Talk about a buzzkill. Who wants to go to an event where your almost assured to witness someone die needlessly?
Chilling Reno Dual Fatal Landing Collision Photo —>
The photo above was taken a fraction of a second before a fatal impact, but is only one of the two T6 aircraft which plunged nose straight down to the ground after colliding during the hurried landing sequence procedure post race. The severity of the collision is evidenced by the extreme damage to this airframe. If you look closely you will notice the left wings propellor scars along the trailing edge, the aft canopy and of course, the completely missing empennage. This pilot appears to be the one who was “hit” by the other pilot. This collision was, clearly, not a minor “touch.” From this photograph evidence, it appears that these guys each flew right into each other or at least one of the flew right up the rear end of the other. Killing them both. Unacceptable. These air race people are , in my opinion, cowboys and their definition of safety (highlighted by their annual safety courses) has now demonstrated countless times. In a word the safety of this event is nowhere close to being at an “acceptable” level. These events are way too large, with too many classes, to many heats, and in my opinion, should be shut down permanently in this format. What an awful, yet perfectly demonstrative of the standard of safety for the event, photo which I contend represents the poor safety culture of the sport of air racing. Cowboys. Clowns. Now dead 💀 cowboy 🤠 clowns 🤡. Sad, but so damn true. This is just unacceptable and I’m sick and tired of the excuses. There should not be any collisions, period. Especially in the landing phase. Having aircraft crossing paths in the cooldown circuit then again in the landing circuit is foolish and ridiculous. See photo above again. I rest my case.
Just watched this almost child level video (but still a good description) about the early information about the tragic (but let’s face it, epically stupid and unnecessary) dual fatal accident between two T6 “racer” aircraft at last weekends final ever Reno Air races. It almost seems fitting that this death factory ends on this note. Far, far too many accidents, in my opinion, that should be acceptable .
