Just got back from the market. On the way there I drove by the small airport next to it and noticed firetrucks and ambulances. Through the tall cattails I saw an airplane on its back. Looked like a black Stearman. I thought it might be an exercise, but why would they do it rignt on the runway instead of a field or something? And why use a (supposed) Stearman instead of something cheaper and more typical?
'E’s resting.
Pining for the fjords?
It’s an ex-airplane.
Didn’t look lke this did it?
No, it had a black fuselage and a radial engine. Looks as if it nosed over and flipped on landing.
Not yours, ours!
so, johnny, did you stop? Anything on tv?
I know you’re a pilot. Does seeing stuff like that make you nervous?
A friend (now dead) was a crop duster pilot and I remember him saying those Stearmans were easy to crash. He did crash a few times before his final job.
He did fly drunk or hung over a lot.
So, johnny boy, tell us more.
Peace,
mamgeorge
We don’t have a TV station up here. The affiliates are in Seattle. I did search Google News, but nothing turned up. I didn’t stop. I mean, it’s an airplane on its back. Not much to see. (OTOH I’ve recently ordered a textbook on crash scene investigation.)
Not in the least. I’m preparing to renew my Medical, get some fixed-wing training (helicopters being so expensive), get my Biennial Flight Review, and get back in the saddle.
Not smart. ‘Eight hours between bottle and throttle.’ Twelve’s better.
I’ll post the story when I get it (assuming someone else doesn’t beat me to it).
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.]
I did search Google News, but nothing turned up. I didn’t stop.
QUOTE]
I did the same. Interestingly I came up w/ a hit on a crash near Boeing Field that happened in 1949. Are there that few plane crashes in the Seattle area? :dubious:
Airplane on its back, isn’t that the famous ground loop maneuver? 
A ground loop occurs when the aircraft rotates around its vertical axis, sometimes dragging a wing on the ground. If it’s going fast enough, and/or if the rotation is fast enough, the aircraft may cartwheel. This aircraft was conventionally geared, and it looked to me as if he drug the nose on landing. It wasn’t a windy day. Maybe he hit the brakes too hard? I don’t know.
The incident was at Blaine Airport.
Well, you learn something new every day. I though it was called a ground loop when a plane went nose over and ended up on it’s back.
I saw a plane crash one time. F-86 misjudged (I suspect) the thickness of our air on a 100 degree day at 5670 feet. For a second we thought it was another of those gasoline bombs that airshow people rig to make pretend bombing runs… The Sabre, however, never came out the other side.
Those gas bombs may not replicate a real bombing run, but they are pretty close to a crash.
That’s my only plane crash story (thank Og)
I’ve seen two. I posted about them in another thread:
That looked very similar to the one I saw, except the one in Broomfield dipped below a rise (JeffCo Airport is on the top). The guy looked like he had things under control until you noticed how fast the ground was coming at him.
Makes me sad when someone puts that much time, effort, and money into restoring a warbird, but it’s almost as sad that there is one less piece of history flying.
Tell me about it. Today I happened upon footage of a Spitfire in a firey airshow crash.
I was at the Stead air races back in the mid 80’s when one of the participants got a little too low on a turn. His wing caugt the ground and the plane cartwheeled several times. Amazingly the pilot walked away. When one of the rescue vehicles reached him, he angily waved it away and kept walking through the desert. He reconsidered a few seconds later and climbed aboard.
There really aren’t. In the 45+ years I’ve lived within ten miles of Sea-Tac Airport and Boeing Field, I can only recall a few major ones. There might be a couple of handfuls of accidents similar to what Johnny L.A. described that I am not aware of though.
One accident at Sea-Tac, my Dad witnessed. Before they started building the third runway, there used to be an overlook that he liked to park at and watch the planes coming and going. One day he saw a plane take off that belonged to a freight company. I forget what type it was but it was along the lines of a 737, so good-sized. He watched it go up to about 800 feet and then, suddenly, it just dropped like a rock to the tarmac. Only the pilot was on board. He sustained some very nasty spinal injuries but the firefighters were able to control the resultant fire and get him out quickly. Seven or eight years later, I still wonder at times how that pilot is getting along.
A bizarre small plane accident happened at Boeing Field in 1998. The pilot was on approach when a sudden wind gust blew him into some power lines. One of them caught one of his wheels and the pilot spent the next three hours hanging upside-down in his harness until he could be rescued. Here’s an article about his misadventure. (Just noticed the in one part of the page, the plane was referred to as a Cessna and in another part, a Beechcraft Bonanza. I believe it was the Bonanza.)
Johnny, any word on if anyone was injured in the Stearman accident?
Oops. Just noticed in one of the photos that it says Cessna on the plane’s fuselage. I have dial-up so it takes time for things to fully load.
I remember that, I used to be in the Seattle area a couple of times a month and I think I was up there that day. Strange accident and a lucky pilot.