Wed, Sep 04, 2013
Seventy People Were Fatally Injured When A Military Airplane Went Down In The Crowd
It was arguably one of the worst accidents ever in the history of air shows. On August 28th, 1988, three Italian military aircraft performing with the Frecce Tricolori precision demonstration team collided in mid-air during a performance at Germany's Ramstein Air Base. One of the jets went down in the crowd of 300,000, resulting in the fatal injury of 67 people on the ground. The three pilots also lost their lives. More than 500 were injured, many seriously.
Last Wednesday, on the 25th anniversary of the accident, about 100 people gathered at a memorial erected at Ramstein to remember the event, and those who lost their lives, according to a report appearing in Stars and Stripes.
The accident led to the suspension of all air shows in Germany for a time. While air shows have resumed, military aircraft are prohibited from participating to this day. Pilot error was given as the official cause of the accident.
Those who gathered at the memorial stone engraved with the names of those who were fatally injured reflected on the people they had lost or the events of the day. Military officials, including a small contingent from Italy, attended the ceremony. The only speaker was U.S. Air Force chaplain Maj. Michael Curtis, who was a 17-year-old selling ice cream at the air show when the accident occurred.
A survivors group visits the memorial site every year.
(Image courtesy Wikiped licensed through GNU Free Documentation License. Re-sized to 300 pixel width)
More News
An Amazing Experience Awaits The Chosen Few... Oshkosh, to us, seems the perfect place to get started on watching aviation recover the past couple of years... and so ANN is putting>[...]
“NBAA has a tremendous responsibility to the business aviation industry, and we are constantly collaborating with them. Our flight departments, professionals and aircraft own>[...]
Dead Reckoning Dead reckoning, as applied to flying, is the navigation of an airplane solely by means of computations based on airspeed, course, heading, wind direction, and speed,>[...]
Aero Linx: Vertical Aviation Safety Team (VAST) We are a public–private initiative to enhance worldwide flight operations safety in all segments of the vertical flight indust>[...]
We're Everywhere... Thanks To You! Even with the vast resources and incredibly far-reaching scope of the Aero-News Network, every now and then a story that should be reported on sl>[...]