crash at duxford today [2011]

[Viper2000]

Impressive flying by the Skyraider pilot to save the aeroplane. It's a miracle that nobody was hurt.

It wouldn't surprise me if the P-51 was rebuilt; the concept of "beyond economic repair" doesn't apply to this sort of aeroplane.

Originally Posted by Houndstone Hawk

Yes I videoed the whole event yesterday; yes I saw what happended, yes I immidietely then turned my camera off.

I realise had I had filmed the event then it would've been perhaps helpful to the air crash invistigation team at a later date & some good comes out of such footage but I'm glad my footage isn't used to entertain XXXXX like you.

[...]

just decent folk that knew when to stop filming, out of concern, respect, whatever!!!

I find this attitude most unfortunate. Accident footage is extremely beneficial to aviation safety. In addition to directly aiding the investigators, it also allows other pilots to get a feel for the anatomy of an accident.

This isn't really about the spectacular crash part which some may find ghoulish; it's about the lead-up (though it's also actually quite helpful for people to see what the limits of a parachute escape are, both in terms of time and altitude, so that they are better equipped to make that very important split-second decision should they be forced into a nightmare scenario).

It is a fact that safety is to a certain extent self-limiting because as things become safer, fewer people are exposed to accidents, which inherently limits their ability to learn from the mistakes of others. Video footage of accidents is therefore extremely useful, because it allows far more people to learn.

Not filming doesn't prevent the accident. Whilst there may be people who get some kind of kick out of watching crashes, I think that really that's their problem; it shouldn't be aviation's problem. If one person learns something which helps to prevent an accident, I personally think that's well worth any number of ghouls getting their rocks off.