Corsair Pilot Critical
EAA AirVenture officials do what they can to make their event safe, then
cross their fingers and pray for luck. That luck ran low Thursday
afternoon as the warbirds were taking to the air for the daily airshow.
As a formation of Bearcats and Corsairs started their takeoff roll,
something went terribly wrong. Thousands of airshow fans watched in
horror as one of the F-4U Corsairs, piloted by 56-year-old Laird Doctor
of Dallas, Texas, collided with a Bearcat fighter flown by Howard
Pardue, of Breckinridge, Texas.
<Picture: Crash scene>Two World War II-era F-8 Bearcats and two F-4U
Corsairs had been cleared for takeoff by the airboss ... that we know.
What happened next is not yet clear. The Bearcats may have started their
takeoff roll, or may have been completing their runups when the Corsair
pilots behind them added throttle for takeoff. The pilot of one of the
Corsairs saw something that made him realize there was a problem and
managed to swerve to avoid a Bearcat. Doctor was not able to react in
time and slammed into Pardue's plane, ripping off the Bearcat's right
wing. The Corsair turned into a cartwheeling, fiery tumble, breaking
into several burning pieces. The cockpit, with Doctor still inside, came
to rest upside down. Rescue crews were on the scene within seconds and
transported the pilot to Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh, and later, to
Froedtert Memorial Hospital in Milwaukee, a hospital known for its
trauma unit. As this went to press, Doctor was in extremely critical
condition with severe internal injuries.
At the time of the accident, the warbird pilots were taking off on
runway 18, which had a crosswind today, but those familiar with the
warbirds say the stiff crosswind should not have been more than the
planes and their pilots could handle. The plane Doctor was piloting was
one of the few flying Corsairs left and was on loan from the Cavanaugh
Museum in Addison, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. The plane is not known as
being difficult to fly, but it is tricky on takeoffs and landings
because of poor forward visibility. In fact, a large number of crashes
during WWII happened during takeoffs and landings and were attributed to
lack of forward visibility. Had Doctor been able to see what was ahead
of him, he would have been much better able to avoid it. The NTSB
investigation into the accident continues.
===
To unsubscribe from the mil-veh mailing list, send the single word
UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to <mil-veh-request@skylee.com>.