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Author Topic: KOSH accident during AirVenture fly-in  (Read 13305 times)

Offline davolijj

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KOSH accident during AirVenture fly-in
« on: July 31, 2006, 10:49:04 PM »
There was an accident at OSH during the AirVenture fly-in recently in which a Europa XS apparently stalled during it's final approach.  The NTSB report can be found here:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20060727X01025&key=1

From what I can peice together the "white low-wing" aircraft had been sequenced to Runway 27 behind a yellow/white Cessna, and a yellow/red Cessna was going to be following the accident aircraft.

At 1:33 into the clip you can hear the reaction of several of the controllers in the tower when the aircraft crashed.  The female controller working 36L/R was also affected.  What struck me about this incident was the professionalism, ingenuity, and composure of the controllers who had just witnessed a very traumatic event.  They rerouted and resequenced everyone in the air (which was a significant number of airplanes by the way) to get them all down safely while coordinating rescue efforts on the ground.  I cut out much of the clip in the interest of brevity, but if you're interested in what happened afterward, the archives are available for July 23 at 1330Z.

Here is a picture of an aircraft of the same type as the one involved:
« Last Edit: July 31, 2006, 10:54:38 PM by davolijj »



Offline dave

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Re: KOSH accident during AirVenture fly-in
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2006, 11:46:28 PM »
Thanks Jim.

I am sorry that the archives are in a state of disrepair right now - they are all gone until the new server comes online, which will hopefully be by this weekend.

Dave

Offline KSYR-pjr

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Re: KOSH accident during AirVenture fly-in
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2006, 10:07:45 AM »
Someone reposted this excellent 2001 Avweb article to the piloting newsgroup that comments on a similar accident from that year's Oshkosh Air Venture and critiques several pilots' mistakes:

http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/182691-1.html

A snippet from this article:

Quote from: AvWeb Article
After getting back from Oshkosh I unpacked the airplane, put it away and walked into the pilot's lounge here at the virtual airport to see what had happened while I was gone. One of the guys in the big chairs asked me how Oshkosh was. (Few at the airport can bring themselves to say "AirVenture." They also rarely order Brie or double hazelnut lattes but they fly frequently and spend lots of money on airplane stuff.) I said that it was pretty good this year, attendance had continued to drop since the show was renamed, the displays and vendors were outstanding, the akro great, the PA announcers terrible, only one senior CAP member was overtly rude to my daughter and me, the CAP Cadets were all very polite, the flight line people did their usual excellent job under tough conditions and, overall, I was glad I attended.

I didn't say any more, because I was deeply troubled by the death of a friend of mine, Ben Moyle, just west of Wittman Field. He was in the last part of the RIPON arrival, not far from turning final for Runway 9. I did not see the accident. I happened to be at my airplane in the camping area, heard the sirens and saw the pillar of black smoke that I fervently hoped was not from an airplane.


Offline Biff

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Re: KOSH accident during AirVenture fly-in
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2006, 12:19:04 PM »
This was an exceptionally bad year for Airventure.  I read that there hadn't been any fatal accidents on the field for 15 years or something.  We had 2 accidents with 3 fatalities this year.  In addition to the Europa, a TBM ran over an RV on the taxiway Sunday, chewing up the RV and killing the passenger.  I was nearby when this accident occurred, but didn't see it.  I was listening to the tower on my handheld however, and heard the controller yelling at the TBM to STOP NOW!  It got pretty quiet on the freq for a minute or two after that.  They closed 27 but the controller made no mention of an accident, just saying that they had to take care of a 'situation' before they could re-open the runway.

There are accidents every year off the field, including this F-86 that ran off the runway during an aborted takeoff on his way to Oshkosh.

:(

Offline KSYR-pjr

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Re: KOSH accident during AirVenture fly-in
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2006, 04:31:08 PM »
This was an exceptionally bad year for Airventure.  I read that there hadn't been any fatal accidents on the field for 15 years or something.

Hmmm... I had also heard that claim of no fatal accidents on field, but to me this is a bit of a play on words and it seems a convenient way of deflecting the real statistics and sanitising the reputation of the fly-in.   

In the strictest sense this claim might be true, but given the nature of how aircraft approach and depart airports, a stall/spin accident like the fatal one in 2001 (posted in the article above) that occurred 1/2 mile from the airport while the aircraft was on short final to land happened as a direct result of an aircraft approaching OSH to land for Air Venture. 

IMO, that 2001 fatal accident should be counted as a fatal accident in AirVenture's history, regardless of the fact that the wreckage fell to the ground just outside the airport's fence line.

If you consider all of the fatal accidents related to OSH without regards to where the wreckage landed across the US, this year wasn't any different than the last few, with the exception of that absolutely avoidable and tragic warbird taxi accident this year.

Incidentally, Aero-news reported that the person killed in the experimental that was run over by the warbird was the president of the Ottawa chapter of EAA