Pilots killed in Su-27 crash at Polish air show

[ATFS_Crash]

A Belarusian fighter jet crashed Sunday during an air show in central Poland, killing both pilots, officials said.

The two-seat Su-27 jet was performing maneuvers at the festival in Radom, 65 miles south of Warsaw, when it went down.

Source and full story.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-08-30-jet-crash-air-show_N.htm

RIP

[Jet-fighters.Net]

Here is video of the crash.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/08/30/331659/video-su-27-crashes-at-radom-air-show.html

[ErwinS]

Multiple bird hit is rumoured and the crew didn't eject to control the aircraft away from the crowd. If this is true they are hero's.

http://www.scramble.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?p=352570#p352570

RIP.

[justLOT787]

Okay so if it's a bird or double bird strike why weren’t the engines flaming out or black smoke coming out of these two engines! I think the plane staled and just could not provide enough power to pull out!fficeffice" />>>
>>

[ATFS_Crash]

I found another video in higher resolution and took a much longer look. It looks nowhere near as reckless as I my first impression. My second impression is that the flying seems to be reasonable and professional.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOT4Q8wvat8

So for now I recant my previous criticism.

[SYDCBRWOD]

Okay so if it's a bird or double bird strike why weren’t the engines flaming out or black smoke coming out of these two engines! I think the plane staled and just could not provide enough power to pull out!fficeffice" />>>
>>

Extremely unlikely. Lightly laden as this bird would have been in airshow trim, in reheat the engines produce more thrust than the weight of the aircraft - technically, it would be possible for this bird to stand on its tail and accellerate straight up without relying on any lift from its wings. These aircraft are reknown for performing the 'cobra manouvre' at far less than stall speed without losing control.

If it was an engine issue it wasn't because they had too little power...

[ATFS_Crash]

Extremely unlikely. Lightly laden as this bird would have been in airshow trim, in reheat the engines produce more thrust than the weight of the aircraft - technically, it would be possible for this bird to stand on its tail and accellerate straight up without relying on any lift from its wings. These aircraft are reknown for performing the 'cobra manouvre' at far less than stall speed without losing control.

If it was an engine issue it wasn't because they had too little power...

He does have a point. I don’t see any evidence of a bird strike. If it was a bird strike than probably someone out there has some video of it; if not the FDR or other evidence might clear things up.

One or both of the engines may have just gone to reduced power.

Whether or not a bird was ingested in this case allegedly some engines have been known to produce an unreliable amount of power. Allegedly flying at such low speed and through turbulence (or exhaust gas recirculation) can sometimes result in a reduction and/or loss of power.

Current safety mechanisms detect oscillation in the pressure — a symptom of pending instability — and react by opening a valve in the compressor and releasing a flood of air, which dramatically drops the pressure and thus reduces the thrust. This emergency tactic causes aircraft to be less than optimally efficient, requiring more fuel and bigger engines. The sudden scale-back of thrust can cause the aircraft to loose altitude, which has occasionally resulted in crashes during landing, take-off or high performance maneuvers close to the ground. One such highly publicized crash occurred in 1989 during the Paris air show when a Russian MIG 29 was performing a high angle of attack "cobra" maneuver.
"Current controls reduce pressure much more than necessary. It’s like throwing the baby out with the bath water," says Krstic. "We have developed an intelligent scheme that continuously checks the pressure and bleeds small amounts of air so that the engine is always operating with the maximum stable pressure. These subtle adjustments eliminate the need to cut back thrust and then build it back up."

Source

http://www.sandiegometro.com/1997/dec/dailyupdt.html

Allegedly the official investigation allegedly found feathers in the crashed MiG-29 at the 1999 Paris air show. However I don’t remember any footage showing large birds in the immediate vicinity of the MiG-29 at the time of the alleged bird strike. If they found feathers, then they should know the species of the bird that allegedly was ingested. I’m wondering what size and type of bird was able to allegedly take out the Soviet engines? Could it’d been something as small as a startling (that might not have showed up on video)? Though starlings are small they are quite robust/dense and sometimes referred to in the aviation industry as bullets.