2005 Junior Worlds Accident

Far from disagreeing with the report and its recommendations... the point is
simply to put this accident in context. There were no innocents harmed, as
some contributors to this and related threads have suggested. There was,
however, foolishness on the ground and in the air.

It was very poor judgment on the part of pilots to continue the practice of
flying the last part of their final glides in ground effect with people in
the way. It was also very poor judgment on the part of spectators to place
themselves in harm's way by deliberately standing in the path of low flying
aircraft.

These pilots were not seeking out people on the ground for dangerous close
passes. The people brought themselves to a place where they knew they could
witness a close pass. You see the same thing on the rallye circuit. The
difference is that you're more likely to have a race warden shoo people away
from the danger zone. That, however, doesn't keep knowledgeable spectators
from "taking their chances" to get a better view or photograph of the action
as it passes. Their presence has little affect on drivers, who worry more
about maintaining control than the number of spectators they'll impact if
they lose it.

As for the aberration of the bulls, some choose to run, others to watch from
above. It is a matter of choice, with measurable differences in risk. And I
think you'll find more people from around the world attend such runnings
than watch or compete in glider races! As abberations go...

And, finally, the display pilot hasn't changed his maneuvers other than to
"box" them. Instead, the air wardens have moved people back to a safer (but
hardly safe, as experience has proved) distance.

"Don Johnstone" wrote in message
...
At 14:12 12 February 2007, User wrote:
People stand on the side of public roads to watch auto
rallye cars whip by
at high speed. Sometimes, spectators are killed when
drivers lose control,
caroming off the road and into a crowd. They run the
bulls through towns in
Spain and Portugal at the beginning of the bullfighting
season each year.
People choose to run with them and are sometimes maimed
or killed. People
congregate to watch airshows, and despite reasonable
efforts to clear low
altitude traffic and ground observers, people get killed.
These examples all
involve illegal acts (speeding, stampeding, aerobating)
that are condoned
within the context of an EVENT. These events are for
the entertainment of
those people who choose to participate.

Yes indeed, but in the context of the circumstances
we are talking about a racing driver does not deliberately
drive very close to the spectators, and display pilots
go to great lengths to avoid pointing at people let
alone flying near them. Of course there are risks.
Yes the racing driver or the display pilot may end
up close to people, even kiling or injuring them but
they have not deliberately gone there. I have deliberately
avoided the bulls thing as a local aberration not copied
in the rest of the world.

All of this is a bit of a moot point, the accident
report clearly set out the causes of it and also made
recomendations which, in the UK at least, will have
to be acted on. The bottom line the CAA are going to
decide what we can and cannot do and whatever we say
here will make no difference to them. The only purpose
of publishing the report is so that others may learn
from it and not repeat the action which led to it.
Having read some of the responses on here it would
seem that that aim at least has fallen on some selectively
deaf ears.