Post-WWII plane pilot dies in W.Va. air show crash

Contrary to what you armchair aviation experts think, these WW2 and beyond warbirds are maintained to a higher degree than most of the airliners.

"We were fortunate that the safety measures put in place by the Federal Aviation Administration ensured the safety of those on the ground," - Tell that to the people in Reno.

Well folks I am an A&P mechanic and have may years working on aircraft. If you are ever offered a ride in one of these old aircraft don't do it. I will tell you why they are to old. One they owners may overhaul the engine, they may even overhaul the landing gear once in a blue moon, but they never ever replace the wing spars, or rudder spars, or the elevator spars unless they have damaged them and this is not acceptable. Wings spars fatigue and then that is useually when old miltary aircraft are retired. But are they retired? No they are sold off to civilian pilot owners through one mechanism or another. For example a T34 was once an Air Force aircraft training plane. If you see one and it is flying it was sold by the Air Force and it was almost one hundred percent past it's fatique life on its airframe when sold. So folks that fly these are definitely risking their lives every day they get in one and stress it at all. I give you an example how the factories that built them think. I as an A&P inspect and repaired many an aircraft from airliners, to military worn out planes, to General Aviation planes. What would you think of an aircraft if you called the factory and asked to get a part for said aircraft and they point blank told you the plane you are workng on is a retired Air Force plane and considered no longer an aircraft due to the fatigue life limit of the aircraft already long since past on the plane you are working on. Well when this happened to me I told the owner never to bring the aircraft around again. I told him to sell his pride and joy and why and being the smart owner he sold his old worn out Air Force trainer. So old is old in an aircraft unless the major sheet metal structures have been replaced with new. It is physics pure and simple 101 metal fatiques.

Why do people bother going to these stupid and dangerous shows to begin with?

Heading to the Miramar Air show in a couple weeks. Guess I am really gonna have my eyes open a little wider...but for what? Trying to move out of the way of an out of control plane? Oh well, tragedy does happen in three's. Maybe someone can crash a jet at an airshow and bale out so the third wil happen and no one else will get killed? #$%$

Oh what do we have here ,,,,, a copy cat dive bomber ????????

Awesome....I love crashes!!!

We live in Reno....and we cannot believe it!!! It is an awful tragedy for these pilots and their
loved ones.......Pray for them.

Bush Said Bin LODEN Has Something To Do With This.....Time For Bush To Spend Another 10.8 TRILLION Dollars In 8 Years We Will Call It OPERATION GET FUNDS FROM CHINA

Bush Said That Suddams Son CAUSED CRASH New IRAQ ATTACK Time To REBUILD IRAQ WITH HALLIBURTON After BLOWING Up REGIAN

This aircraft as many others we all love to here and fly are 50 to 60 years old. We now have better oils and fuels but the engines are old, everything requires extensive inspections and still things can break or fail without warning Anything mechanical is subject to failure.So this is sad to have two crashes in such a short time. This is unusual but none the less they usually are fatal.Flying is a risk 99.9% of the time it is exallerating and fun. Better than driving and safer. I would not be discouraged.

Time to ban air shows!

Air show safety? What do we do? OMG! Wake up you morons.
After an attack or threat from those idiot terrorists, what is it we hear? “Well, we don’t want to do anything different than normal to show we are afraid to live our lives.” Hello! Let’s just stop racing air planes and having shows. Let’s retire the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds. While we’re at it, let’s stop racing cars, because of Dale Earnhardt and all the others. Come to think of it, let’s stop racing boats and motorcycles and let’s look to chess, or curling, or board game matches for entertainment. This is a stupid conversation! This accident was a tragedy and I don’t mean to underscore the seriousness of it, but let’s learn what we can, let’s morn, and let’s move on to the next air show, or air plane race, or NASCAR race. When you race a car, or even attend an air show, you know the score. You know the odds (however low) do exist, but you attend anyway, and you should. Stop being afraid to live your life. C’mon people. C’mon media. Grow up!

It is sad when anyone loses their life in an accident. Condolences to his family and friends.

The crash Thursday in Nevada, did the plain burst into flames as the one in the crash Saturday ? All I saw about the one in Nevada was a nose dive into the stands and pieces of the plane flying everywere. Did anyone see it explode and burst into flames or did he just run out of fuel and then crashed ???? please reply to my comment,and I mean NO mallis.

How many people were killed in motor vehicle accidents in the US on friday and saturday? Maybe we should ban cars trucks and motorcycles ? NOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!

must be pilots belong to tea party..........cut.. cut.. cut new mantra (in aircraft maintanence)

FACTS: 1.) The crash in Reno was at a race, not a, air show. Big difference. 2.) Why a big difference? Because at air shows the pilots do not fly perpendicular to the crowd, they fly parallel to the crows in case something goes wrong. Rarely do you see aircraft flying towards or over a crowd at an airshow. 3.) The reason you see all these crashes is that there are several spectators recording the event, so they make the media. Imagine if we had spectators on the highways with video cameras and all the crashes made the news? Everyone would stay home, too afraid to drive. 4.) More people will be killed this year from getting hit by lightning than the total amount EVER that were killed at an air show. You could not attend a more safe event.

Air Shows like Rodeo's are inherently dangerous, more people die at state fairs each year than at air shows! Everyone can jump on the ban air shows band wagon, or how about we just ban dying? That would solve the being killed by things problem wouldn't it?

There needs to be laws to protect us against these crashes at airshows.