Tico Warbird Crash Today

[HoserASA]

Anyone know details, what type warbird? Supposedly the pilot rolled the warbird after takeoff and crashed at Titusville airport.

Hoser

 

[LR60BOY]

I got this from Floridatoday.com It's sad, I get into KTIX a couple times a year.





TITUSVILLE -- A Gainesville lawyer has been identified as the pilot killed this afternoon in a small military-style jet crash that occurred during the Tico Warbird Airshow.
Eilon Krugman-Kadi, 58, was killed when a plane identified as an L-39 jet fighter crashed at Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville. Kadi is identified on the airshow's program as a former Israeli fighter pilot.

According to Mary Jennings in his law office, Krugman-Kadi's family accompanied him to the air show.

"He didn't make it out of the crash," Jennings said through sobs. "There are not enough words to express what a great person he was."

Krugman-Kadi, who belonged to the American Motorcycle Association as well as the International Aerobatic Club, was known for executing two loop-de-loops in a rowwhile spinning the plane on its axis.

The plane, described as a fighter jet, was doing a loop when the crash occurred at 2:43 p.m. on the northwest end of the east runway, witnesses said.

The plane was reportedly pulling out of the loop out of a cloud. The plane rolled slightly. Officials said Krugman-Kadi was believed to have been killed instantly. The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash.

"It crashed, it crashed," said Tom Erikson of Melbourne, who was out to enjoy the airshow.

Erikson said the jet was doing a loop, and it looked like the pilot was trying to pull out of it but he was too low to the ground.

"I said to myself that looks too low," Erikson said. "Why was he so low to the ground? This was a disaster."

The airshow announcer asked viewers to bring any home video to the announcer's stage so they could determine what happened. He also asked guests to refrain from using their cell phones.

A Canadian helicopter has taken off so they can view the wreckage from overhead. Emergency crews, already at the airshow as a precautionary measure, rushed to the wreckage immediately after the crash. Many guests left quickly after the wreck.

Teri McMillan of Titusville said she had relatives visiting her from Baltimore who came to the airshow with their children. They had to walk away immediately because the children were so upset by the crash.

"You want to have fun. You know this is a reality but ..." she said before trailing off into tears.

The show had resumed at 2:30 after skies had cleared from earlier rain.

Dennis West, a volunteer for Airmobile Ministries in Titusville and a former member of the Golden Knights -- the Army's premiere parachute team, was watching the air show.

"I was watching one plane before that doing some acrobatic stuff," he said. "When that plane was done, I saw a jet in the air and I turned to watch him. The plane was heading south 2,000 feet off the ground, then all of a sudden it just went straight down. I couldn't hear the impact but I saw the big black puff of smoke."

West said the plane had only traveled about a mile before the accident happened.

At least two other pilots have died in airshow-related crashes.

In 1989, Anthony Ziemiecki, an aerobatics instructor and decorated Army pilot died when his vintage 1954 Navy training plane crashed into the runway at Space Coast Regional Airport. This was the first fatal crash since the air show began in 1977.

In 1992, an experienced Daytona Beach pilot was killed when his restored Navy bomber flipped. Harry Doan failed to stop his rolling Douglas AD-4 Skyraider before it reached the end of the runway.

Titusville Police spokesman Todd Hutchinson saw the plane going down this afternoon.

"The plane did a loop, came down too low and crashed into the woods west of the airport," he said.

Hutchinson said there was a brief fire on the scene which is still smoldering.

A brush truck from the Division of Forestry has been called to the scene so that it could clear a path to the woods for emergency vehicles.

"Emergency personnel are trying to keep the crowds back from the scene," Hutchinson said. "A lot of spectators are in shock."

He said the pilot's wife and daughter were believed to be at the show.

If you have images from the airshow, we would like to publish them.

 

[rvsm410]

The Plane looks to have gone into the cloud deck at the top of the loop, seems the pilot may have got disoriented coming out of the cloud inverted and simple failed to pull out at the bottom....it did not seem to have any mechanical failure from our vantage point...(no sudden change in direction of flight) that is...

tough to see...winds here were pretty gusty, with failry low ceilings with a frontal passage, the worse weather was far south of us.

 

[ultrarunner]

I witnessed Tony Z. kill himself in a T-28 at the same airport during the same air show 18 years ago.

Gotta leave plenty of room for some of these maneuvers.

rip.