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James Gosling witnesses and blogs Reno airshow crash.

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Re: James Gosling witnesses and blogs Reno airshow crash.

#11

Post by mattdeboard »

tansey wrote: post #7

I know this is the internet and everyone (including me) watches every video link to any event, but please seriously consider whether you really want to watch the links people are posting here. Effectively what happens is the plane is being followed by the camera, then when it crashes the camera loses focus for 2s, then refocuses in on a dead body, pans around to a few dead bodies, and zooms out to show you a bunch of…

Interesting to contrast Mr. Gosling's account to this one: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_AIR_SHOW_CRASH?SIT...

A lady ~90ft (or nearly twice the distance from the disaster as Mr. Gosling) from the accident said, "I saw body parts and gore like you wouldn't believe it. I'm talking an arm, a leg," Higgins said "The alive people were missing body parts. I am not kidding you. It was gore. Unbelievable gore."

I'm inclined to believe both of these are true, but I would not be surprised if one of these witnesses, in their understandable shock, had their minds fill in the blanks in their memories, wiped clean by stress. I've been through a firefight or two myself and IMO these life-and-death situations are a mix of crystal clarity and swiss cheese memory. Sometimes the brain puts things there that weren't.

Re: James Gosling witnesses and blogs Reno airshow crash.

#12

Post by culturestate »

Here's the post, since his blog is getting hammered by Reddit right now:

I'm alive Friday September 16, 2011

Just fucking barely. I'm at the air races in Reno with a bunch of friends and a horrific accident just happened. One of the very high end racers, going about 500 mph, lost control and nose dived straight into the audience. The news is currently saying that the plane missed the grandstand, but that's only technically true: in front of the grandstand there are several rows of box seats. It impacted right in the middle of them. I was in a box seat with my friends only 50 feet from the impact. I was watching the plane as it lost control, so I saw the whole thing. The impact happened so fast, there was hardly any sound: just one huge shock wave. No fireball. The plane, and many people, disintegrated instantly, right in front of me. There were bodies everywhere. No crash you've ever seen in a movie is even remotely authentic.

Update: it's already on YouTube. I was in the middle of the dust cloud you see around the impact. They're saying "30 serious injuries" but I know that's a long way from the truth. At least that many died instantly in the impact. I suspect that there were not a huge number of serious injuries. It was not a small airplane. You either died or you didn't. I didn't. My brother and I are still shaking.

Another Update: They're now officially calling it a "mass casualty situation". The plane was Galloping Ghost, piloted by Jimmy Leeward. It was a very cool, highly modified, P51 mustang with a very unusual approach to engine cooling. I doubt that this was at all connected to the accident - it looked like a control system failure.

Re: James Gosling witnesses and blogs Reno airshow crash.

#13

Post by dhughes »

tansey wrote: post #7

I know this is the internet and everyone (including me) watches every video link to any event, but please seriously consider whether you really want to watch the links people are posting here. Effectively what happens is the plane is being followed by the camera, then when it crashes the camera loses focus for 2s, then refocuses in on a dead body, pans around to a few dead bodies, and zooms out to show you a bunch of…

I'm not clicking anything even before your summary of the videos I could imagine what the result was and I have no need to see that.

It's not so much the dead bodies it's the fact it was a sudden tragic event if this was the evening news and they were showing a video of the results of war I think that should be allowed to shock the audience.

Re: James Gosling witnesses and blogs Reno airshow crash.

#15

Post by webXL »

My wife and I had air race tickets for tomorrow and Sunday right in that general area. They were box seats. That (likely) malfunction in Galloping Ghost could have happened when we were there, so we're counting our blessings tonight. But we feel awful for those involved. As stupid as these races seem, everyone loves them here. Part of me hopes they can continue.

Re: James Gosling witnesses and blogs Reno airshow crash.

#16

Post by ENOTTY »

culturestate wrote: post #12

Here's the post, since his blog is getting hammered by Reddit right now: I'm alive Friday September 16, 2011 Just fucking barely. I'm at the air races in Reno with a bunch of friends and a horrific accident just happened. One of the very high end racers, going about 500 mph, lost control and nose dived straight into the audience. The news is currently saying that the plane missed the grandstand, but that's only techn…

Coral cache: http://nighthacks.com.nyud.net/roller/jag/entry/i_m_alive

Re: James Gosling witnesses and blogs Reno airshow crash.

#17

Post by logjam »

condiment wrote: post #8
zck wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a currently-working video; I'm not sure if it's the same one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYaEh9h5aM0 . There's a Wikipedia article about the crash, with a bunch of news links: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/2011_Reno_Air... Another angle, showing the plane climbing high into the sky before turning over and diving: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndd9PVDM3jU Assorted photos of the crash and a…

To give the uninitiated an idea of what happened, whenever a plane at the Reno races experiences a mechanical problem, the pilot points the aircraft vertical and bleeds off all their forward speed. Once they're high enough, they level off and glide to the runway for a landing. For the 'Unlimited' class of race aircraft, this typically occurs once a day during the races. These aircraft are running 3000hp engines, and…

Watching link #3, it look like an accelerated maneuver stall: the left wing appears to drop (which I think would be normal stall/spin behavior for clockwise rotating prop) after the abrupt pull up, the aircraft rolls inverted, and there isn't sufficient altitude to recover.

Re: James Gosling witnesses and blogs Reno airshow crash.

#20

Post by ktsmith »

logjam wrote: post #17
condiment wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To give the uninitiated an idea of what happened, whenever a plane at the Reno races experiences a mechanical problem, the pilot points the aircraft vertical and bleeds off all their forward speed. Once they're high enough, they level off and glide to the runway for a landing. For the 'Unlimited' class of race aircraft, this typically occurs once a day during the races. These aircraft are running 3000hp engines, and…

Watching link #3, it look like an accelerated maneuver stall: the left wing appears to drop (which I think would be normal stall/spin behavior for clockwise rotating prop) after the abrupt pull up, the aircraft rolls inverted, and there isn't sufficient altitude to recover.

Here's a pic of the plane right before the crash: http://cessnateur.blogspot.com/2011/09/reno-crash-trim-tab-t...
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