The Deadly Truth About Oshkosh - World's Largest Air Show!

Over 10 ,000 aircraft fly to Oshkosh every year to be a part of the world's largest air show.But sometimes those flights can turn out deadly, like the time when two P -51s crashed into each other when they were trying to land, or the time when a pilot made a reckless decision and crashed into a helicopter in midair, killing two pilots.That's why I'm going to reveal the deadly truth about the mistakes that several pilots have made at the air show over the years.But I'm also going to share with you what led to one of the most heartbreaking tragedies at Oshkosh.We've got a lot to talk about, so let's get started.I'm Hoover and welcome to your pilot debrief.

The first story that we need to talk about was caught on camera when a Beechcraft Premier Jet crashed just moments after trying to land at the airshow.And even though the pilot somehow managed to survive, I wanted to share this with you because it easily could have turned out deadly.But before we see what happened, if you've never heard of Oshkosh, it's a small town in Wisconsin where one week out of the year, they host the world's largest air show, formerly known as EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.Last year, over 700 ,000 people attended the show, including over 10 ,000 aircraft, turning a small airfield into the busiest airport in the world for the week of the show.For right now, when it comes to our story, Jack Roush was the pilot flying the plane, and if you've never heard of him, he's best known as the founder and co -owner of the NASCAR team, RFK Racing, and he was also inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.At the time of the crash, he was 68 years old and he had an airline transport pilot certificate with single and multi -engine ratings, as well as over hours of total flight time, including over 1 ,400 hours in the Beechcraft Premier that he was flying when he crashed.

According to the investigation, Jack was flying to Oshkosh to attend the airshow, and in order to handle all of the arriving traffic, the airfield had converted a parallel taxiway just east of the runway that could be used for takeoff and landings, identified as Runway 18L.That meant the main runwaynormally used would be labeled as runway 18R.Now, when Jack initially checked in with the controller, he was told to expect to land on runway 18R and also told to report over Warbird Island, which was a visual reference that aircraft were using to sequence into the pattern.This is where it's important to know that if you plan on flying into Oshkosh, you need to be prepared because this isn't anything like what most pilots are used to.In fact, they have a 30 page guide that gets updated every year with specific instructions on how to safely arrive and depart from the airfield.

And they even have several videos online that show you what some of those procedures look like from the air.They also have a waiver for reduced aircraft separation during the week of the show.So you need to follow the controller's directions because there's going to be a lot going on and you might end up flying a short approach or possibly being asked to land halfway down the runway with other aircraft landing behind you.That's why they have colored circles and rectangles that the controllers will direct you to land on.A great example of this was shared on the Mojo Grip channel when Mike was flying into Oshkosh a few years ago, and I appreciate him letting me share this clip with you.Check out what happened.

I remember coming in, we got instructions from Tower Fold, all the rules, all the way to turning base and final.And I was given the instruction to land on the yellow dot.But in the last moment, I get a different instruction.And the reason being that there was a Bonanza, a much faster airplane right behind me.And then now Tower wanted me to fly all the way to the end of the runway.

Fly it down the runway.RV, add power.Fly it down the runway.

I put a link to Mike's channel in the description below if you want to watch the full video, but obviously there was a lot going on in that situation.And I think the controller could have said something like land past the yellow dot because I've got faster traffic landing behind you.But I think he was just trying to be directive.And the truth is that Oshkosh has some of the best controllers in the business and they do an amazing job every year.And I think they deserve a lot of credit for helping to keep everyone safe.But ultimately it's up to the pilot in command to follow the rules and ask questions if you're not sure about what's going on.

That being said, this wasn't Jack's first time flying into Oshkosh.In fact, he had flown his Beechcraft Premier to the show the previous two years, so he was very familiar with the arrival procedure.He eventually reported over Warbird Island, and that's when he was cleared to land on runway 18R and told to make his base turn to beam the control tower.The way he was going to do that was angle in towards the airfield and then turn north to fly downwind parallel to the runway until it was time to turn base.However, the problem was, as Jack was maneuvering his aircraft, another controller instructed a yellow Cub aircraft to taxi into position and hold on runway 18R.And because this was the same runway that Jack was going to land on, the pilot of the Cub requested an angled departure to stay clear of the faster traffic.

But the controller responded saying 1 -8 right, cleared for takeoff as requested, cleared for immediate takeoff.Basically, the pilot of the Cub could see where Jack was and he didn't want to be in the way.And even though the controller didn't clear him to use runway 1 -8 left, he did approve the pilot's request to turn left as soon as he got airborne.However, this is where it's important to understand that due to the volume of traffic, departing aircraft were using one frequency while arriving traffic were using another.So Jack never heard any of that.this.

That's why when Jack started his left base turn, he saw the Cubs sitting on the runway and he had no idea what was going on.So he keyed his microphone and he said, is 6JR going to be okay with this?Referring to his own call sign and the controller said affirmative, but Jack replied, I don't think so.All right, I want you to think about what you would do in this situation, because Jack obviously wasn't comfortable with what was going on, even though the controller was trying to tell him that it was going to be okay.And the thing that you need to keep in mind is that Jack only had a few seconds to process all of this and make a decision.He could go around, or he could try to land.

This is where I want to go to the video because we can see Jack on the left base leg in a continuous turn to line up with the runway.And according to his cockpit voice recorder during that turn, the bank angle warning was heard going off five times as the bank angle varied from 32 to 43 degrees.And he said he was concerned about his spacing behind the other aircraft.So he made a radio call saying that he was going around as he was overshooting the runway.I'll show you what happened next in just a second, but first you need to pay attention because the NTSB didn't talk about this in their final report, and I'd argue it's the root cause for why this accident happened.You see, even though Jack was told to turn base and beam the tower, he started his turn right here, which was about 2 ,100 feet short, which equated to about 7 seconds too early, and that's gonna make a big difference.

Also, the NTSB didn't provide any flight data prior to this point, so it's hard to tell if he was flying a parallel downwind, or if he was just angling in towards the runway the entire time.On top of all that, he was doing about 165 knots ground speed when he started turning base.And because the typical landing speed for the aircraft is about 115 knots, he had to lose about 40 to 50 knots in the turn, which means he probably had the power pulled back.But what makes this worse is that he rolls out a couple of times, almost like ahe's focused on watching the other aircraft.And the entire time he's doing that, he's getting closer to the runway.

And that means he's going to have to square the corner at the end, which is why he was getting those bank angle warnings as he was overshooting the runway.And that's when he decided to go around.But now his airspeed is down to about 110 knots and the power is probably still back at idle.But now let's go to the video to see what really happened.Here he is finishing the turn and overshooting the runway.And even though it was the right decision to go around, the problem is instead of selecting takeoff power, he only advanced the throttle about a third of the way to the stop.

And I think he just made a simple mistake and lost awareness of his airspeed and power setting because of everything that was going on.And as a result, he ended up getting too slow and the stall warning stick shaker and stick pusher activated almost simultaneously as the right wing stalled.And you can see in this image that he was already pretty low to the ground when that happened and the right wing hit first as he crashed just off the side of the runway.But take a look at this, because this is probably the most important part of the story.You see, it's very easy to assume that the controller should have waited for Jack to land before he cleared the yellow Cub to take off in front of him.But the truth is that he didn't need to, and this wasn't the controller's fault.

Because in the video, you can actually see the yellow Cub flying the angled departure that he was approved for.And according to the investigation, when Jack turned final, the Cub was already airborne and wasn't going to be a factor.crashed because he didn't advance the throttles to take off power during the go -around.But I'd argue that was the last slice in the Swiss cheese model and it all started with him turning base too early and then getting fixated on the aircraft that was about to take off.Now the reason why I'm sharing this is because I think he got lucky and he managed to survive but the pilots in the next two stories didn't and the first one that we need to talk about took placeon July 31st, 2008, when a pilot was just moments away from landing when something went horribly wrong and he crashed about a hundred yards short of the runway.

Roger was the pilot flying the plane, and he was 62 years old, and he had a private pilot certificate with 1 ,700 hours of total flight time.And even though the report said he only had 10 hours in the aircraft he was flying in, the truth is that he had more time than that, and the NTSB just didn't bother to include those details in their investigation.Either way, the man sitting next to him was John, and he was 56 years old, and John was also a pilot.And according to a news article, the two of them had prepared extensively for the trip to Oshkosh.The aircraft they were flying in was a home -built Lancer Legacy that Roger had purchased about a year prior, and there was nothing mechanically wrong with it at the time of the crash.Roger and John began their trip in Pennsylvania that morning and everything was going fine as they started the arrival onto Oshkosh.

When they checked in with the controller, Roger was told to report a four mile final for runway 27.And when he did, the tower told him that he was number four to land following a second Malibu on base.So Roger started looking for the traffic.About 45 seconds later, the tower said that the Malibu was turning final in front of him, and the controller cleared Roger to land on the orange dot.Just for reference, this is where the orange dot is located on runway 27.And the reason why that matters is because about 15 seconds later, the tower told the Malibu to keep it in the air and land on the green dot.

This was a very similar situation to the Mojo grip video that I shared with you earlier, because what's going on is that you've got a Malibu that has an approach speed of around 77 knots, landing in front of a Lancer, which has an approach speed of about 90 knots.So the controller was trying to get the Malibu to land further down the runway to make room for thefaster aircraft landing behind him.And just like in Jack's situation, my guess is that Roger was focused on that aircraft out in front of him, and he was probably trying to go as slow as he could in order to ensure that he had enough separation, but unfortunately, he got too slow and stalled, and he crashed about 100 yards short of the runway, and Roger and John did not survive.But the thing is, Roger wasn't being reckless, he just got distracted, which is very easy to do when you're flying into Oshkosh.And sadly, this wasn't the only time that something like this has happened.

In fact, a few years ago on July 22nd, 2024, another Lancer crashed in the pattern, but this time we have the data to see what really happened.Sean was 37 years old and he was the pilot flying the plane.According to the investigation, he had an airline transport pilot certificate and just over 2 ,400 hours of total flight.Additionally, he had flown into Oshkosh at least three times in the past, and he had spent a considerable amount of time studying prior to the flight.It's worth pointing out that Sean was also working for the FAA as an air traffic controller in Philadelphia, and he was fully certified in the tower, so he had a lot of experience when it comes to directing and sequencing aircraft.The man sitting next to him for the flight was James, who was only 32 years old.

James was an A &P mechanic with inspector authorization, but he also had his airline transport pilot certificate, and he was a first officer for a major U .S.airline.The two of them took off just before noon local time from the Hartford Municipal Airport just south of Oshkosh, so this was going to be a short flight.They were flying the Fisk Arrival, which is a relatively straightforward procedure that would bring them in from the west, essentially flying down Fisk Avenue until they made a 90 -degree left turn to land on the runway.However, what happened was that there was traffic coming in from the opposite direction at the same time as Sean.

So the controller told Sean to widen his turn.an aero L29 and an aero L39 that were going to be landing ahead of him.That's why Sean began a shallow turn to the right away from the airfield, and he reported that he had the traffic in sight.But take a look at the geometry, because at this point the L -39 had started to turn final, and I think Sean was trying to figure out how to time his turn back towards the airport in order to land behind the other aircraft.And it's all happening very quickly.In fact, it was less than 60 seconds from the time that Sean started his turn until the time that he crashed.

So that's not a lot of time to process everything and react.About 10 seconds later, the aircraft were only about 2 ,000 feet apart laterally, but the L -39 was about 400 feet higher than Sean's aircraft.So now Sean is going to be looking up and to the left as he's about to start that turn back towards the runway.Going back to the data, you can see that 10 seconds later, Sean was about halfway through his turn towards the runway, and the L -39 was out in front of him, and the separation was increasing.But here's the problem.You see, during this entire sequence of events, Sean was looking up and to the left to keep sight of the L -39, and then he had to look back over his left shoulder to see the runway, and he most likely lost track of his airspeed.

When he started the turn, he was at 98 knots, but now he was down to 84 knots, and he likely pulled back on the controls to tighten the turn to avoid overshooting the runway, and he got as slow as 70 knots, and he exceeded the critical angle of attack and stalled, and he didn't have enough altitude to recover.Tragically, Sean and James did not survive the crash.But the point I want to make with these first three stories is that all of these pilots were trying to do the right thing, and they were making perfectly reasonable decisions, but they got caught by a simple mistake.However, the next story is a completely different kind of tragedy, because it's about a pilot who was warned that what he was about to do was dangerous, but he didn't.anyway, and it killed the woman sitting in the back of his plane who didn't even want to go on the flight.The next tragedy at Oshkosh that we need to talk about took place on July 27th, 2017.

And most of what happened was caught on camera as eyewitnesses watched a seaplane try to take off, but instead it came crashing down into the water, killing two of the three people on board.The aircraft that they were flying in was a 1983 Aerofab Lake 250, also known as a Lake Renegade.And there was nothing mechanically wrong with it at the time of the crash.Ray Johnson was 84 years old, and he was the pilot flying the plane.And he had over 33 ,000 hours of total flight time, including almost 900 hours in seaplanes.And this photo was taken when he was inducted into the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame.

Basically, this was a guy that a lot of people looked up to because of the positive impact that he had on the aviation community, which is why everyone was shocked when they discovered the truth about the mistakes he made that day.Sitting next to Ray in the right seat was a man named Alan, and it turned out that Alan was also a pilot, and he had over 2 ,400 hours of total flight time, including 150 hours in the Lake Renegade that they were flying in.However, what you need to know is that Alan was also Ray's flight instructor for the Lake Renegade, and he had even conducted about 100 water landings with Ray in the accident aircraft, but we'll talk more about Alan in a minute.For right now, I want to point out that there was a woman named Diane who was 71 years old, sitting in the back of the plane, for the flight.According to an eyewitness, she was crying, not wanting to go on the flight, but perhaps she felt like she didn't have any other choice and tragically she did not survive the crash.According to the investigation, Ray and his two passengers showed up at the seaplane base at Oshkosh and they climbed aboard his aircraft and Ray started the engine,

but he didn't realize that the aircraft was still tied to a mooring plug, which is basically an anchor, so his aircraft began to turn in a circle around it.That's when a volunteer tried to stop him to explain what the problem was, but Ray tried to argue with him, saying, you can't prevent me from leaving with my aircraft.Regardless, Ray ended up shutting down the engine so that way they could untie the aircraft, and that's when they discovered that the left wing was missing an inspection cover, so they towed the plane back to the dock.And while Ray was getting that issue repaired, some of the sea base personnel and the other pilots warned him that the water conditions were too rough, and they tried their best to discourage him from taking off.In fact, the harbormaster and the chairman of the seaplane base took Ray out on the lake by boat to observe the water conditions, where they showed him that the waves were one and a half to two feet high, and according to the aircraft manual, the maximum demonstrated wave height for water operation was only 18 inches.But keep in mind, that's not an official limit, and ultimately it's up to the judgment of the pilot based on their own level of proficiency.

Either way, Ray seemed to initially agree that the waves were too high, but he said he would just take off parallel to the swells, even though that meant he would take off downwind.That's when the chairman had enough, and he told Ray, and I quote, Unfortunately, despite everyone's best efforts, no one was going to stop Ray from taking off that day.And as soon as he got back to the seaplane base, he told his passengers to get in the plane and he said he was ready for departure.Now, I want to pause for a second because what's crazy to me is that Alan was his flight instructor sitting in the right seat for the flight, but there's no evidence that Alan tried to stop him.In fact, after the crash, Alan told the NTSB that Ray decided it was safe and he could take off.and Ray was the pilot in command of his own aircraft.

Now in full transparency, we don't know why Alan was essentially deferring to Ray and was willing to risk his own life to do so.Perhaps he didn't see the danger in the situation, however the folks at Oshkosh and the Seaplane Base certainly did.But tragically, this was a case of a pilot that didn't care what anyone else had to say.Shortly after they got in the aircraft, an eyewitness took this photo as they were being towed out.And you can see the harbormaster holding up his finger because he was telling Ray to wait because Ray kept trying to start the engine while the aircraft was still being towed.As soon as the tow ropes were disconnected and the harbormaster moved out of the way, Ray started the engine and immediately applied takeoff power and pulled forward, and then he started a right turn to get pointed downwind for takeoff.

Now, I wasn't able to find the full video, but according to the investigation, the aircraft accelerated across the water until it porpoised up and down two to three times before the nose eventually rose steeply out of the water.And as soon as that happened, the aircraft began rolling to the left until the wing clipped the water and the plane spun around and flipped on its side and started to sink.The NTSB didn't calculate the weight and balance for the aircraft, so it's not clear if they were overweight for takeoff.What we do know is that the aircraft manual specifically requires the flaps to be down for takeoff and landing, and Ray even had a checklist posted in his aircraft that day that reminded him of this.Unfortunately, Ray was in too much of a hurry, and he never lowered the flaps.Allen later told the NTSB that he heard Ray verbalize that the flaps were down prior to starting the takeoff, but that the Lake Renegade could take off without the flaps extended, even though the aircraft manual said otherwise.

As disturbing as that story was, it's not the worst one on our list, because we still need to talk about how two aircraft collided in midair at Oshkosh and Oshkoshto share with you one of the most heartbreaking tragedies that has happened in recent years at the show.But before we get to that, we need to talk about what happened on July 27, 2007, when two P -51s collided when they were trying to land, causing one of the aircraft to crash off the side of the runway, where it exploded, killing the pilot instantly.I want to start by saying thanks to Jim from Arrow News Network for letting me share this footage with you.Jim and his team do a great job of covering aviation news, and if you want to check them out, I'll put a link to their site in the description below.That being said, when this tragedy happened, a lot of people that were at the air show thought that they were watching the pilots trying to do a formation landing.

But to understand what really happened, we need to take a step back and start at the beginning.On the day of the crash, a group of five aircraft and pilots known as the Reno Racers were going to conduct an air race demonstration for the crowd.The group included a Grumman F -7 Tigercat, a Hawker Sea Fury, and a Goodyear F -2G Super Corsair, and those three aircraft are only going to play a minor role in what happened.But the two aircraft that we're going to focus on are the P -51D, whose call sign was Stang, and a P -51A, whose call sign was Precious Metal, because those were the two aircraft that collided.The pilot flying Stang was only 24 years old at the time of the crash, and he had just over 1 ,200 hours of total flight time, with about 100 hours in the P -51.However, he was new to the Reno Racers, and the accident flight was his very first flight with the team.

That being said, he was still a very capable pilot, and even though no one doubted his ability to fly in the race, he was still the new guy flying with other pilots who had been doing this for decades.The pilot flying Precious Metal was 58 years old, and he had over 10 ,000 hours of total flight time with about 128 hours in the P -51 that he was flying.He was also new to the Rena racers butat least he had flown on Wednesday and Thursday so this was his third flight with the team.Sadly, he was the pilot that did not survive the crash.That morning, the team had gotten together with the Airboss to conduct a safety briefing prior to flying.

And what you need to know is that when it comes to the airshow performance, the FAA waivers the airspace.And that means the Airboss becomes responsible for the show.However, that doesn't mean that they control the demonstrations or dictate everything that the aircraft are doing during their performance.It's kind of like when the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels perform at an airshow.The Airboss isn't telling them what to do during the show.So when it comes to the arena racers, demonstration was a pre -briefed event, and the pilots were expected to fly in accordance with the briefing, and that meant that typically they would just land in the order that they finished the race, following the aircraft that was in front of them.

But they didn't have to make any radio calls saying that they were going to land, and the Airbus wasn't required to clear them to land either.However, during the briefing, things started to go off track because the team representative said that he briefed for Stang to land first.Part of the reason was because he was the new guy in his first race, but they also didn't want him to worry about wake turbulence if he ended up landing behind the Tigercat, which is a much larger aircraft.The only problem is that two of the pilots didn't remember this being briefed prior to the show.So before they even took off, you've got five planes that don't share the same mental picture about the landing sequence.Either way, when the race started, everything seemed to be going fine.

The Tigercat gained an early lead and would stay in first place for the entire race.The Sea Fury would end up finishing second, Precious Metal came in third, Stang came in fourth, and the Super Corsair came in fifth place.So the question was, how was Stang going to land first, and did the other pilots know what was going on?And the truth is that I actually had to read this NTSB report several times to figure out the exact sequence of events.because the way it was written was very confusing, and the NTSB didn't provide any visual diagrams or anything else to better understand what happened during those final moments after the race was over.What we do know is that the Tiger Cat, who had finished first, was going too fast, so he decided to do another lap and he was going to land behind everyone else, which meant no one would be worried about wake turbulence.

Even though he wasn't required to, the Airboss cleared the flight to land on Runway 36, and that's when the pilot of Sea Fury said that he was on base and he was going to be landing number one, meaning that he would be the first one to land, and that made perfect sense because he was next in line.However, a few seconds later, the pilot that finished the race in last place in the Super Corsair made a radio call saying, radio call, so we don't know if anyone actually heard it.And even if they did, Stang had finished the race in fourth place, so he was going to have to cut in front of everyone else to land, and no one had briefed or talked about how that was going to happen.But one thing that was discussed during the briefing was that the team representative said that Precious Metal was going to land, refuel, take on a passenger, and then depart for another nearby airport.That explains why when Stang was on the downwind, he said that he saw Precious Metal out in front of him with his gear and flaps retracted, heading away from the airfield, so he just assumed that Precious Metal was departing the pattern to go land somewhere else.As a result, Stang started turning base, which would make him the second aircraft to land, but he never made a radio call saying that he was doing this, and technically he wasn't required to make one.

The only problem was a few seconds later, Precious Metal started turning base, having no idea that Stang had cut in front of him.In fact, Precious Metal even made a racecall saying that he was on a one -mile final, still unaware that Stang was directly in front of him.Unfortunately, the pilot flying staying never heard that radio call because he was flying with his canopy open and it was too noisy.That's why when we go back to the video, it almost looks like they're trying to do a formation landing because of how close together they are.And the reason why Precious Metal didn't see staying in front of him was because even though the P -51 has great visibility for dogfighting, anything in front of you below the nose is practically impossible to see, especially when you're that close to each other until it's too too late to do anything about it.

And as a result, the two aircraft collided, causing precious metal to roll to the right and crash on the side of the runway, killing the pilot.Either way, this was a very tragic incident, and even though the NTSB blamed the pilot that was flying Precious Metal for an inadequate visual lookout, there was a lot more to the story.And tragically, this wasn't the only time a blind spot has killed someone at Oshkosh.You see, one year prior, a Grumman TBM Avenger was starting to taxi, and it crashed into the back of an RV -6, tragically killing the passenger on board that aircraft.According to the investigation, the Avenger pilot never saw the RV -6 because he was taxiing straight ahead, and the RV -6 was in his blind spot in front of the nose.However, they discovered that if he had been doing S -turns down the taxiway, then he most likely would have seen the aircraft in time to avoid the collision.

Speaking of collisions, the next tragedy we're going to talk about was all caught on camera, and it involved a gyroplane and a helicopter, who were both conducting flights at Oshkosh during the show, when one of the pilots made a deadly mistake and they collided in midair, sending both aircraft crashing to the ground, killing two pilots and seriously injuring two others.But the truth is that there was no reason this ever should have happened.And in order to understand why, we need to start by taking a closer look at the pilots involved and the aircraft they were flying in.If we go back to the video, you can see both aircraft just moments before impact.On the right side of the footage is an ELA -10 Eclipse gyroplane, tail number November 221 ECHOLIMA, and this is a two -person gyroplane with tandem seating, and the pilot flying it when this tragedy happened was Eric.Eric was 54 years old, and he had a sport pilot certificate and a rating to fly gyroplanes, and he had acquired roughly 600 hours of total flight time, with 500 hours in the make and model that he was flying when he crashed.

Although Eric had attended Oshkosh in prior years, this was his first time flying demonstration flights in his gyroplane at the show, and he had flown the aircraft previously during the show, but we'll talk more about that later.Eric was sitting in the front seat, and he had a passenger seated behind him.The passenger had just met Eric for the first time at Oshkosh, and was thinking about buying a gyroplane, so Eric offered to take him up on a demonstration flight.According to the investigation, the passenger was wearing a headset for the flight so he could talk to Eric, but the NTSB never asked the passenger about any of the radio calls during the flight, which is something that's going to play an important role in what happened.That being said, according to the passenger, the flight was only about 10 to 15 minutes long, and as they were coming in to land, Eric performed an impressive tight left turn, and the next thing he heard was a loud pop, and the gyroplane was going to the ground.They ended up landing on top of an unoccupied parked aircraft, which likely helped cushion the impact, and somehow they both managed to survive, but suffered some serious injuries.

Going back to the video, on the left side is a 2012 Rotorway 162F helicopter, tail number November 193 Alpha Zulu.This is a two -person home -built helicopter with side -by -side seating and the pilot flying the helicopterwas 69 -year -old Mark Peterson.According to the NTSB, Mark had a commercial certificate to fly helicopters, and he was also a flight instructor with about 8 ,000 hours of total flight time, with almost all of that being in the make and model he was flying on the day of the crash.And the truth is that Mark was a well -known and highly respected pilot who had attended and flown at the Oshkosh Air Show for several years.In fact, Mark was even trusted to assist in the daily pilot briefings, and he was considered an air safety advisor for the flight operations.

Flying with Mark was a man named Tom who was 72 years old and he was a student pilot with about 122 hours of flight time.However, it's important to keep in mind that although Tom was a student pilot, this was not an instructional flight, and all of the evidence points towards Mark being the one that was operating the controls at the time of the crash.Tragically, Mark and Tom did not survive when the two aircraft collided as their helicopter fell from the sky and crashed into the ground and caught on fire.In order to better understand the mistakes that were made, we need to take a step back and talk about the plan, and then I'm going to share with you the flight data and more video footage so you can see what really happened moments before the crash.In the fighter pilot community, we always come up with a plan before we execute our mission.And then we brief the plan to make sure that everyone understands their role and how we're going to stay safe.

And Oshkosh is no different.And they have specific plans and procedures for everyone that's participating in or flying during the show.And they also have daily safety briefings.In fact, if you don't attend the daily briefing, you don't get to fly that day.And what the NTSB discovered was that all week during the daily pilot briefing there had been problems with the auto gyros and several incidents that led to multiple requests for the auto gyros to comply with the traffic pattern standards.They were repeatedly asked to stop doing

360 -degree turns, and also they were told over and over again to make radio calls communicating their intentions.In fact, my friend Dan Milliken from the YouTube channel Taking Off was there in person, and I want you to hear what he had to say about the briefings, and then I'm going to share with you the truth data showing what actually happened during the flight.

This one is a bit personal for me.While at AirVenture last July, I had an opportunity to take a ride in a Rotorway at the Ultralight Field on the Wednesday of the event.I was set up with Mark Peterson to ride in his black Rotorway.Mark was a staple of the Home Built Rotor community and it was cool to meet him.I showed up at the Wednesday morning briefing and sat next to him.And when the briefing started, Mark brought up the issue with the gyros performing non -standard moves in the pattern and one guy said, Mark, you can hover and some of the others laugh.

Mark didn't laugh.He was serious about safety.The briefer picked up on it and reminded everyone that there was a sheet for procedures and that for some reason gyros had started a dangerous habit of doing 360 degree turns while in the pattern and that that wasn't allowed.

Keep in mind that Dan went to the briefing and he did his flight with Mark on Wednesday.Then on Thursday, the day before the crash, Eric flew his auto gyro, and the individual that conducted the safety briefing that day told the NTSB that Eric did a 360 degree maneuver while he was flying and there were words exchanged on the radio between him and the aircraft behind him.It was too close.Unfortunately, the NTSB didn't provide any further details on this incident, interview the other pilot involved, or provide a transcript of those radio communications.But what we do know is that Eric was allowed to keep flying, and he and Mark both attended the safety briefing on the day of the crash.During that briefing, Eric and everyone else was specifically told

that there were to be no 360s in the pattern.Instead, pilots were instructed to continue in the pattern and pass aircraft to the left away from the crowd.That being said, now that you understand a little bit more about the plan and the briefing, it's time to see what really happened during the flight, and then I'm going to share with you what Eric said after the crash.According to the investigation, Eric and his passenger took off in his gyroplane just after 12 o 'clock local time from runway 36, and they flew to the south and west of the field before they started the return to the ultralight pattern.During that time, Mark was conducting rides with passengers in his helicopter, and at 12 .21 .55 local time, Mark landed and Tom got in the left seat, and about three minutes later, they took off and began a left -hand circuit in the ultralight pattern.This is where you need to know that Mark had a GoPro recording his flight, and the passenger in the gyroplane also had a cell phone video that started 35 seconds prior to impact and captured the whole thing on video.

Now, the NTSB didn't make that footage available to the public, but what they discovered was that just after Mark got airborne and he was heading southbound, Tom pointed towards a lighter colored aircraft at their 12 o 'clock position.Based on the flight data, this was Eric's gyroplane directly out in front of them, beginning their approach to the pattern.So Mark adjusted his spacing and he continued making his turn to follow the same path that Eric was on, and at 12 .26 in 10 seconds, Eric's gyroplane was out in front of Mark by about 1 ,500 feet.And you can also see from the flight data that there were two other helicopters in the pattern in front of Eric.One of those helicopters can be seen at the beginning of the video making a low pass over the runway as Eric began his left -hand turn.The reason this is important is because according to Eric, there was a request from the air boss to slow down traffic.

to make room for the helicopter that was on the ground that was about to take off.However, because Eric was flying a gyroplane, he couldn't hover.So he said the only option that he had was to make a 360 degree left turn for spacing towards the interior of the traffic pattern.Eric will go on to say that other pilots reported to him that he announced he was making a 360 turn for spacing, which was in the pre -brief direction to the left.However, the truth is that according to the video transcripts, there was no mention of a radio call from the air boss directing traffic to slow down.No one directed Eric to make a 360 -degree turn for spacing, and there was no record of Eric making a radio call saying that he was making that turn.

In fact, pretty much the only radio calls that were documented by the NTSB were those made by Mark Peterson and his helicopter as he flew around the pattern.And if you look at this image, this was a very tight 360 -degree turn, Where Eric never rolled out to clear for traffic and while he was doing this maneuver his passenger made the comment nice turn And then a few seconds later the two aircraft collided My guess is that Eric wasn't expecting another aircraft to be behind him in the pattern So he wasn't looking for mark and chances are mark lost track of the gyroplane after it started turning to the left So he never saw the collision coming and sadly mark and Tom died as a result Afterwards, Eric told the NTSB that he couldn't remember the details of the safety briefing, but he said that under the circumstances, he considered the idea of a go -around to be less safe than a left 360 -degree turn for spacing because the go -around would have put him in conflict with departing traffic.If Eric thought the go -around was less safe than a 360, then he should have brought that up the day prior when he was warned not to do 360s in the pattern.Sadly, this wasn't the only plane crash at Oshkosh that day, and that's why I want to showgears and talk about what I think is the most tragic story on our list about a woman who was an inspiration to many in the aviation community.Devon was only 30 years old when she hopped in her airplane with a friend for what was supposed to be a local flight.

Unfortunately, about five minutes after taking off, they were flying over a lake when something went horribly wrong and eyewitnesses saw the aircraft falling out of the sky in a flat spin before it impacted the water, killing both people on board instantly.If you've never heard of Devon before, she is from New Braunfels, Texas, and was the co -founder of the Texas Warbird Museum and the former general manager of Texas Aviation Academy.She was also the daughter of Bruce Cauley, a former NFL Super Bowl champion that played for the San Francisco 49ers, who said that Devon died living what she wanted to do.According to the investigation, Devon earned her private pilot certificate in August of 2017 and her instrument rating in December of that same year, and she eventually acquired almost 700 hours of total flight time, with about half of those being flown within the two years leading up to the crash.Zack was the man flying with Devin that day, and he was only 20 years old.Zack was a member of the commemorative Air Force Central Texas Wing who was working to earn his A &P, and he loved everything related to warbirds and aviation, but to be clear, Zack was not a pilot.

The aircraft they were both flying in was a 1944 North American AT -6, and if you're not familiar with this type of plane, it's a single -engine, tandem -seat aircraft originally used for military flight training.However, I want to be clear when I say that there was nothing mechanically wrong with the aircraft at the time of the crash, and the reason I'm highlighting this is because I know some people think that it's not safe to fly old, historic aircraft, but that's not necessarily true.Either way, when it comes to Devon, according to her logbook, she conducted a one -hour checkout flight in the T6 on Monday.and over the next two months leading up to the crash, she logged about 33 hours of experience in the aircraft.The NTSB report said that it wasn't clear what maneuvers were performed during that checkout flight, but what you need to understand is that no one had any concerns about her ability to fly the aircraft, and Devin would end up flying the T -6 from Texas up to Oshkosh for the air show that week.On the day of the crash, Devin and Zach hopped in the plane and they took off from runway 27 just before 9 a .

m.local time for what was supposed to be a routine local flight.They made a right turn to head to the north and they continued for about three miles before turning towards the northeast to head out over the lake.And everything seemed to be going fine as the aircraft leveled off around 3 ,900 feet.A few minutes later, the aircraft made a turn to the right, followed by a turn to the left, and then almost immediately it entered a rapid descent and a flat spin until it impacted the water below.According to the NTSB, when Devon leveled off at 3900 feet, the aircraft's calibrated airspeed was about 110 mph, and during the subsequent turns, the airspeed slowed down to about 87 mph.

Now typically that's not that big of a deal because based on the gross weight of the aircraft, the stall speed with the gear and the flaps retracted was 67 miles per hour.However, that assumes that you're flying at 1G, which is basically straight and level flight.And the thing that you have to keep in mind is that an aircraft can stall at any airspeed.All that matters is the critical angle of attack.And the truth about what happened was that when Devin was doing these turns, she pulled back too hard on the control stick and the NTSB calculated that the load factor of the aircraft increased to 1 .8 G's and because she was only doing about 87 miles per hour, she exceeded the critical angle of attack and experienced what's known as an accelerated stall.However, you need to keep in mind that when the aircraft stalled, they were still at 39 miles per hour.

feet, so they initially had some room to recover from that stall, but if you don't follow the stall recovery procedures or if you delay that recovery, then the aircraft will eventually enter a fully developed spin, which is what eyewitnesses saw and she didn't have enough altitude to recover.Now, I realize that it's easy to blame Devon for this tragedy, but that's not the point of the debrief.None of us were in the cockpit with her that day, so we don't know what happened in those final moments of her flight.What we do know is that Devon was not a reckless pilot, and she was just like any of the other thousands of pilots that love to fly.She was an inspiration to many, but unfortunately, she made a tragic mistake and wasn't able to recover from it.This has been a tough debrief.

Sometimes pilots make mistakes at Oshkosh.But I hope that this video has helped you to better understand those mistakes that were made over the years that led to some of these tragedies.Oshkosh continues to be one of the safest air shows in the world because of the rules and the procedures that they've put in place.Unfortunately, pilots are human and sometimes bad things happen.but that doesn't mean that we should be afraid of flying.The problem I have is with the pilots that deliberately choose to break the rules or don't want to listen when others try to warn them that what they're doing is dangerous.

Don't be that kind of pilot.Stay safe, have fun at Oshkosh, and I'll catch you on the next debrief.