A quick flick through the avaiation forums suggests that whilst the unnamed Frenchman (who will probably be banned from future airshows along with the pilot of the other French Skyraider who nearly met the same fate) certainly hit the P51:
1. It does not rule out the P51 being in the wrong place or otherwise suffering some failure before being hit;
2. Only a fool/optimist/ingénue would use dissimilar planes for a manoeuvre of that sort
3. If they insist on using dissimilar planes then they should have left 5 seconds not two between each plane;
4. They should have started in an echelon not vic formation.
Some of that means nothing to me, but it suggests inexperienced pilots undertaking inappropriate actions.
As for the elderly planes in shows like this being in "tip top" condition... why did the B17 crash land last month? What about the Mosquito in 1986? The South African English Electric Lightning a year or two ago? etc. etc. ad infinitum. If scheduled airlines fell out of the sky with a similar frequency to that of show planes then nobody would fly on them.
|
