Monday, November 15, 2010

Ukraine Air Show Disaster 2002



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This video is amazing! It shows the Ukraine Air Show Disaster of 2002 in which 82 people were killed and over 100 more were injured in the worst air show disaster on Earth to date. A huge crowd was gathered at Sknyliv (Скнилів) Airport near Lviv, Ukraine on July 27, 2002 to watch the Ukrainian Air Force present various air tricks, including acrobatics.

A Sukhoi SU-27, one of the world's most advanced aircraft, was doing acrobatics when they began a fatal maneuver. They undertook a rolling maneuver with a downward trajectory while they were too low to the ground.

They rolled upright one last time when the plane began plummeting towards the ground. At the last minute, the left wing dropped and then the plane struck the ground. At that point, the pilots, both of whom were good flyers, ejected. They both escaped with minor injuries.

The now pilotless plane flattened out, skidding along the ground towards a group of stationary aircraft. It struck the nose of a transport plane before cartwheeling into the crowd of spectators as it exploded.

You can see the plane as it seems headed for a crash, then the camera goes wobbly, then you hear the jet crash along with the screams from the crowd. The cameraman advances towards the chaotic scenes and we see two of the pilots untangling their chutes.

Then we head towards the wreck, and you start to see injured and dead people come into view as the cameraman frantically runs through the scene. The cameraman advances into the swarming mess, as we see cops, soldiers and civilians running into and out of the area. Some pause to help the injured to check to see if they are still alive.

A number of people seem to have been killed immediately. We also see what appear to be dismembered torsos of dead victims and what looks like body parts, often limbs or chunks of bodies. It's hard to make out the details, but that's for the better.

He careens through the scene for about five minutes, and not one of the cops or soldiers even tries to stop him. At the end of the video, we see the plane crash all over again.

An all-time classic. For a long time, this video was very hard to find, but it seems to be becoming more accessible these days.

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