Have you ever witnessed a plane crash?
 

After seeing the recent crash in Toronto on the news I had a flashback to when I was a kid and saw a terrible crash at the 1993 El Toro Air Show .. the pilot hit the ground a few hundred yards from where I was sitting, the instant fire ball was as intense as this last one. It was actually terrifying, and even worse, we all knew that a man had just died in front of our eyes.. it was pretty shocking experience, especially since the show went on, even at the cost of a man's life! Air Shows are crazy shit, and plane crashes are even crazier shit! Have you ever seen one in person before? What were your thoughts and reactions?

 

Captain Brian Bews parachutes to the ground as his CF-18 crashes and burns in the background before an Albertan air show.

Photograph by: Kurt's Kustom Photography, Postmedia News




OTTAWA — The CF-18 Hornet demonstration team has cancelled all of its scheduled appearances at upcoming air shows across North America, including Abbotsford, after its sole demo pilot narrowly escaped death last week when his jet crashed and burned in Alberta.
The Canadian Forces team will no longer preform six shows in Canada and two in the United States, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) announced Friday.
"It is unfortunate we will not be able to finish the season," acting commander Brig.-Gen. Richard Foster said in a statement. "But we simply cannot and will not rush the preparation of another demo pilot."
Capt. Brian Bews, a pilot based at 3 Wing Bagotville, Que., suffered compression fractures in three vertebrae after ejecting from the CF-18 Hornet before it crashed July 23 during a training run for the Alberta International Airshow in Lethbridge.
He is still recovering from the injuries and is not expected to fly for several months, NORAD spokeswoman Cpt. Holly Brown said. An investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing.


Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/tea...#ixzz0wyoHhOgO

Oh my god that's horrible!
I'm scared enough of flying anyway - I think if I had seen a plane crash I would never get on another one in my live

Only metaphorically.

well, there was a major one about ten minutes from here a while ago, over 250 deaths.

I started having dreams since then, dreams of planes flying towards buildings or falling but never actually crashing.

someone related to me died in famous plane crash.

I'm not afraid of flying at all, I love it. I wanted to be an a flight attendant seriously for a long time, but I didn't grow enough, now I'm too old.

My best friend flies helicopters.

Woah, you're courageous ! If someone related to me died in a plane crash, I probably would be shit scared of taking the plane... But I've never been in a plane so I don't know how it feels like.

I know I have way more chances of being hit by a car or getting into a car accident (which I was, by the way), flying is the safest way to travel, and I just love to fly.

Also, death in plane crashes tends to be quick and pain free.

When a few years ago a plane fell in the middle of a big busy road in the city, then slid around the road hitting a building which ended up exploding in front of everyone's eyes... People from the plane died, people driving their cars, pedestrians, people going home from work in their buses, people working in the buildings... That was really really horrible, I could see a big cloud of smoke from my window.

those can be of the worst kind..

ink's terrorized by the thought. it was a complete act of mental strength for her to get on the plane with me to fly to the US.

I love to fly, and it's safer than the drive to LAX, but this thread isn't bound to help!

never in person, of course we all saw on this TV




flying is statistically safe but still unpleasant-- crammed like cattle in coach, anal probes at the security check, walking on everyone's foot fungus spores (disgusting), 3 hours sitting on the runway--

what i fear the most is sitting next to a really voluminous person who should have paid for 2 tickets and "expands" into one's seat-- last time it was this big woman that kept taking up more & more space-- my elbows were deep in fatback-- i fucking hate that.

I also thought about this moment when I posted this thread.. on 9/11 my moms came in my room waking my up for school saying in what I had interpreted at the moment as a sarcastic tone, that "America is under attack. Get up quick!" (I thought she was being facetious because I was a blatantly out-spoken anarchist at the time)

so I scratched my ass and got up and just as i turned on the TV expecting to see GoodDay LA and annoying Jillian Barberie give me the predictable sunny, LA hot hot fall weather, I saw the second plane crash live into the tower.. that was quite a moment. I was like, "holy fucking shit!" I couldn't believe my eyes, I simply thought it was not real.. and then, still trying to grasp at what I just saw, the first smoldering tower suddenly collapsed.....

that was quite a morning I tell you. I walked to school (well towards school, I never intended to go rather I was going to ditch and go to my friends house on the street behind the school) so terrified of everything, I thought the police and army would hit the streets with tanks and roadblocks at any moment, I thought I was gonna get gaffled up in the confusion.

The El Toro Crash is equally vivid but for different reasons, I remember seeing the plane fly up and do a flip, and as it was coming back down we ALL knew it was diving a bit fast and low, but none of us expected the horrific, fiery crash the happened... that fire-ball, the smoke ploom, the smells and heat...

Considering the show went on, even at the cost of a man's life, that was one of the first days I ever remember being ashamed of being an American, because Americans were more down to watch planes fly over-head showing force, dropping bombs to show off their balls and lack of brains, when a man had just died for Christ's sake! Over our entertainment? fucking shit, the disillusionment still stings like a knife..

"the show must go on" is not an american thing by any means

bullfights don't stop when the bullfighter gets gored

besides, how do you know the pilots themselves didn't choose to continue if anything to honor their dead friend

pilots love flying and know the risks

all bravado and machismo aside, even as a 9 year old boy that shit struck me as in poor taste :(

oh, that's the other thing-- death can strike terror in a 9 year old but after you see enough deaths you're like "whatever, next"

once i read in an alan watts book that there was this group of chinese people in an airplane (some war or something) and that they gambled at cards-- the loser had to jump out of a plane.

death is by no means something i see as desirable, and i wouldn't gamble my life in a card game (it's just retarded, or one had to be bored to an incomprehensible degree), but however unpleasant, the death of an individual is not a big deal when you consider everyone dies anyway-- in the case of your pilot, he could have slipped in the shower & crack his skull or he could have died alone in some horrible nursing home. at least he died doing what he loved.

i do understand your shock during childhood though. finding death at the circus can be a brutal awakening.

Flying in a 707 or bigger is cool but them dam puddle jumpers (100 seats or less) suck. The seats aren't big enough for 2 people 150 lbs in weight to sit side by side in comfort. As far as scared nope when it's my time it's my time.
I was at work on 9/11 and got pulled into my friend's cubicle to watch in astonishment.

you're back already?

I've been at the aftermath of several. Being the live van guy in a city with a lot of private pilots and a lot of small plane flying in general, I'm gonna say I've been at three. No fatalities or even serious injuries in any of 'em.

One of 'em happened right behind a ball field, our camera guy was shooting the game and caught pretty much the whole thing until it actually landed behind the bleachers. (Guy forgot to switch fuel tanks--how dumb is that?)

Of all the images I saw on TV that day, the one that sticks in my mind is of a man in a business suit in mid-jump from one of the burning towers. He was gripping his briefcase in one hand. Dear God,...beyond horrible.

So do you guys think 9/11 was as they say it was... terrorists and all that jazz? I can't say I do.

Maybe it depends what you call terrorist.

You know, in reality I am truly still that 9 year old boy finding death at the circus every day I see it, it continues to shock me that everyone else around me not outraged. Just like I couldn't figure out why the show had to go on at the Air Show in El Toro, to this day I look at the world everyday and can't help but be astonished that the entire world doesn't just break down with a melting heart at the way things are...

I see things around town all the time and I am just taken aback at how everyone around me just misses it, ignores it, scoffs at it, its like, "shit, did they see that? Am I tripping?"

Its like the folks said the night Cortes marched on Tenochtitlan, "..Its like we all took stupefying mushrooms.."