Crash at Dayton Airshow

[evangilder]

This has not been a good week. Jim Leroy crashed while performing in his Bulldog Pitts at the Dayton airshow. He was airlifted to a local hospital.

Prayers go out to him and his family.

ENOUGH ALREADY!

 

[mkloby]

Another shame...

 

[timshatz]

Not sound trite, but they say these things do happen in three. Maybe he's the last one.

 

[evangilder]

Some of the news media are reporting that Jim has passed away.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

My god, what the hell is happening!

 

[ccheese]

This has definately not been a good week for warbirds..... or aviation in
general. Could these people just be getting careless ?

Charles

 

[evangilder]

In regards to the media helicopter pilots, possibly, but I doubt any warbird owner would be careless. They all know that they are flying 60+ year old planes. The minute you get lax with anything in them could be your last.

 

[Heinz]

This is getting depressing with all these incidents, I hope the media is wrong in the report of his passing.

 

[evangilder]

Nope, it has been confirmed. Jim Leroy has died. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jim's family and friends. Godspeed and tail winds, Jim...

 

[Heinz]

indeed

 

[Bf109_g]

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

My prayers for him and his family.

 

[Gnomey]

My condolences to his family

 

[Piratemed]

We all know the poem ... the one about "reaching out to touch the face ..... " ... but the loss of another pilot and aircraft touches us all in different ways ... our hearts go to those that have experienced the loss personally ... I lost a cousin that was more of a brother than a cousin to a S2-B accident many years ago ... very much like the crash at Dayton yesterday ... we need to remember those families left behind . . . why it happened ? . . . the cause is unknown ... something broke .... a part failed ... pilot error ... either way we are one more less in our bortherhood .... know that where they are flying today ... they don't have to worry about the weather or the traffic anymore ...... the sky is blue and the clouds are soft as the feathers that are carrying them . . . Fly High .... Fly Far ....

 

[grumman-cats]

You were the best Jim.

 

[evangilder]

Nice tribute, Jim. I know many people that had met him and they all spoke very highly of him.

 

[Micdrow]

 

[Stupid]

I've never met him but i've seen him perform live. I just got back from a wild fire so i've been isolated from the media for a little less then 3 weeks, so hearing that this happened when I was gone is sort of scary.
He was one of the best.


pardon my ignorance but what where the other two incidents?

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

These old warbirds can be unrealiable at times. Many pilots in WWII died from errors of the planes.

 

[evangilder]

We also have to keep in mind that these are high performance aircraft that can be very unforgiving.

The other 2 events were the loss of a P-51 in Camarillo a few weeks back, killing the pilot. Then the same weekend as the Dayton crash, 2 P-51s came together during landing at OshKosh, killing one of the pilots. I believe the day of the crash at Osh was also the day that the 2 news choppers in Phoenix came together and killed 4. Thank god July is over...