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L39 Albatros Crashes and Burns in AK Trailer Park, Pilot Ejected...

  • Thread starter Thread starter FN FAL
  • Start date Start date
  • Watchers Watchers 23

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FN FAL said:
I don't have time to look at the two sites, is there two companies owned by Kirlin? If so, that's probably not unusual in business, especially high-risk aviation based businesses. It could even be because of regulatory or tax reasons.
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It looks like Air-USA is focused on selling communist bloc (L-39 and Chinese CJ-6) aircraft, while Red Air is focused on providing opposing forces for military training. They list their capabilities as:

•Air Intercept Training
•Air Defense Training
•Threat Simulation (Missle Search – Lock On – Track – Launch)
•Jamming (Air-To-Air & Air-To-Ground)
•Target Towing
•Utility Work
•ACM

They claim to have flown almost 1,000 sorties against the US Navy and several RCAF units.

I don't know why he set up two separate companies to perform these roles, although it could be for the reasons you mentioned, or to simplify some of the paperwork for defense contracts.
 
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FN FAL said:
I don't have time to look at the two sites, is there two companies owned by Kirlin? If so, that's probably not unusual in business, especially high-risk aviation based businesses. It could even be because of regulatory or tax reasons.
Click to expand...

Yup, two companies owned by Kirlin. Air USA and Red Air.
 
I don't know why he set up two separate companies to perform these roles, although it could be for the reasons you mentioned, or to simplify some of the paperwork for defense contracts.
Click to expand...

Why does that seem strange? I dealt with Don for several years on many things relating to his businesses, and trust me, importing aircraft (Air USA)from former eastern-bloc countries can be difficult, sometimes intense, work. His contracting activities (Red Air) also involve dealing with enormous amounts of bureacracy. It's definitely not a case of any kind of smoke and mirrors. They are two different activities, hence two different businesses.

This is not meant as a defense or indictment of Don Kirlin, because I don't have any explanation for what happened on this particular day. I just wanted to throw a little more light on things here.

In any case, RIP Stephen
 
Sounds just like trying to eject outside of the envelope. And 10,000' is a T-38ism. ACESII seat can go lower. And a 0/0 doesnt mean you'll still survive. The time required by the seat might still be too much before your jet impacts the ground.

I'm happily surprised that there is a company that supports live seats for these types of jets. There is no way I'd fly one without a live seat. The guys flying Mig-21s without a live seat are just plain crazy.
 
Big Duke Six said:
Why does that seem strange? I dealt with Don for several years on many things relating to his businesses, and trust me, importing aircraft (Air USA)from former eastern-bloc countries can be difficult, sometimes intense, work. His contracting activities (Red Air) also involve dealing with enormous amounts of bureacracy. It's definitely not a case of any kind of smoke and mirrors. They are two different activities, hence two different businesses.

This is not meant as a defense or indictment of Don Kirlin, because I don't have any explanation for what happened on this particular day. I just wanted to throw a little more light on things here.

In any case, RIP Stephen
Click to expand...
Rodger that.

I wouldn't second guess the other operator either, but it sounds like there was definitely some kind of bad blood between that other operator and Kirlin.

I have seen this type of craziness with other businessmen and their customers on the net, regarding a customer who thought they got a bad deal and began a smearing campaign. Which is funny, because I do business with said businessman and he provides primo product. It's interesting when you get to hear what Paul Harvey calls, "the rest of the story".

Obviously, this incident has more to it than just what one person says...
 
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Big Duke Six said:
Why does that seem strange? I dealt with Don for several years on many things relating to his businesses, and trust me, importing aircraft (Air USA)from former eastern-bloc countries can be difficult, sometimes intense, work. His contracting activities (Red Air) also involve dealing with enormous amounts of bureacracy. It's definitely not a case of any kind of smoke and mirrors. They are two different activities, hence two different businesses.
Click to expand...

I certainly didn't think anything was strange about him setting up different companies for different businesses. This is a very common practice in the business world (I knew a guy in the medical devices industry who later diversified into other businesses, and I think he got up to 35 companies, all under his ownership, and totally legit, AFAIK). I was just stating that, when responding to FN FAL's comment, I didn't know the specific business reasons he chose to set them up in this manner. I was not trying to imply any nefarious intent.

I'm sorry if my comment implied any suspicion. It was not my intent.
 
No problemo. I probably read more into what you said than what you meant. It just seemed at the moment that the convo was heading that way. Kirlin is one of those guys who people seem to either love or hate for some reason.

It will be interesting to see if his operation survives this one though. As has been said, sounds like there is more to this, and from right here it sounds like things will get ugly.
 
FN FAL said:
It would be bad for war bird collectors if this did turn out to be a "black sunday" scenario gone bad.
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Er, my friend, well yes, bad for warbirders...if it was
some kind of "black sunday" gig it went really
well from my point of view...
 
belchfire said:
Er, my friend, well yes, bad for warbirders...if it was
some kind of "black sunday" gig it went really
well from my point of view...
Click to expand...
True. However, now that we know more about the situation, we can assume that this crash was probably the furthest thing from a "black sunday" scenario.
 
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I'm guessing they mean some sort of "criminal intent" WRT crashing the jet, like in the movie "Black Sunday" where they put an explosive laden blimp into the Super Bowl.
The L-39 won't do much damamge. It doesn't carry much fuel, nor does it have much mass.
 
Huggyu2 said:
I'm guessing they mean some sort of "criminal intent" WRT crashing the jet, like in the movie "Black Sunday" where they put an explosive laden blimp into the Super Bowl.
The L-39 won't do much damamge. It doesn't carry much fuel, nor does it have much mass.
Click to expand...
They weren't planning on crashing the blimp in the movie "black sunday".
 
Somehow I didn't connect an L39 crash into a trailer park with a disgruntled Vietnam vet cooperating in a plot to commit a terrorist plot at the Super Bowl - oh yeah with a blimp. Sooooo FYI I also turned up some other search results for black sunday.

Black Sunday the Dust Bowl - could resemble an aircraft crash
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/peopleevents/pandeAMEX07.html


Or maybe Satan was behind it?
http://www.horror-wood.com/bs.htmhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00002NDM3/103-4773849-1050215?v=glance&n=130


Awwwwww yeah beaoch! Hits from the bong wheres my jet at?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000295Y/103-4773849-1050215?v=glance&n=5174
 
BushwickBill said:
Somehow I didn't connect an L39 crash into a trailer park with a disgruntled Vietnam vet cooperating in a plot to commit a terrorist plot at the Super Bowl - oh yeah with a blimp. Sooooo FYI I also turned up some other search results for black sunday.
Click to expand...
You must have missed the initial news article where the FBI said they were going to investigate the accident because the airplane involved was military "style".
 
ahhhhhh omg look out for the blimp!

Princess Asa is a vampire-witch who has been condemned to burn at the stake by her own brother, Prince Vaida. Just before a hideous demon mask is pounded into the flesh of her porcelain face, she places a curse on those who have damned her, in essence her own descendants.
bs.htm8.jpg
So starts the directorial debut of the great Mario Bava's Black Sunday.
Flash forward 200 years. The Vaida family has fallen on hard times, as the curse has indeed worked its horrible magic, and a chosen few of Asa's descendant's have perished in the wake of it.
It is the anniversary of Asa's execution, hence, in the superstitions of the peasant folk, it has been dubbed "Black Sunday."
 
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