It was during the first day of the show, on Friday. The crowds were fairly
light, as you might expect. Weather was just right, practically no wind and
just a few mid-level clouds. This show starts off with the radio-controlled
planes and then brings on the civilian pilots through the morning and the
early afternoon. After that, the Blue Angels typically close off the day
show.

The first few pilots had already gone through their routines without event.
The crowd was already getting a little bored. Sean came out in his Cabo
Wabo-sponsored plane and went through a series of stalls, loops, and other
aerobatics. There were no problems that I or anyone else seemed to be aware
of until he went into a loop at very low altitude. I remember just starting
to think that he seemed low at the bottom of the loop when he hit just off
the runway at center show. He was nose-up when he hit, and I saw the wheels
bounce higher than the plane. I am not sure because of the distance (my seat
was about 100 yards away) but I believe I also saw the wings separate from
the fuselage. The announcer went silent for several minutes, and it took
about that long for several of the spectators to realize that something was
very wrong. It wasn't until the fire truck spun up that it really seemed to
penetrate. There was no fire, and none of the loud noise that the action
movies have trained us to expect. A lady near me declared that it really
didn't seem to be that bad a crash. Most people there seemed to have no
concept that this was a serious crash.

The announcer came back on and said that obviously there had been a serious
crash. He suggested that parents take children off the flight line to visit
the static displays and booths to remove the images from their minds. Most
of the children I saw looked more bored than terrified. The lady near me
declared that she had had a feeling that something was going to happen on
her way to the show this morning. Her kids then started fighting over who
had also had the feeling first. I restrained a real impulse to smack them
all and try to convince them that this was real, not a TV show.

It wasn't until then, about fifteen or twenty minutes later that the
lifeflight helicopter took off and headed for the crash. I believe they
probably were waiting for the firemen to clear the fire danger and extract
the pilot from what was left of his plane. The chopper landed by the wreck,
they transferred the pilot, and within a very few minutes it was heading off
to the west. The announcer said that they were still making a decision on
when the show would resume. At that point he said they should have the plane
cleared off the runway very soon. I flashed back on my ground school
lectures on FAA juristiction of a crash and combined that with what I know
of military authority. I figured he was being wildly optimistic. For about
the next hour I saw a lot of people standing around looking at the wreck.

At this point I had really lost my enthusiasm for the show. I picked up and
left. I expected that there would probably be no more flying that day. They
had not announced anything about the condition of the pilot at that point,
but I was pretty sure that he was not going to be walking away from that
one. I heard a news report later that he had died at the hospital.

As it turned out, I was right as far as the civilian pilots were concerned,
but the military show did resume not long after lunch. I suppose they are
more used to losing pilots and more mission-oriented than civilian pilots.
The full show resumed the next day. Even as I was leaving there were many
people coming in that had no idea what had happened. I saw a beautiful
high-def broadcast of the Blue Angel show on Sunday where they mentioned the
death briefly. The San Diego Union did a story on it with some quotes from
clueless spectators and from the show program. I couldn't help thinking "Is
that all there is?"

Larry M.


"Morgans" wrote in message
...

"Larry Mittag" wrote in message
news:PRjcd.42922$kz3.31323@fed1read02...
I was at the Miramar show and saw that accident happen. It was during the
show, not during practice.

Larry Mittag


So, if you would, how about giving us your account of what you saw, and
how
it happened?
--
Jim in NC


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