Fly-Low Editor Ralph McCormick tells ANN that the first air show in Santa Fe in four years has turned into an unexpected tragedy.

The air show opened at 1 pm MDT, Saturday. As the aerobatics started, Larry Salganek of Santa Fe (NM) performed in his T-33 ‘Thunderbird’. The second act was Rick Bobbitt of Avalanche Aviation, Parker, Colorado. Bobbitt took off in his Sukhoi-29, gaining altitude to begin his performance. As he started his routine from the north, he descended to gain airspeed and entered a hammerhead. Dropping the nose, he set up for a loop and after re-positioning, he flew in front of the crowd to pull the Sukhoi veretically into another hammerhead. The two seat Sukhoi SU-29 hung there on a pillar of smoke… finally tail-sliding earthward--into the smoke. As expected, the plane came out of the smoke at the bottom, "while he pushed the nose over to recover and the plane began to tumble."

Ralph tells us that it was a move he had performed many times before... "The plane was getting closer to the ground. At that time, I thought that the aerobatics was over and he was attempting to simply get control of the plane. The nose came up as if he intended to recover, but his plane was now so close to the ground, it seemed to stall and impact the ground at about a thirty degree angle. The plane was not inverted at the time of the crash, it was upright. Several witnesses said that the engine was not obviously loud at the time of the crash. When the Sukhoi is at full power the engine makes a tremendous noise. It happened so fast, it is hard to determine if the engine was at full power or even running at the time of the impact. Fire consumed the front of the plane within seconds of impact. It burned uncontrolled until the fire truck finally arrived at the scene."

McCormick posiuts that "for some reason, Bobbitt was unable to maneuver out of the uncontrolled flight after coming out of the tail slide."

In his conversations with Bobbitt just before the crash he said, “The Sukhoi is one of those planes that when it is out of control, I simply release the controls and it begins to fly again. It is one of the best aerobatic planes on the market today. I am here to have fun and I don’t do anything that is that dangerous. There are three things I always follow. I never scare the FAA, I never scare me, and I always have fun.”

The accident happened at about 1334 pm MDT. The fire truck and ambulance both went to the scene, as of 2:10 pm neither had left the scene. It is assumed that Bobbitt was killed immediately (and officials have now confirmed that Bobbitt perished in the crash). The air show officials made no announcement to the condition of the pilot, the airport was closed and the crowd was asked to go home.

Bobbitt was a retired U. S. Naval aviator and currently was employed by United Airlines. He received his Navy “Wings of Gold” in 1979. During the “Cold War”, he flew throughout the world as a P-3 Orion Aircraft/Mission Commander tracking Soviet Russian Submarines and was a veteran of Desert Storm. Rick Joined United Airlines as a pilot in 1994. His total flight time was 11,000 hours. He held an ATP, FE, and CFIIMEI “Gold Seal” instructor ratings. [On-site photos courtesy of Ralph McCormick.]

FMI: www.fly-low.com