mjah Posted April 21, 2007 Share Posted April 21, 2007 One person confirmed dead, likely the pilot. A witness is suggesting that the plane clipped power lines or trees. CNN link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCS Posted April 21, 2007 Share Posted April 21, 2007 http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2122401820070421 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A jet fighter flown by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels demonstration team crashed on Saturday in South Carolina eyewitnesses said. There was no word on the fate of the pilot. The show in Beaufort, South Carolina was attended by thousands of spectators. "They were doing maneuvers and generally when the planes loop around they cross the runway and then turn around and basically when they turned around we saw a cloud of black smoke," said Brett Hindshaw, a South African who was visiting Beaufort for the air show. "We started counting and we saw five aircraft. Four of them landed but the lead pilot circled over the accident sight and then one or two military helicopters took off and went in that direction," he told Reuters by telephone. "Then all the ambulances and military fire trucks stationed along the runway took off." Witnesses said one of the six Blue Angels jets disappeared as the planes flew low in close formation behind a grove of trees. One witness, Fred Yelinek, told CNN the jet went down in a high-density residential area and debris hit at least one house and cars, but there was no sign of injuries to people on the ground. He said there was a "huge fireball" at the crash site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman Spiff Posted April 21, 2007 Share Posted April 21, 2007 Thats really sad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REDSKINZ-RIDEORDIE Posted April 21, 2007 Share Posted April 21, 2007 Dam, the Blue Angels are awesome. Sad news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighPlainsDrifter Posted April 21, 2007 Share Posted April 21, 2007 I live in Beaufort and the local news just "confirmed" that the pilot is indeed deceased. The plane that went down was Blue Angel 6 one of the solo planes. They are showing video of some of the damage to a house now. Looks about like what you would expect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighPlainsDrifter Posted April 21, 2007 Share Posted April 21, 2007 Apparently the plane struck a tall pine tree or some power lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InsaneBoost Posted April 21, 2007 Share Posted April 21, 2007 This has been one horrible week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighPlainsDrifter Posted April 21, 2007 Share Posted April 21, 2007 This has been one horrible week Hopefully no bystanders were hurt. Hard to compare the death of one person doing a very dangerous job to the events at VT. But yeah, bad week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonnyRules Posted April 21, 2007 Share Posted April 21, 2007 Very sad.....RIP Blue Angel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighPlainsDrifter Posted April 22, 2007 Share Posted April 22, 2007 Just in. The air show will commence as planned tomorrow. The remaining Blue Angles will not perform however. No houses were destroyed, some with damage, and eight people on the ground were injured. No speculation on what caused the crash, wait for investigation to be completed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huly Posted April 22, 2007 Share Posted April 22, 2007 so sad I love watching them in SC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zguy28 Posted April 22, 2007 Share Posted April 22, 2007 Wow, that's sad. I remember when the Thunderbirds had that bad accident back in the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark The Homer Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 Sucks. I used to see them, they used to fly over VA Beach during the 4th of July, when I was a kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huly Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 from my Aunt in Beaufort SC: It was about a mile from our house. It flew over a house that Chuck lives in. He and his wife and three kids were cooking out when it went over them. They are about a half mile from where it went down. They heard the crash and saw the smoke. He works with Joe as a pest control tech. Several houses in the area were damaged and eight people injured. We don't know the extent of their injuries yet. It is really a shame. Channel 2 showed Brad Renfro flying with the pilot last year. He was 32 years old and his dream was always to fly with the Blue Angels. His family was here in Beaufort watching the demonstrations. So ,so sad. Love you, Aunt Dianne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Predicto Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 That is terrible. I love those guys. Although I must admit that I sometimes wonder how wise it is for them to buzz the skyscrapers in San Francisco as closely as they do. One mistake and the loss would be a lot more than a single pilot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dchogs Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 from my Aunt in Beaufort SC:It was about a mile from our house. It flew over a house that Chuck lives in. He and his wife and three kids were cooking out when it went over them. They are about a half mile from where it went down. They heard the crash and saw the smoke. He works with Joe as a pest control tech. Several houses in the area were damaged and eight people injured. We don't know the extent of their injuries yet. It is really a shame. Channel 2 showed Brad Renfro flying with the pilot last year. He was 32 years old and his dream was always to fly with the Blue Angels. His family was here in Beaufort watching the demonstrations. So ,so sad. Love you, Aunt Dianne the news here in san diego showed one of their reporters flying with him too. he seemed like an awesome guy who realized how lucky he was to be flying with the Blue Angels. i missed the beginning of the episode, but was shocked when they showed his picture with a RIP message below it at the end. sad day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 Wow, that's sad. I remember when the Thunderbirds had that bad accident back in the day. I remember back when Dulles airport openned up. Expo 72 I think it was. A blue angel died over there at Dulles Airport. His plane had some type of malfunction. He bailed out successfully. But his parachute landed in the fire from his wreckage. Might have been expo 74. I remember watching the smoking plane pull out of the formation. I remember seeing the chute and hearing everybody in the crowd cheer cause we thought he was going to be ok... Very sad.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
China Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 I remember back when Dulles airport openned up. Expo 72 I think it was. A blue angel died over there at Dulles Airport.His plane had some type of malfunction. He bailed out successfully. But his parachute landed in the fire from his wreckage. Might have been expo 74. I remember watching the smoking plane pull out of the formation. I remember seeing the chute and hearing everybody in the crowd cheer cause we thought he was going to be ok... Very sad.. I don't know about '74, but the crash at Dulles at Expo 72 was a Thunderbird (Joe Howard) not a Blue Angel. Sad to hear about another crash. Apparently the Blue Angels have about a 10% fatal crash rate among their members. I guess those are the chances you take when you perform incredible and risky maneuvers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Mike Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 Man. That just hurts. Ever since I was a little kid, those guys have been my heros. They still are. RIP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xameil Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 I think I reemmber seeing a special on the Blue Angels where they went through the tryouts..I believe he was one of em on that show. I think he tried out 4x before finally getting in. So sad...RIP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sk1nzHEAD Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 That sucks, I remember going to air shows in Oshkosh, WI when I was young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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