Warbird Information Exchange

There is a report of this on the official WiX Airventure site.
I did not see the accident, but did see photos and talked to witnesses.

Facts seem to be Jack Roush came in to land in a Beech Premier, had a hard landing, some think from a possible go around, anyway the fuselage was broken near the engnes. No fire, thankfully, and fire trucks were there promptly.
Some injuries to Jack and the passenger, no reliable report as to how extensive. The report says for Jack , "serious but stable", and minor for the passenger.
Let's hope for the best for both.

There are a few more rumors, but not much else that I have as fact.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

Per ESPN, Jack & passengers walked away from a hard landing @ Oshkosh in his Beech Premeir this evening.

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/story?id=5415476 (noticed ESPN's fine, high quality reporting job there )

airliners.net has a shot of N6JR. Looks pretty well cracked up. I saw that bird on it's way out of KYIP this evening and remember thinking "wonder where Jack's headed?"

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Raytheon-390-Premier/1749680/M/

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Phil K.
Yankee Air Museum
Systems Admin / Ramp Crew / Professional Photo Ruiner

Just saw this story come across ESPN.com

Of course, my first thought was "Oh no, the Mustang."




NASCAR team owner Jack Roush was in serious but stable condition after walking away from a plane crash at Whitman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wis. on Tuesday night.

"There are injuries. Possible surgery," Roush Fenway Racing president Geoff Smith said in a text message to The Associated Press. "But he walked out of the plane."

Smith said Roush's injuries include facial lacerations.

Roush was flying his private plane, a Hawker Beechcraft Premier jet, from Detroit. The jet made hard contact on landing and cracked the fuselage.

Brenda Strickland, a friend of Roush's, also was on board the plane. NASCAR journalist Bob Margolis, who is writing a book about Roush's life, was told that Roush and Strickland were not seriously hurt.

"Jack got out and had some blood on his face," Margolis said. "Apparently he bumped his head. They both were taken to a local hospital for observation, but I've been told they are OK."

Roush, an aviation buff, was attending the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual AirVenture in Oshkosh this week.

In a statement on the EAA website, officials said a Beechcraft Premier business jet registered to Roush Fenway Racing, LLC was involved in a landing accident at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh.

The accident occurred at approximately 6:15 p.m. CT, the statement said.

According to the EAA, the National Transportation Safety Board and Winnebago County Sheriff's Department confirmed that two occupants on board were Roush and Strickland of Plymouth, Mich.

"Each exited the aircraft following the accident," the statement said. "Both were transported to local hospitals, with Roush in serious but stable condition and Strickland with non-life threatening injuries. The NTSB is leading the investigation into the accident."

Roush, an experienced pilot, suffered serious injuries in a plane crash near Talladega, Ala., in 2002. He was flying his P-51 aircraft when it crashed into a lake. Roush was unconscious and would have drowned, but he was pulled from the water by Larry Hicks, a retired marine who lived nearby and saw the crash.

Roush owns several aircraft, including a World War II-vintage P-51 Mustang.

What is wrong with ESPN's reporting?


Or, what in the story was handled inappropriately?

Roush wasn't flying a 51 when he crashed last time....

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Phil K.
Yankee Air Museum
Systems Admin / Ramp Crew / Professional Photo Ruiner

Indeed, I missed that.

I will be curious to see if ESPN corrects the error as they update this story over the coming hours and days.

Witnesses said the plane was coming in too low and too slow as it approached the south end of the airport’s north-south runway, which caused the plane to start to roll. The nose then hit the ground, the plane spun 180 degrees and the tail broke off.

"It looked like a bad approach and he over-corrected and then crashed," said Mark Yarnell, of New Philadelphia, Ohio.

Dick Knapinski, communications officer for the Experimental Aircraft Association, said Roush was piloting the plane when it went down, and there was one passenger on board.

Roush, 68, of Northville, Mich., walked away from the crash and was transported to a hospital in serious but stable condition, Knapinski said

My friend (and fellow WIXer Eric Presten) pointed the jet out to me as it was on base, noting that it had to make a really tight turn to final from its position. As it was about to roll out it disappeared from my view behind a trailer, during which time someone else told me that it showed signs of stalling or nearly-stalling and recovering (tail/wings waggling around, etc). When I saw it again, it was in stable, wings-level flight but at an extremely high angle of attack (I thought it was doing a high-alpha pass, and not trying to land) when the pilot reduced power and stalled again, this time rolling into a right knife-edge bank at about 100' AGL and going in. From my view, it disappeared below parked airplanes, but someone who saw it impact told me that it caught the right wingtip and then the nose, which it then "pole vaulted" over, coming to rest 180 deg. off-heading.

Unlike most times when the mainstream media over-sensationalizes aviation incidents, this time they're actually showing quite a bit of restraint. This was no "hard landing," but a straight-up crash that the occupants are extremely lucky to have survived.

Please note that the above details were just what I personally saw, and a few other people I talked to.

After the crash, the engines were running at full power for a few minutes. It was about the creepiest thing I have ever listened to while knowing that right at that moment, in the cockpit was someone in a mangled mess either dead or fighting for life.

The PREMIER is built out of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic- yeah the aft fuselage is off but no crushing or tearing of the main section of the cabin.
Hope all are OK and they quickly find the cause/reasons

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Pics here, he looks pretty beat up, but walking.
http://jalopnik.com/5598098/jack-roush- ... e=true&s=i

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Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

The other accident was in April 2002, just after the Columbia Doolittle Reunion, on his 60th birthday. Jack was in Talladega for time trials, IIRC. Some friends invited him to a birthday cookout in Troy, AL and he had the opportunity to fly a kit-built Air Cam. He was flying solo and struck wire(s) that went across a small residential lake. The aircraft ended up inverted in the water and his rescue by a (military veteran) homeowner became quite the news story for a while.

The few times I was around him, he struck me as a very nice, genuine person. I wish him and Brenda speedy recoveries!

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

A lot of photos in this link. Lot of poor comments also.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/off-top ... nture.html

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http://silverplate1945.smugmug.com/AVIATION

Man, that pic of Jack is just horrifying. It almost looks like his face was partially rearranged... which might require surgery to repair. He's been an incredible friend to the warbird community for many years now, and while I am absolutely thrilled to see he's alive, it's still terrible to see him in such a state. Here's hoping for a swift and full recovery for both Jack and his lady friend.

Lynn

That really validates the whole helmet discussion of last week. Ugh!

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

I haven't heard any detailed update on Jack or his passenger this morning, other than Jack was able to walk out of the plane, but with his face cut and bleeding.
A 3rd hand version is that the plane was a little slow on approach to landing, don't know more than that.

_________________
Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK