Fatal accident at airshow in South Africa (Glen Dell – Red Bull competitor)

He passed away at the second hospital, so he did survive the crash and fire, but what injuries he sustained from the crash are unknown but might be revealed in the final report. I haven’t seen any initial report yet. The SACAA website is http://www.caa.co.za. usually they remark whether or not an accident is survivable.

I am really sorry for what happened to Glen Dell and my sincere condolences to the family !

He passed away at the second hospital, so he did survive the crash and fire, but what injuries he sustained from the crash are unknown but might be revealed in the final report. I haven’t seen any initial report yet. The SACAA website is http://www.caa.co.za. usually they remark whether or not an accident is survivable.

Watch other films, they appear to get there very quickly and to be honest with the G forces imposed on impact, he would have been dead long before any fire took hold.

Well, you can make it appear as though grass is growing very quickly , depending how you edit the film.

In this instance you could edit out the two minutes before the ’emergency crew’ rocked up .

Maybe ( we can not know) he was already dead, maybe he was not, but probably best to check before you start the cremation.

Watch other films, they appear to get there very quickly and to be honest with the G forces imposed on impact, he would have been dead long before any fire took hold.

I have to admit that those fire fighters are not very professional.
When I was a kid I used to watch the local firemen put out the dustbins (quite regularly) and they would stop, have the shutters down and hoses out in seconds.
It doesn’t take much effort to point a hose.

I hope those firemen get sued for a murder.

I have to admit that those fire fighters are not very professional.
When I was a kid I used to watch the local firemen put out the dustbins (quite regularly) and they would stop, have the shutters down and hoses out in seconds.
It doesn’t take much effort to point a hose.

ozplane, if he wasn’t unconscious, he could have been injured which may explain why no movement is seen in the video. It may also have been that he was pinned and out of sight of the cameras. I couldn’t find anything on Avcom, several of them were at the airshow and saw it but nothing was mentioned. When the report comes out I will post it here, but they typically take around a year to be finalized.

27Vet, why do you think the pilot was unconscious? Certainly it looks like a flat spin but that should have been recoverable by a pilot of his calibre. On another site it is claimed he broadcast a “Mayday” which might imply a control failure. I wonder if the chap who was called back by the commentator would have got there before the “fire brigade” and thus been able to assist. Tragic all round and awful publicity for Red Bull shortly before their return to racing.

I saw the video on LiveLeak. I sat there screaming at the PC screen for them to start foaming the aircraft. But they sat there doing nothing as the fire took hold! Outrageous.

Yes very sad news RIP. Without castigating the fire service to much I do think they do need retraining at the very least.

If a life was lost due to their ineptitude, tardiness, or general incompetence, then they SHOULD be castigated.

I see a video of a pilot burning to death, whilst Laurel and hardy wander round, putting on their jackets, and wondering what equipment they might try out 😡

Film can be misleading, but there are, I think, tough questions to be answered here.

Here is a “full” video of the tragic event.

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

So the canopy was jammed? Wonder if these emergency window breakers you have in cars and busses would have been any use?

IIRC, the metal points on them are designed to break safety glass. Aircraft have plastic…so I’m not sure they’d be any better than a hammer or crash axe.

There is a video of the actual maneuver and resulting crash, he hit the ground with a very high rate of descent, low forward speed and flat attitude, he was probably unconscious. The video is on several closed group Facebook pages so I can’t post the link.

So the canopy was jammed? Wonder if these emergency window breakers you have in cars and busses would have been any use?

That’s right Michael. He was airlifted to Johannesburg to a hospital then moved to the burn unit at another hospital. He had 80% burns. Very sad as the plane only started burning well over a minute after impact.

An earlier report says the pilot survived the initial crash.

http://ewn.co.za/2013/10/12/Plane-crash-at-Secunda-Airshow

Yes very sad news RIP. Without castigating the fire service to much I do think they do need retraining at the very least.

Sad news. RIP.