Warbird Information Exchange

Check this story out and take a real good look at the people taking pictures: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2253449/Plane-spotting-enthusiasts-come-inches-death-military-aircraft-misses-runway.html?ICO=most_read_module Several of them are just outside of the arc of the props and all they were doing was snapping away as the plane passed in front of and over them. Now those are some real airplane fans! I’m sure they had tunnel vision from taking the shots and probably had no idea how close to death they were until later. Still, I’d love to see some of the shots those close-up guys got.

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

Almost candidates for the Darwin Award.

Are you saying the Flight crew are the candidates?

No, the idiot photographers standing almost on the centreline of the approach

The stills grab your attention. I'm glad there was a video, as it shows just how close to the end of the runway the road was and the subtle elevation difference between the two. That fact doesn't excuse the flight crew for landing short, it just turns my huge surprise into just a surprise. Glad no one was injured; "en masse" was a little over the top for 2-4 people, IMHO.

I've done a few joint missions with the German Transall guys and they are very sharp, very talented, and I have seen them push some limits. No doubt there was some pressure to land on "brick one" for the event. Again, I'm just thankful it appears the only injury would be to a pilot's pride.

Ken

EDIT: I just looked at the satellite image of the runway - very clearly marked with a displaced threshold, most likely to clear traffic on the road. Unless there was some prior agreement to disregard the displacement, then this makes the pilots look a tad worse.

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

There were several other people on each side. One slip of the rudder and several of these people would have lost several feet off the the top part of their bodies from those props. This had the potential of killing several folks from what I can see.
Makes you wonder who'd have been found responsible had someone gotten driven into the ground like a tent peg or shopped into mulch. Needless to say I never would have been that close to the darned flight path. I’ve seen a couple of C-130s pancake short of the runway on tactical landings before (usually just hard packed soil or grass), would never be inside the glide path that close to the end of the runway. I can only wonder what the nearest standing photographer must have thought when he saw the photos and realized how close he came from being cut in half...

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

This landing was discussed at length on a German forum as well. 1. Police did close the road for vehicles prior to the expected landing by temporary installed trafficlights, but did not prevent people from standing in the way. 2. The pilot did come in to low, he should have had 50 feet over the road by standard approach. The runway is 680 x 30 meters, 2230 x 100 feet. Last flight for this Transall, will stay some time at the airport, to be moved to a museum some time later.
Additional video, different view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCSfaGoAVk4

Michael

Why are the photographers idiots? They were not the ones who screwed up the landing.

One slip of the rudder? To be fair, I watched the video(s) again. There appears to be a man and a child under the #2 engine and yes, they could have been killed by the prop - I am thankful that they are fine. On the opposite side of the aircraft, there are 3 people standing more than a wingspan away. I am not trying to nit-pick your words nor am I trying to be argumentative as much as I am venting against what is becoming a very common trend to sensationalize things beyond their merit.

Ken

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

"Idiot" might be too strong a word. Foolish would certainly be appropriate, though. Even with a correct approach, the main wheels could have taken the heads off those guys had they all been standing up from a simple light downdraft at the end of the runway.
Ever see those rally races in Europe where the spectators are standing on the road, leaving a path just wide enough for the car (going really fast, usually around a curve or over a rise) to go through? Where these people were standing is, in my opinion, far less safe than that.

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

Because they were standing almost on the centreline where a heavy transport was making a one-off ferry flight landing on a very short runway, shorter than would be needed for normal operations. They are idiots to stand there, but there should have been better crowd control at the event to police the idiots with cameras.

There's been more than a couple of people who have taken photos of the Lanc at Dx & ended up with detailed photos of the rivet pattern inside the bomb bay...

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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.

No, they are idiots. Having nearly been in a situation like that myself, you drop the darn camera and get out of the way. Especially when you have no idea WTH the pilot is doing. If you talk to a pilot ahead of time and he/she says, "Hey, stand here, I'll make a cool pass for ya!" that's one thing. Both parties know what's coming. In this, not so much. I enjoy getting that head-on shot just as much as the next photog. But I at least keep my head on a swivel and get out of the way when I need to.

Such things make me angry, very angry.

In Switzerland, in the nineties, it was quite easy to photograph on military airbases, even on restricted areas, after having received the necessary authorizations from the military.
Unhappily, after some incidents with similar idiots (1), authorizations became again very difficult to get!
Basically, two or three of these stupid clowns ruined the job for several hundreds of serious guys liking to make pics of military aircrafts on special spots.


(1) very often Dutch spotters acting without discipline, like walking on the runways, getting too near the start area, penetrating within the bunkers etc...

Yeah Dutch spotters are the worst. No discipline at all. I've seen one jump a fence, take an aircraft boarding ladder and climb it to take pics of an aircraft!

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Magister Aviation
It's all in my book