Aircraft in Action at MiGMan's Flight Sim Museum




MiG-29 Fulcrum In 1993 a famous air to air collision occured between two MiG-29's - famous because it took place in front of the world press! Rob "Bomber" Henderson remembers : " As it happens, I was there and saw most of the event happen! The MiGs were from the Gromov Flight Research Centre at Zhukhovskii. The accident happened at the Royal International Air Tatoo at RAF Fairford UK on the 24th July 1993. The aircraft were about half way through their display when they collided. They had performed a series of formation loops in trail, with what I remember as the lead aircraft being overtaken by the other at the start of the next loop in sequence ( No 1 would lead, then No 2 would lead and so on ). On the last loop, the trailing MiG went to overtake the lead but misjudged his separation on the climbing pass and his port wing almost completely severed the nose off of the lead MiG - the aircraft "folded" at almost a 90 degree angle at this point just behind the rear cockpit bulkhead and exploded. The No 2 MiG lost it's port wing but continued to climb almost vertically with fuel pouring out of the severed wing tank. The MiG disappeared into cloud with a huge fireball chasing it as the fuel ignited - the last I saw of that MiG.		The lead MiG with the severed nose, erupted in a ball of flame and entered a flat spin, which was inverted at first - and the pilot actually stayed with the aircraft fighting with the controls in the hope that the plane wouldn't hit the crowd line. As it happens, the control lines were completely cut and he eventually ejected after waiting for the aircraft to ( almost ) right itself. I didn't see the ejection sequence for either pilot, and the general opinion at the time was that both must have perished. Read on Aircraft in Action


The contents of this website are copyright © 1998 - 2007 by MiGMan
The contents of this website are copyright © 1998 - 2007 by MiGMan