Thunder Over Michigan fighter jet lost power moments before crash, investigation shows

[marmar]

(Detroit Free Press) A day after a retired Russian fighter jet crashed Sunday afternoon at the Yankee Air Museum’s Thunder Over Michigan Airshow, investigators from federal agencies began the tedious work of documenting and sifting through the wreckage, hoping to find clues to why it malfunctioned.

The two aboard safely ejected, landing in Belleville Lake, and the aircraft — a privately owned MiG23, which was performing at the show — smashed into a Van Buren Township parking lot and exploded into a massive fireball, narrowly missing an apartment complex.

The investigation, so far, has indicated the pilot declared an emergency when the plane’s engine lost power, an investigator said. The two aboard were unable to correct the problem and decided to eject from the aircraft. Officials said the pilot — who owns the aircraft ― had serious, but not life-threatening injuries, and the backseater had minor injuries.



"It is fortunate no one on the ground was injured," John Brannen, a senior air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board who came from Chicago, said during a news conference at the crash site. "In this case, we have a fairly large airplane and the fact that both pilots survived and there were no ground injuries is a very good outcome." ..............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2023/08/14/michigan-airshow-crash-thunder-over-michigan-ypsilanti-waverly/70589630007/

[Laffy Kat]

1. I grew up going to airshows.

I stopped going in 1997 after witnessing a fatality at an airshow in Broomfield, Colorado. I had both my kids there, my youngest a newborn. It was a Canadair F-86E doing stunts and mis-calculated. It was unbearably hot that day, although I don't know if density altitude had anything to do with the accident. I just know that it was very close--too close--to the crowded airfield. I decided there and then that airshows are not safe.