[Milsurplus] OT: B-52 Video

[Thomas Adams]

At 05:47 PM 12/28/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>OK, well so much for "breaking news!"
>
>I was on the site and the crash video was pretty grim. You could hear the 
>wind noise over the mic in the camcorder. I wonder whose brilliant idea it 
>was to try flying that monster in a windstorm?
>
>Oh, well...it crashed just like a real one!! Hey, how about that renegade 
>BUFF driver at Fairchild about 10 or so years back who decided to barrel 
>roll a 52 for the airshow? Read an article in Air and Space magazine about 
>him.....from what I gather he had either talked to or seen the footage of 
>the Boeing 707 driver who rolled a 707 over the unlimited hydroplane races 
>outside Seattle. I guess he thought he could do the same thing. OOPS!
>
>73 es Happy New Year
>
>Rich W3OSS


Howdy, Rich.

I know the one you mean.

The 707 roll was pretty spectacular...  but the BUFF crash was just a case 
of a BAD PILOT. Here's a link to a TV investigative report on the incident:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7aLEKBlhNk

Nosing around on the net, I found a paper on the incident that's downright
scary; it points out a general failure of command function. The Brass KNEW
that this guy was a hazard, and apparently half of the squadron personnel
REFUSED TO FLY WITH HIM...  but he was an Old Timer, about to retire, and 
they let him keep on going.

It got so hard to find folks who would fly with him that the crash took out
MOST of the upper echelon base cammand structure, who were filling crew 
seats.

It may seem hard and cold to lay a rap like that on a pilot who isn't around
to defend himself, but the preponderence of investigative testimony is too
is just too heavy.


Mr. T.