 Re: Oshkosh Tragedy
I am very sorry to hear about such an unfortunate event. I am an aircraft maintainence instructor in the Air Force, and while I don't know much about airfield ops, I do know a think or two about flightline/taxiway safety. I work primairly on large aircraft (B-1B) and can say (from expierence) that you MUST stay AT LEAST 200 ft to the rear of an operating turbine engine. In the Air Force this is considered absolute, no matter if you are in a vehicle or not. I do not know what the following distance regulations are for civil aircraft, but would like to think that 200 ft would be a nice round number to shoot for.
On the other hand, how many other venues are there where soo many civil, and military aircraft are in such proximity to each other. I have never been to OSHKOSH, but from what I hear, there really isn't much "breathing room" to begin with. I agree completely with Mr. Chapman in that pilots are responsible for manuvering their aircraft, both in the air and on the ground, however I also agree that this is a very unfortunate accident. We could sit here and debate right and wrong, add or take away restrictions, but in the end it will always be the pilot's responsibility to have situational awareness. I really hate that this happened, it is never a good thing to have to learn from accidents like this, but lessons learned here WILL definately save lives in the future. Tragic would be the word to describe this.
SSgt Scott Eidson |