Demonstration

The aircraft was engaged in a demonstration flight to potential customers and was carrying five passengers and two pilots. On final approach to Taiyuan-Wuzu Airport, following a certain confusion in the cockpit, the crew forgot to lower the undercarriage. The aircraft landed on its belly and slid for few dozen meters before coming to rest on the runway, bursting into flames. All seven occupants escaped uninjured while the aircraft was destroyed by fire.

The crew was taking part to the 'Sea Cadet Open Day' in Portland and was completing a low pass when control was lost. The aircraft crashed in the sea few hundred yards offshore. Both pilots were killed.

The single engine aircraft was carrying three passengers and two pilots and was engaged in a local demonstration flight in Seshenovo. The occupant were supposed to drop leaflets to celebrate the 1st of May. The crew descended too low when the aircraft encountered strong winds, struck trees and crashed in flames in a square. The aircraft was destroyed by fire and all five occupants were killed.

The 70 years old pilot was flying a Douglas A-20 in a flight of 3 aircraft at an airshow (Confederate Air Force 'Airshow 88'). Afterflying on a southerly heading, the flight entered a procedure turn which involved a 90° left turn to the east followed by a 270° right turn back northbound. While maneuvering, the A-20 entered a right descending turn and subsequently crashed on level terrain in a relatively wings level descent. The main wreckage came to rest about 225 feet from the initial impact point. According to a pathological report, the pilot had severe coronary arteriosclerosis and suffered a heart attack.

A newly delivered Airbus A320, F-GFKC, was destroyed when it impacted trees during a low pass over the runway at Mulhouse-Habsheim Airport, France. A fire broke out, killing three occupants. The Mulhouse Flying Club had requested Air France to perform a fly by at their air show at Mulhouse-Habsheim Airport on June 26, 1988. Air France prepared a low speed pass with the gear down at 100 feet and the another pass at high speed in clean configuration. While Air France had performed more than twenty low passes since 1987, the altitude of 100 feet was not allowed according to regulations. French air safety regulations imposed a minimum VFR overflight height of 170 feet. The fly by was to be performed using an Airbus A320, an aircraft model that was introduced by launching customer Air France in March 1988. F-GFKC was the third A320 in the fleet and had been delivered on June 23. The flight crew scheduled to perform the demonstration flight were two captains: the head of A320 training subdivision (Pilot Flying) and a captain participating in the placing into service of the A320(Pilot Monitoring). On board the flight were four cabin crew members and 130 passengers. The aircraft took off from nearby Basel-Mulhouse Airport at 14:41 and climbed to 1000 feet agl. The crew started the descent three minutes later and Habsheim was in sight at 450 feet agl. The Pilot Monitoring informed the Pilot Flying that the aircraft was reaching 100 feet at 14:45:14. The descent continued to 50 feet 8 seconds later and further to 30-35 feet. Go-around power was added at 14:45:35. The A320 continued and touched trees approximately 60 meters from the end of runway 34R at 14:45:40 with a 14 degree pitch attitude and engines at 83% N1. The plane sank slowly into the forest and a fire broke out.

The aircraft flew to the airport for a sales demonstration flight. The crew boarded the aircraft and taxied out for departure. Witnesses, including two pilots with aerobatic experience, watched the aircraft departure, make a left traffic pattern and do a low fly-by down the runway. At the departure end of the runway, the aircraft pitched up into a steep climb. At 600 feet agl, the aircraft entered a left aileron roll, which the witnesses said was 'smooth, coordinated and with the nose on the point.' At the inverted point of the roll, the roll changed from an aileron to a barrel roll. One pilot witness said that it appeared the 'crew lost it at the top' and that the crew 'held the back pressure too long at the top.' At the 270° point of the roll, the aircraft was seen to 'fall out' or 'dish out' of the roll; it recovered to wings level flight at about 100 feet agl in a very nose high attitude settling into the ground with a high vertical descent rate. No preimpact eng or control system malfunctions were found. All three occupants were killed.

The aircraft was engaged in a demonstration flight, taking part to an airshow at U-Tapao NAS and carrying a crew of six. While flying in the vicinity of the airbase, the crew encountered an unexpected situation and decided to return to the NAS for an emergency landing when the aircraft crashed on approach. Two crew members were seriously injured while four others were killed.

The crew departed Pope AFB and was completing a LAPES demonstration flight at Fort Bragg AFB. A first demo was completed successfully. During the second approach, the pilot-in-command descended too fast and the flare was done too late. The aircraft landed had and rolled for about 1,000 meters before coming to rest in a wooded area, bursting into flames. Four crew members as well as one people on the ground were killed. Two others crew members were injured.

The twin engine airplane was engaged in a demonstration flight to a delegation of the Abu Dhabi Defence Force when it crashed in unknown circumstances in Al Jaylah. All seven occupants were injured and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

At 1:20 p.m. on Friday, March 13, 1987, a B-52 Stratofortress and a KC-135 Stratotanker took off from Fairchild Air Force Base (AFB) to practice aerial maneuvers for a 15-minute air show scheduled on Sunday, May 17, Fairchild's annual Aerospace Day. The show was to be the debut of a new aerobatics team dubbed the Thunderhawks, the brainchild of General John T. Chain Jr., commander-in-chief of the Strategic Air Command (SAC). Its purpose was to demonstrate the capabilities of SAC’s large aircraft through a series exciting routines that included a low-level refueling simulation, high-bank turns, and flybys down the runway. Colonel Thomas J. Harris, commander of the 92nd Bombardment Wing at Fairchild AFB had been assigned the responsibility for the Thunderhawks’ creation and development in December 1986. The KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, No. 60-0361, had three instructor pilots aboard the aircraft: Lieutenant Colonel Michael W. Cornett, Captain Christopher Chapman, and Captain Frank B. Johnson. But no one on the ground at Fairchild knew who was actually in command of the aircraft when it took off. Also on board plane were two navigators, Captain James W. Litzinger and First Lieutenant Mark L. Meyers, and refueling-boom operator, Staff Sergeant Rodney S. Erks. The KC-135 had just taken off from runway 23, in tandem with the B-52, and was executing a steep left-hand turn when it suddenly rolled from an intended 45-degree bank to almost 90 degrees, stalling the two engines on the left wing. The crew managed to level the aircraft, but it was flying too low and slow to recover. The plane crashed landed in an open area north of the flightline, behind three large hangars, narrowly missing the base’s bombing and refueling squadron offices. It skidded through a security fence, across an access road, and killed Senior Master Sergeant Paul W. Hamilton, a member of the Thunderhawks on his day-off from flying, who was sitting in his car watching. The aircraft traveled for another 200 yards, then hit an unmanned weather radar tower and burst into flames. During the journey, the tail section separated from the fuselage as well as the wings, engines, and wheels. One wing, ripped off by the collision with the radar tower, landed 50 yards beyond the burning wreckage. Within minutes, Fairchild’s crash teams were on scene, fighting the fire caused by spilled jet fuel. Spokane International Airport, four miles east of the base, dispatched a crash truck and the Spokane Fire Department mobilized an entire engine company to assist in battling the blaze. Because of the toxic fumes and dangerous flare-ups, reporters and photographers were not permitted near the scene. It took firefighters more than three hours to extinguish the flames and hot-spots from the crash. Searchers found the bodies of five crewmen in the forward section of the blackened fuselage. The body of the sixth crew member was finally found late Friday night, tangled inside the cockpit wreckage. It wasn’t discovered immediately because the recovery teams were being careful to safeguard the crew compartment for the Air Force accident investigators.
Those killed were:
Cpt Christophe L. Chapman, pilot,
Lt Col Michael W. Cornett, pilot,
S/Sgt Rodney Scott Erks, refueling-boom operator,
SM/Sgt Paul W. Hamilton, refueling-boom operator,
Cpt Frank B. Johnson, pilot,
Cpt James W. Litzinger, navigator,
1st Lt Mark L. Myers, navigator.
Source: Daryl C. McClary via https://www.historylink.org/File/8871