Spit and Hurricane collision

[Keith Webb]

No-one hurt.



Happened at an airshow in Galveston, Texas.

A rainy and windy morning cleared up in time for the flying to start for the Saturday show but late in the afternoon a runway accident involving the two-seat Spitfire and the Hurricane brought some sadness to the event. Both pilots were okay after the incident but the aircraft involved will require some major work to get them back into flying condition. The details are still coming in but basically the Spitfire ended up nose down and limping after colliding with the Hurricane that landed just before it

Source

[Mike Kelly]

Hi Keith

This sort of thing seems to be a regular event at airshows. Warbirds pranging, crashing . It is almost a regular thing on the Tv evening news .

I recall the Fairy Firefly prang at Duxford . The ME109 runway overun in the UK.The Wirraway flipping over on landing and killing its crew up at Nowra. The P38 runway fireball a few years ago. The two P51's landing colliding last year I think. There are so many more . . . on it goes .

[gjamo]

I know its hard to look at a warbird crash, but I would rather see that than see them all in cotton wool on static display.
I guess its a hard decision for owners to use them and risk damage or just let them gather dust and not let this generation experience the thrill.

[Jon Skagfeld]

Keith: Thanks for the posting. The two seater Spit is a pretty rare bird. From the sound of the brief writeup, seems like the Spit driver was at fault.

Mike: We here in Canada had a Fairy Firefly prang during an annual airshow event at the Canadian National Exhibition on the waterefront at Toronto. The pilot was a well known aviator and local business man.

Was the Bf 109 which you mentioned...Black 6? IIRC, the last Gustav model flying. I think it was ex Spanish AF and was in Battle of Britain film.

Another P51D fatal happened with Jeff Ethell during a North American airshow.

[Mike Kelly]

Hi Jon


The ME109 I spotted on the TV was at a airshow in the UK. The pilot just couldn't get it down on the runway .. it glided along the strip and it eventually crashed through a fence . They said it was the only flying example with the original daimler-benz engine fitted .. would have been 10 years ago . The pilot wasn't hurt from memory .

Didn't a restored Lysander prang somewhere ?

A friend of mine witnessed the millionaire Busch crash his P51 , in early 1970's , here in Victoria . He was killed in it .The P51 I saw flying at Moorabbin air show in 1970 VH-IVI ,later crashed .They had the BRAIN AND BROWN Anson flying there too, it had a replacement main wing spar and non-original engines fitted. We also witnessed a near fatal parachute jump there , the main chute tangled and we all watched in horror as he just managed to deploy the reserve in time .

Mike

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

The P51 I saw flying at Moorabbin air show in 1970 VH-IVI ,later crashed .They had the BRAIN AND BROWN Anson flying there too, it had a replacement main wing spar and non-original engines fitted. We also witnessed a near fatal parachute jump there , the main chute tangled and we all watched in horror as he just managed to deploy the reserve in time .

Mike

I was there too - somewhere I have some pics of the Mustang and Anson - I recall they had towed the Firefly over to the flight line and we were hoping they would start it - apparently it was able to be ground run then before the engine was sold, but it remained mute. The Firefly was flown into the museum in the late 60s from memory. I don't remember the parachutists though.