of photos so that I can write a detailed combat claim form about downing the Fokker, now I just need to find some witnesses.

[MikeDixonUK]

Here's a good quality video of the mid air collision and the resulting crash/recovery:

 

http://vimeo.com/26291756

 

Both lucky to be alive!

[UK_Widowmaker]

certainly a fitting end to the old girl...crashing into the ground, whilst her pilot bails in the 'traditional' way!...belongs to a different era! :(

[+Polovski]

Lol Mike, well it's pending at the moment apparently someone in a Nieuport claimed it.

[carrick58]

Gotta Cry over the P 51 Loss,but at lease the People are OK. Great Reporting on the Crash and pics . Great to feel in the Loop about things Instead of feeling out of the loop whenever my wife is helping .

Edited July 13, 2011 by carrick58