Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

I was at the air races in the A row of box seats. The crash was about ten boxes down from where I was sitting. Say 75 feet or so.

We saw the plane pull up hard, we thought he had a problem with the aircraft. It suddenly rolled and headed towards the stands in a nose down position.
> Then it pulled around hard as if trying to clear the stands and crash away from the people. Sadly it crashed in the A row. When we saw it wasn't going to hit us, we hit the ground to try and not get hit by shrapnel. Fortunately no one in my box was hurt.

I have heard several different theories so far on what happened. We all know it was an aircraft failure. Not a failure of the pilot, the weather, or the engine. Some think the plane's hard pull up probably rendered the pilot unconscious. All agree the pilot didn't do that pull up on purpose, it was due to the aircraft breaking.
> After that the plane either was flying on it's own, or he came too and tried to minimize the damage and crash away from the stands, or it was just out of control and he was fighting it until the end.

What ever happened, he was a great pilot and a good man. the loss of the people in the box seats is incredibly sad, because we are all big race fans, and we all know it can be dangerous sitting that close. But nothing like this has ever happened before.