Today's award goes to multiple people involved with an air crash in Australia. The Sydney Morning Herald reports:
AIR safety investigators will examine why a Ferris wheel was installed next to an airstrip following yesterday's dramatic plane crash at a carnival on the mid north coast.
Amber Arndell, 13, and her brother Jessie, 9, had to be rescued from the top of the Ferris wheel. The pilot of the microlight, Paul Cox, 53, and his passenger, John Rowan, 32, were trapped for almost three hours inside the wreckage as it dangled 10 metres off the ground after it struck the ride at the Old Bar Festival at Taree about 10.20am yesterday.
''I went nose up and straight into it. Next thing I know I was stuck inside the Ferris wheel,'' he said.
At one stage, emergency services were forced to spray the plane with foam because it was leaking fuel on to the wheel, heightening fears of an explosion.
A Rural Fire Service spokesman confirmed all four people involved escaped unharmed.
Witnesses said the Cheetah S200 took off from a grass airstrip but failed to gain sufficient altitude to clear the Ferris wheel, which was placed at the southern end of the strip for the festival.
Following a loud ''crunch'', crowds of festivalgoers gathered at the scene, gasping at the sight of a plane dangling from the ride, and how close it had come to hitting the children.
There's more at the link. Here's a video report about the incident, including the moment of impact. You'll see a wing of the airplane drop to the ground.
Today's Doofi include:
- The idiot(s) who decided to erect a ferris wheel at the end of a freaking runway!!!
- The pilot who was so inattentive that he didn't see a freaking great ferris wheel in front of him!!!
Ye Gods and little fishes . . .
Peter
3 comments:
It is a little bush town - the ride operator probably didn't realise the airport (a strip or well mowed grass) was there.
The local 'major town' Taree can't afford to resurface the tarmac at their airfield and they are the local 'hub'.
A few years back I stopped at Taree for their river bank festival, among the picnicing families and concession stands there was a Bell 206 sitting on the grass. $50 each and my mates & I were airborne. Aussie bush pilots aren't quite up the African variety of laid back, but a few come close.
EEP! that should read "up _to_ the african.... ". One small omission can give a complete new connotation.
Mr Freud intervene, Ragadst?
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