The plane crash pilot is on trial
Deadly spectacle: It was the most serious accident on a Swiss flight show – are the pilots to blame?
Ten years ago, a plane of the Dittinger flight days crashed in the middle of the village. Now the Federal Criminal Court is working on the case. The teachings from it are controversial.
They start the second last figure of their program, « the wave ». Two Grasshoppers fly with a distance of only one wingspan and about 135 kilometers per hour. The third aircraft follows you and performs wave movements in the middle of your traces.
The view in the cockpit is limited. The rear pilot does not see its colleagues in several phases of his waves. So he does not notice that they are no longer on the trajectory that he is expecting. Suddenly he pierces the fuselage of another grasshopper with his propeller from below.
The fatal moment: In the middle of the formation flight, one of the planes rams another from below.
The other accident pilot can ignite a rescue missile. She pulls a parachute out of the plane that brakes the crash. The plane falls into the garden of a single -family house. The pilot can get out slightly injured.
The surviving pilot ends up in a garden.
Ludwig Isch is a connoisseur of the airshow scene and leads one Event calendar. This is getting thinner. Ich says: « Currently fewer and fewer organizers are ready to take the risk of an air show. » They have increasingly troubled to find sponsors. Many companies no longer see the flight events as image -providing. I therefore think: « At the moment I cannot say whether there will ever be a real air show in Switzerland again. »
+++ Update from the courtroom follows +++
