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Two Deceased After Oshkosh Opening Day Plane Crash
A fatal crash occurred during the opening morning of the 2024 EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI. According to remarks made by EAA CEO Jack Pelton before his opening day press conference at the event, the aircraft crashed approximately two miles south of the airport. (aeroxplorer.com) More...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Very sad. This kind of tragedy reminds all of us that flying safely requires constant vigilance, attention to the smallest details, and diligent situational awareness. You can do all of this and still run into trouble. Lord have mercy.
Thoughts and prayers go out to those involved and their relatives. A festival like this is a time for celebrating what man has achieved in conquering flight, and it is always sad to see it touched by a loss like this.
Lancairs were not designed for slow approaches. There is a history of stall/spin accidents during approaches. The atypical approaches used at Oshkosh only exacerbate the motivation to "pull the power a little" to let situational awareness to catch-up. The Lancair does not forgive this. The fact that the laws of physics never sleep in their desire to kill pilots and airplanes doesn't help.
To Cleffer's point and answering royalbfn's question - the OSH fly-ins do have a history of accidents and incidents. The high influx of VFR traffic, pilots of varying skill levels, non-standard procedures such as trying to land aircraft simultaneously on three different parts of a runway or having to make a curved continuous turn to a crossing runway and last minute changes to instructions all contribute to flight deck stress levels. These factors unfortunately increase the probability of making a fatal mistake....even by more experienced pilots as Jeremy Bennington points out.
Thank you,Curtis,you said it well. In memory of Marta Meyer please stay safe and fly safe!
For some reason, I thought it was reported that the accident flight was not related to the airshow. Nonetheless, it is always tragic to lose members of the flying community. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families.