Polish air show F16

[Pupp]

Seeing reports of a F16 crash at Radom today; condolences to nearest and dearest

https://theaviationist.com/2025/08/28/polish-f-16-...

[J4CKO]

Yeah, just heard this, think he was the guy that stole the show at RIAT.

[Simpo Two]

Pupp said:

Seeing reports of a F16 crash at Radom today; condolences to nearest and dearest

https://theaviationist.com/2025/08/28/polish-f-16-...

I would look but it would 3 hours to switch off all the cookies!

[bobthemonkey]

J4CKO said:

Yeah, just heard this, think he was the guy that stole the show at RIAT.

I have unfortunately seen this seemingly confirmed on PPrune, along with video of the crash which is freely circulating, so for those who understandably don’t want to see that, be careful what you search for.

[aeropilot]

J4CKO said:

Yeah, just heard this, think he was the guy that stole the show at RIAT.

Didn't he get a wrist slap for his Sat show at RIAT...?

[aeropilot]

bobthemonkey said:

along with video of the crash which is freely circulating, so for those who understandably don’t want to see that, be careful what you search for.

Facebook is full of the many video's without even having to search for them....!!

Yet another failure to pull out of a vertical loop......full reheat all the way through right up to impact, so he clearly thought he was higher than he actually was and nothing was going wrong.

[zsdom]

aeropilot said:

he clearly thought he was higher than he actually was and nothing was going wrong.

Why post like that, what does it achieve? The wreckage isnt even cold yet & you’re posting wild speculation like you know the pilots exact thought processes during the manoeuvre

[J4CKO]

aeropilot said:

J4CKO said:

Yeah, just heard this, think he was the guy that stole the show at RIAT.

Didn't he get a wrist slap for his Sat show at RIAT...?

I heard that and it sounds plausible given he breached regulations, but not sure what the official line is.

[JoshSm]

zsdom said:

aeropilot said:

he clearly thought he was higher than he actually was and nothing was going wrong.

Why post like that, what does it achieve? The wreckage isnt even cold yet & you’re posting wild speculation like you know the pilots exact thought processes during the manoeuvre

I guess some people are more sensitive than others. I know back in the day when I was closer to this stuff no-one working doing displays shied away from discussing these things and drawing conclusions based on their own experience & interpretation.

I've seen the videos and it's doesn't appear to be an obvious technical failure, more a misjudgement. Got too low and didn't notice until too late to recover or eject.

Edited by JoshSm on Thursday 28th August 22:52

[bergclimber34]

Having seen it, looks remarkably similar to Shoreham but in a far safer space, so sad, and in a much more capable plane, I don't think he ejected either.

[aeropilot]

zsdom said:

aeropilot said:

he clearly thought he was higher than he actually was and nothing was going wrong.

Why post like that, what does it achieve? The wreckage isnt even cold yet & you’re posting wild speculation like you know the pilots exact thought processes during the manoeuvre

This is a discussion forum.....where things are you know, err, discussed.

If you don't like what is being discussed you shouldn't open a thread about an aircraft crash to being with, instead of telling people what they can and can't discuss in it. Its not difficult.

[zsdom]

aeropilot said:

This is a discussion forum.....where things are you know, err, discussed.

If you don't like what is being discussed you shouldn't open a thread about an aircraft crash to being with, instead of telling people what they can and can't discuss in it. Its not difficult.

Then discuss what happened, dont make up bullst like I know exactly what the pilot was thinking & points scoring off the death of a pilot because it makes you look important or clever

Sticking to the facts & what is actually known is the not difficult part

[JoshSm]

zsdom said:

Then discuss what happened, dont make up bullst like I know exactly what the pilot was thinking & points scoring off the death of a pilot because it makes you look important or clever

Sticking to the facts & what is actually known is the not difficult part

Ok, so on that basis and going back to the quote

aeropilot said:

he clearly thought he was higher than he actually was and nothing was going wrong.

The video shows a maneuver being carried out on a planned profile that ends in impact. It looks a lot like this was purely down to starting it too low, and a spectacular low pass turning into a crash. And no ejection implies someone thought it was OK until it either wasn't or at least until it was very late.

We already know this particular display pilot had a tendency to push the margins which makes for a good display but isn't necessarily a great idea.

On the basis that people usually don't crash on purpose or ride an unrecoverable aircraft into the ground it's not unfair to say that it looks like the pilot thought he was OK, and had the height to pull it off, and was unaware of the error at least until it was far too late to do anything.


Is it a bit cold talking about it like that? Maybe. Then again at least it was on an empty airfield, inside the perimeter, and hadn't encroached over the crowd line. Careless fkups can have consequences and they frequently follow a similar pattern.

[48k]

zsdom said:

aeropilot said:

This is a discussion forum.....where things are you know, err, discussed.

If you don't like what is being discussed you shouldn't open a thread about an aircraft crash to being with, instead of telling people what they can and can't discuss in it. Its not difficult.

Then discuss what happened, dont make up bullst like I know exactly what the pilot was thinking & points scoring off the death of a pilot because it makes you look important or clever

Sticking to the facts & what is actually known is the not difficult part

That's not how discussion of air crashes occurs. In the immediate aftermarth there are few facts so it is natural part of discussion for speculation to occur, which gets refined as more facts come out.

[zsdom]

Exactly, so it could be down to is better & clearer than ‘clearly the pilot thought’, there was only one person in the cockpit, nobody knows what his thought process was, he could have suffered GLOC, an aircraft malfunction etc etc

There’s no point talking like you know what you’re talking about when you dont (not at you 48k)

I’m just glad this didnt happen on a public show day

[48k]

zsdom said:

Exactly, so it could be down to is better & clearer than ‘clearly the pilot thought’, there was only one person in the cockpit, nobody knows what his thought process was, he could have suffered GLOC, an aircraft malfunction etc etc

There’s no point talking like you know what you’re talking about when you dont (not at you 48k)

I’m just glad this didnt happen on a public show day

Fair points

[Eric Mc]

I really hate it when people try to state the parameters of any discussion.

As has been said, this is a discussion forum and the speculation can be as wide as you like. At least this topic is in the forum where people are knowledgeable about such matters.

Just look how silly the Air India accident discussion got because it was in the general "news" forum.

As for this accident - it looks like so many that have happened in the past.

[J4CKO]

There is a measure of respect for these guys who put their lives on the line to put on a good display.

But, just over a month ago at RIAT the same pilot pushed a bit too hard as well,

"During his display, he performed a maneuver that brought him over the crowd line, which is a safety breach at airshows"

In isolation it wasnt a problem, and in this incident only he paid the price, at RIAT it wasnt a problem as there was no crash but couple them together with 100,000 or so folk milling about and watching it has shades of a possible Sknyliv (2002 crash in the Ukraine that killed 77 people and injured hundreds more)

Its fine line between a ballsy display and being a hero and ploughing 10 plus tons to F16 with a couple of tons of JP-8 into a crowd. Same thing could have happened on the actual arishow day, a couple of degrees off the centreline and its into the crowd.

Looks like he made two errors at airshows within a month or so, this is tragic but it could have been a lot, lot (no pun intended) worse. May have been something else that caused it but it does make you wonder.

[Starfighter]

Pilots have in the past ridden the distressed aircraft in to the ground due to the location a final hope to minimise casualties. I understand that the RAF have or had a rule relating to ejections over London for this reason. Equally other pilots have punched out a perfectly recoverable aircraft.

The video I have seen looks similar to the US display crash of the Thunderbird in 2003. I recall that being a miscalculation of the altitude on entering the dive.

[bergclimber34]

In reality then, surely someone in authority with our armed forces or Fairford safety people should have had a strong word, maybe they did.

And or reported back to the necessary people linked to his airforce and squadron and asked them to have a strong word.

We have had enough incident worldwide recently to not need more, these events are restricted enough as it is

I recall when the Russians used to come over they were renowned for being a little ignorant of what they were told at times, seemingly mainly interested in how much money they could make while here!