An aviation event in Beja, Portugal, was cancelled after an aerobatics display went awry.
Two planes collided mid-air during the Beja Air Show in southern Portugal on Sunday, leaving one pilot dead and another injured.
The fatal accident occurred during a display by the Yaksars, a Portuguese-Spanish aerobatics team that flies the Yakovlev Yak-52, a Soviet-era trainer piston aircraft. Multiple videos of the crash were taken by spectators who’d gathered to watch the show.
Footage from the scene shows six Yak-52s flying in a tight diamond formation, with one of the planes falling out and lagging behind. The aircraft, which appeared to be emitting smoke from its engine, abruptly climbed and hit another before coming to a halt.
Beja Air Show accident 😨😞 DEP pic.twitter.com/4WrRfoLCeO
— Don Expensive 🇪🇦 ✞ 🐸 (@kar0____) June 2, 2024
The presumably malfunctioning aircraft then plummeted into the ground, exploding on impact and killing its pilot.
Pilot killed after two Yakovlev Yak-52 aircraft of the Spanish-Portuguese Yakstars formation team collided during the Beja Air Show in Portugal. pic.twitter.com/fKAczVQH8A
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) June 2, 2024
The plane it hit mid-air managed to make an emergency landing on the runway but flipped upon stopping, another video shows. Its pilot reportedly sustained multiple injuries.
Air Traffic Control exists to SEPARATE aircraft from one another, in order to avoid mid-air collisions.
Air Shows are a hazard to both the pilots, aircraft and the spectator public (ie the Airshow tragedy in Germany that killed pilots and spectators 20+ years ago…)
Air Racing at Reno, Miami, etc. is pretty much dropping off now…besides, General Aviation is now unaffordable for such activities to continue…
Hmmm, so you suggest that all hazards, FREELY engaged in, ought to be outlawed?
Put some additional cotton wool in your protection helmet before you bang your head against the wall.
https://www.amazon.com/Breathable-Protective-Assistance-Protection-Adjustable/dp/B098F1M5V8?th=1
Go & pick-up the body parts afterwards…then come back to me.
Aircraft engaged in Air Racing, Aerobatics, are VERY hard to insure, and nowadays many are quitting this hazardous ‘sport’ due to the un-affordability of insurance, maintenance, parts and fuel.
Bottom Gun
Top Gun and Red Flag are military exercises brought about after losses in Vietnam.
These events are engaged for survival in the Air Combat, Strategy and Tactics elements of aerial combat based on the limitations of the engaging aircraft.
I flew in Red Flag for two weeks, and the content is never discussed due to signing a ‘non-disclosure agreement’.
Three years later I and five others were invited to fly as an aggressor at Top Gun for a month, using USAF Aggressor Squadron aircraft. Similar, parallel but very different due to the Naval Doctrines.
End result; unable to disclose…!