Originally Posted by
DogWhisperer
Did the pilots get out? Used to fly nuts like this in a beat up old 182...the amount of stress put on those airframes by the squirrels getting out on the struts is huge. Was always a fear of mine that the tail would snap off or a strut would fail...man...the things we did to get here...
The pilot of one airplane got out and parachuted safely to the ground. The other airplane, damaged but still flyable, the pilot was able to dead-stick to the strip they were jumping from/to and landed safely.
The part the video doesn't show was that the trail airplane's pilot was 'high' on the lead, in addition to flying cross-cockpit!!
He lost visual of lead underneath his own instrument panel and tried to acquire by lowering the nose. That's the point where his prop contacted/shredded the empennage of the lead airplane and well, the rest is on video!! #formation-flying-101
It's miraculous nobody was hurt or killed. This 'team' has a history of these 'situations'.