Airshow Horror Stories

[Chicoartist]

No bad story, but a good story!

I grew up next to Barksdale AFB, La. Back in the day, the Thunderbirds used to come every year (now it's what, every other year, if you're lucky?) to our airshow, and a few minutes after they shut down and secured the aircraft the crowd was allowed to roam all around the jets (I "started" out with the F-4s) and get autographs, etc. No ropes or anything.

I have fond memories of sticking my head many times into the still-warm exhaust nozzles (look to the left at my avatar ... that's why I look like that today!) and walking around getting a very close-up look at the jets - very respectfully. I don't recall any incidents - ever.

Ain't no way in heyall they'd let anybody do that today - nor, I guess, should they.

Wade

[Jack Cook]

One year at Arlington we had a guy climb up ino the left seat of the 25 and start pulling levers and switches.
When told to get the h*ll out he flatley stated that he paid his admissision and had the right and to back off.
Threats of *ss kicking convinced him otherwise.
Another incident had our crew chief chasing a kid down the ramp. Mouthing off to Larry is not a good idea
On and at Arlingtom they use the west runway has the main taxiway.
I remember one mommmy having her son run next to the taxing aircraft to get him on camera

[Steve Nelson]

Back around '84 or '85, I was at an airshow at Jeffco Airport near Denver (come to think of it, Bill G. was there wiht his Spit.) Anyway, I watched as some dude sat his three or four-year-old on the elevator of Howard Pardue's Bearcat, then stepped back ten feet to take a picture. Fortunately for the kid, the elevators were deflected up and locked. Hopefully, he didn't cause any damage.


SN

[RobertWC]

I could probably think of some horror stories with a little sleep. But I can remember back a few years ago at one of the Fort Worth Alliance Air shows, one of the young enlisted men answering questions in the M109 Paladin said that sometimes the adults were as bad or worse as the kids, he recalled a incident where some guy slipped one of their belts of ammo they had on display under his coat, they ended up chasing him down apparently.

Another year, It was kind of funny.. Alliance Air show again, Thunderbirds were attending and they had one on display near one of the hangers. I was in my later teen years I suppose, and I was having a close look, always being respectful and not touching.. It wasn't roped off.. and I wasn't even standing under the wing, but.. This kid who belonged to some sort of Marine Youth group I think it was.. Well it was funny because he was having a powertrip trying to give me orders "Do not touch the plane Sir!" "I wasn't touching it." "Don't stand under it." "I'm not standing under it see?" He fell silent and wandered off, It was kind funny having a 13 year old giving me orders especially when I wasn't doing what he said I was.

Now that I think about it, It always sends a shiver up my back when I hear kids running as fast as they can through the C-5's or other cargo planes.. or jumping around like mad little monkeys. And free airshows do bring out the worst types, especially here in Arkansas.. Good Lord, Chicken trading hillbillies around airplanes? That is scary I tell you.

I've also seen a lot of kids go nuts banging around the control sticks in helicopters, messing with the switches.. and this last year at the Little Rock Airshow, I came up into the cockpit of a CH-53 and I was immediately warned that I could sit, but to TOUCH nothing.. Too many kids had been banging the stick around and I just said. "Don't have to worry about me, I understand the problem Sir."

IT might be a good thing that I don't own an aircraft or attend an airshow knowing people who do.. Because I'd have a conniption if I saw someone doing something utterly insane.

[Former Member]

Dare I tell you about junior, the ice cream cone and my 52 Chevy??

Please do!

John

Well, I don't want to slew this off topic with my car and truck stories, but as I read these I could easily substitute Willys for AT-6. Crash truck grab rail for pitot tube. Same morons, different setting.

Junior, the ice cream cone and my 52 Chevy is not one of those stories, but it could have been. It was a very close thing.

I was on my once bi-weekly run to the drive in movies and I stopped off to get an ice cream cone. Middle of summer and a really hot day of course, so I had all the windows rolled down (A/C? Whats that?). I was sitting at a picnic table under a tree enjoying my cone when I look over where I parked the car.

Standing there on tip toes is junior. Head through the left window. Arms on the window sills. Cone overhanging my seat and tipping well past the vertical. My heart literally skipped a beat. I drew in a breath and opened my mouth to holler when I heard my words thunder across the parking lot and I hadn't said them.

"GET THE H#LL AWAY FROM THERE" the voice said. I looked to my right and here comes daddy sprinting across the yard towards junior. Junior had snapped his head, arms and cone out of the car at the very first syllable. Dad got there, turned him around and said "can't you see thats a nice car? I don't want to have to pay to clean it".

I just shook my head and chuckled a little bit. Dad was a little peeved, junior was a little chastened and my seat was dry and not sticky.

Well at least the parent did his job and scolded the little snot-nosed brat...unlike many of the other parents in these stories. Thanks for sharing!

John

[coldaffyduck]

I think my "favorite" one was one year at Elkhart I saw a guy lighting his cigar in the nose of a T-28. His excuse was that the wind kept blowing his matches out and that was the most convinient spot to light it at out of the wind.

[fotobass]

Cleveland in 2002. Between The TWA Connie and the (United?) Non Ford Trimotor...Trimotor is getting a top-off to go do a few oh-wow-laps. I was shooting for a magazine.

Idiot walking towards the fuel truck and the aircraft smoking. I say 'Scuse me, that's a whole lot of fuel in that truck...you might want to put out the cigarette.' I get 'right, duuuuu...' is all he has time to say when the guy fueling the aircraft comes flying over, grabs the cigarette, and puts it out in said idiot's beer!!!

idjit - 'What the h3ll are you doing?'
My New Hero - 'My job is to put fuel in that aircraft so it can fly. Your job is not to kill us all while I'm doing it! You wanna commit suicide, fine, but get the hell away from my aircraft when you do it!'

The man actually recieved applause from several of us within earshot.

[Canso42]

I'm not even going to read all these tonight. aaaaarrgh!
While working in retail mgmt. I heard the phrase; "never overestimate the intelligence of the American Public."
To really clear people away, get in the airplane, move the turret around, poke an onlooker in the backside with the guns and make some mechanical noise inside. Amazing how fast people move! No, Larry, I didn't do it at a Lone Star event.

Canso42

[warbirdcrew]

Jack,

I can sympathize with you about Arlington. Many times we would pull up in the Albatross and jump out to put the chocks in and we would have 20 or 30 people inside before we could even get the tail stand in.

-WC

[Jack Cook]

We did do some great fly-bys there with the Albatross and Crash's T-28.

[warbirdcrew]

We did do some great fly-bys there with the Albatross and Crash's T-28.

Indeed we did. I remember it well.

-WC

[Kudzu]

Two of my most memorable stories:
1 A group of ROTC cadets (they acted more like future inmates) was touring our museum when I caught one of them pulling the Huey pitot tube back and forth. I asked him if he had eight hundred dollars to buy a new one, if not, quit trying to break it!!!
2 While at an airshow standing fire guard while fueling the AN-2 ( the actual plane was roped off ) an idiot stands NEXT to the fuel truck (with 2 foot high NO SMOKING warnings ) and gets out his cigarettes !!
I explained that if he wanted to blow himself up to please do it elsewhere!

On the bright side I met many well behaved and curious kids whose first time inside a plane was touring the AN-2 cabin.

Brian

[TonyI]

Don't remember the year but back in the 70's I remember watching some interesting "save the world" type people splashing red paint on FIFI at the Selfridge ANG base in Mi. I was kinda young and trying to figure out what they thought they were doing to someone elses property. If I remember correctly a few of them were made "aware" of their error before the AP/MP's arrived, one of them was shouting to the MP about how he wanted to press charges against some members of the "awareness team". The MP mentioned to the painter that they had also just put paint on his concrete and that was a federal issue and that they were going to have an interesting week planned out for them. I had road my bicycle out there that day and my friends dad let me keep it at the base police station which made getting my bike back that evening... interesting.

The term aware was a substitute for the more colorful words

Then a few years back the young kid whos life apparently just sucked tried to go out in a blaze by crashing his car into the Thunderbirds.


Tony

[Cindy]

Van Nuys airshow around 99 or so.....I was babysitting the POF P-38. Because the P-38 Association was staged by the plane, it wasn't roped off. I had a guy spark up a cigar between the booms, another that lowered the ladder and started to climb aboard and numerous people hanging on the prop - and the adults were worse than the kids!
On the plus side, that's when I first met up with John Collver and started flying the T-6.

[Taylor Stevenson]

Dad had a close call a few years back at Shepard AFB. The T-6's were about to crank and the FBO truck was driving by and apparently one of their personnel hopped out to retrieve the chocks from BEHIND the wheels of Dads T-6. Of course Dad couldn’t see her over the nose and after a loud "CLEAR PROP!" he stepped on the starter. Right after the prop did one revolution, he saw her run through the prop to the right of the nose and back to the truck . It taught dad a lesson: drag your chocks far behind the aircraft so no one tries to do you a favor.

Taylor Stevenson