Air show crash

[rwguinn]

Here's a second video from the scene, showing the (lack of) emergency response after the incident. Initially some people go out to the plane, presumably to help, but then the plane catches fire and they are compelled to move away. They do appear to be frustrated that there aren't any firefighting vehicles around.



Evidently, fire trucks are not required to be staged at air show events. I have seen them at some air shows, but it must not be a particularly stringent requirement - or perhaps the airport having permanent emergency services based somewhere on the field is good enough to fill the requirement and they don't have to be right on the flight line.

For what it's worth, I'm told that Andreini's Stearman was modified, and one of the modifications was an enclosed cockpit. The way it landed, I would say the canopy was almost certainly jammed shut.

Canopy damage would have been minimal--hell, the engine was still running and the prop turning!
I would call it highly survivable!

 

[Checkmite]

As I understand the story this was his third try to cut the ribbon. He was likely getting frustrated.

According to the expanded-but-still-preliminary accident report, it was his second attempt to cut the ribbon; the first having been too high, he tried to go lower the second time.

There's no mention of any non-accident-caused mechanical problems like broken control rods. I guess...we default to CFIT?