Duxford Mustang Crash, July 2011
Discussion
Right, obligatory apology, I HAVE used the search facility, but it appears to be having a moment, so here goes......
.....Clearing out the memory of my old mobile phone, I found some images of a piece of the crashed Mustang I came across when directed away from the crash site by the Police. hopefully they may be of some interest to the assembled throng?
To remind everyone, it was the crash in which the Mustang lost flight control when it {struck/was struck by} the Stbd wing of the Skyraider toward the end of the days flying display. Pilot safely took to the silk, and the Skyraider made it back to the runway.
I was out cycling that day, and decided that, being as how I was passing, I'd stop on Grange Road and enjoy a little of the flying display. When it was all over, I made my way West toward Chrishall Grange and my way home. Police were turning back cars, due to the road being blocked by Emergency Vehicles, but there appeared to be sufficient space to allow a few cyclists to walk their bikes through under supervision. We were directed across a neighbouring field, which was not a public right of way, by an Police motorcyclist, who agreed with us that directing us onto the busy A505 was not ideal, but he wasn't being allowed any flexibility by the incident commander. About half way along the track across that field we came upon the canopy, which had landed upright, exactly as you see in the images above. There was more debris between us and the end of the runway, mostly from the Skyraider, I think.
There were three or four of us cyclists there, and I stayed with the debris along with a German chap, until the fire crews arrived on foot, tracing the debris field and marking the bits that had fallen from the aircraft. The bizarre part of it all was that, by directing us across the debris field, the police had risked someone moving, or even removing for a souvenir, some of the damaged parts. It would have been better to take us along the road, where vehicles and personnel had ensured that no debris was present. I thought I would share the images somewhere, as they have never been seen 'in public' before, and thought y'all might be interested.
Some more images as a reminder of the incident below......
There was video of the crash which made the local news at the time, and a few 'funny' folk on the WWW had a bit of a laugh at the expense of the incident, which, seeing as there were no serious injuries, was quite amusing. Thus:
Sorry again if this recovers old ground, but MY images only came to light recently, and I thought at least some people might be interested.
.....Clearing out the memory of my old mobile phone, I found some images of a piece of the crashed Mustang I came across when directed away from the crash site by the Police. hopefully they may be of some interest to the assembled throng?
To remind everyone, it was the crash in which the Mustang lost flight control when it {struck/was struck by} the Stbd wing of the Skyraider toward the end of the days flying display. Pilot safely took to the silk, and the Skyraider made it back to the runway.
I was out cycling that day, and decided that, being as how I was passing, I'd stop on Grange Road and enjoy a little of the flying display. When it was all over, I made my way West toward Chrishall Grange and my way home. Police were turning back cars, due to the road being blocked by Emergency Vehicles, but there appeared to be sufficient space to allow a few cyclists to walk their bikes through under supervision. We were directed across a neighbouring field, which was not a public right of way, by an Police motorcyclist, who agreed with us that directing us onto the busy A505 was not ideal, but he wasn't being allowed any flexibility by the incident commander. About half way along the track across that field we came upon the canopy, which had landed upright, exactly as you see in the images above. There was more debris between us and the end of the runway, mostly from the Skyraider, I think.
There were three or four of us cyclists there, and I stayed with the debris along with a German chap, until the fire crews arrived on foot, tracing the debris field and marking the bits that had fallen from the aircraft. The bizarre part of it all was that, by directing us across the debris field, the police had risked someone moving, or even removing for a souvenir, some of the damaged parts. It would have been better to take us along the road, where vehicles and personnel had ensured that no debris was present. I thought I would share the images somewhere, as they have never been seen 'in public' before, and thought y'all might be interested.
Some more images as a reminder of the incident below......
There was video of the crash which made the local news at the time, and a few 'funny' folk on the WWW had a bit of a laugh at the expense of the incident, which, seeing as there were no serious injuries, was quite amusing. Thus:
Sorry again if this recovers old ground, but MY images only came to light recently, and I thought at least some people might be interested.
It was a shame the Mustang went down, as it used to fly over my house in Ashford quite often during the summer. You could hear it coming from a distance and he would regularly come screaming past low over the houses then pull up into a high turn, it was a fantastic sound. IIRC from what a chap told me a while back the pilot has a private collection of several WW2 era planes, and operates from Headcorn aerodrome in Kent (not far from me).
There's certainly several non-BBMF aircraft that I see flying around during the summer, and I swear I sometimes see some kind of Yak flying around - I've never had a good look but its an odd noise it makes and from what little I've seen of it reminds me of a Yak-11 perhaps.
There's certainly several non-BBMF aircraft that I see flying around during the summer, and I swear I sometimes see some kind of Yak flying around - I've never had a good look but its an odd noise it makes and from what little I've seen of it reminds me of a Yak-11 perhaps.
Rob Davies was the pilot, I had a meeting with him last year through work and he talked us all through the crash. After we had been pestering him to for at least 10 minutes beforehand 
What an awesome bloke, said he'd only recently sold the Mustang to a German owner, who had asked him to display it at Flying Legends. Had bought a low-level opening parachute days before the crash and it saved his life as he got out at some incredible height. He then flew back home in another aircraft that evening. Top chap
What an awesome bloke, said he'd only recently sold the Mustang to a German owner, who had asked him to display it at Flying Legends. Had bought a low-level opening parachute days before the crash and it saved his life as he got out at some incredible height. He then flew back home in another aircraft that evening. Top chap
I was at the show and it was a surreal sight. Most people had begun to leave but I always stick to the flight line for as long as possible. I think its safe to say BBD will be missed by a lot of people from the air show scene. These photos might be appreciatedon the key publishing forum. There is also an interesting thread on there by a rep from the company that bought BBD in which he reflects on the loss of the aircraft. They seem like great people and the threat follows much of their work. Its priceless imo.
danjama said:
I was at the show and it was a surreal sight. Most people had begun to leave but I always stick to the flight line for as long as possible. I think its safe to say BBD will be missed by a lot of people from the air show scene. These photos might be appreciatedon the key publishing forum. There is also an interesting thread on there by a rep from the company that bought BBD in which he reflects on the loss of the aircraft. They seem like great people and the threat follows much of their work. Its priceless imo.
Knowing how little of these aircraft they need to restore them, I wouldn't be surprised if we see her in the air again....in one form or another. I was at Flying Legends in 2008/9 when another Mustang had a very heavy landing after the engine stuck on short finals. Horrible when you see an ac and know no matter what happens, it is going to crash. Luckily the pilot was ok and the ac wasn't too badly stuffed Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff