Firefly CF-BDH

[chippy]

Looking for information on the crash of BDH in September 1977. I understand that BDH crashed during an a display at the CNE and pilot/co-founder Allan Ness did not survive. Was the aircraft recovered from Lake Ontario and were any parts used during the restoration on BDG? Were there any photo's or footage of the crash and was the final cause found?

Thanks in advance,

Liam

[Fleet16b]

I can confirm that BDH did indeed crash during the CNE Airshow in 1977
The a/c came thru show centre and exited by performing a steep climbing turn.
At this point it appeared to go into a stall at low altitude entering the water at a high rate of speed inverted.
The entire event was filmed by local TV Stations at the time and I remember viewing it many times.
Salvaege ops took place to recover the body of pilot Alan Ness( Co-founder of CWH)
Most of the a/c was salvage but was mostly scrapped.
I do remember the aux wing tanks and some other items from the crash that were stored in the loft at the old Museum location. Don't know if any of it made it on to the replacement Firefly.

[AirJimL2]

At least part of the vertical stab survived and was included with Steve Alex's Firefly project a few years ago. Not sure what happened to it since that project was sold on.

Jim

[chippy]

Thanks for the information. I can't seem to find many photo's of BDH on the internet or any mention of the crash.

[D Fisher]

Heres some old slides I have of BDH when it first arrived in Toronto and after paint, as well as the Aviation Safety Bureau report.

[warbird1]

Wow, that's sad. Inexperience and egotism killed the pilot. That's not hard to believe in the 70's, as "warbird checkouts" were much more casual and not taken as serious as they are now-a-days. I don't believe that would ever happen in our current era of warbird flying, fortunately.

[PeterA]

Here are a couple of black and white shots I took at Hamilton before clambering aboard for a 35 minute 'jolly' in the local area with Dennis Bradley. I took some 8mm colour cine from the rear cabin. Dave Cheeseman has converted it to digital and may be able to help you or post it on youtube. I remember that Fuel Stations were giving away stick on bullet holes as a promotional for a James Bond film at the time, June 74, and somebody had stuck a set on the rear glazing of the Firefly. Out of focus, they kept passing through the frame of the cine.





...and a colour shot from a print from an unknown photographer with thanks.



PeterA

[chippy]

Great pictures. Thanks for the accident report as well.

[Bill Greenwood]

I had only heard a bit of that accident, about the bad weather. Reading the accident report, if it is accurate is sad. There is enough risk from the things you can't know about or control in flying warbirds, so taking chances with the ones you know about seems really off.

If I was going to fly a show in limited visiblity, and next to, or over a lake with an indistinct horizon, I sure would want to have the artificial horizon uncaged and working, that and try to stay over land where I had a reference.

I just reread the top of the accident report and it says visibility 12, so that is pretty good. Who knows on that score. It also says he was attempting a split s,which means a half roll to inverted and a pull through to level. That seems pretty tight under an 1800 foot ceiling.

Last edited by Bill Greenwood on Sun Dec 20, 2009 5:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Barrie MacLeod]

I am surprised no member mentioned the F-86 canopy on the Kenting DC-4 behind BDH in the first photo.
CF-KAE in Gander 20 January 1973.

[Stoney]

So that's how you get jet time and 4 engine at the same time