Sea Fury "Dreadnought" & a Cessna 210

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

I was reading that the 210's pilot's body has been recovered from San Francisco Bay.

 

It sounds like the 210 and Dreadnought were flying together, Dreadnought was passing on the left and its tail hit the Centurion.  Dreadnought made a safe landing at Ione, the Centurion crashed into the northern part of San Francisco Bay, called San Pablo Bay.  I'm not clear on how a Sea Fury with two people on board can't stay clear of a Centurion that they know is there.

 

Oddly, some of the news stories are showing the picture of N9913Y, which was other Centurion that was involved in a very strange incident a few years ago.  The pilot apparently shot himself in mid-air (although he denies it), called for help, got intercepted by a couple military planes over the Atlantic and crashed when he ran out of fuel.  The pilot was rescued and survived, and I believe is in jail or was in jail for a bunch of fraud charges or something.

[DD_bongodriver]

if it was the Sea Fury's tail that hit the 210 it sounds like the 210 had a problem staying clear.

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

The passing aircraft is supposed to stay clear of the one being passed.

[DD_bongodriver]

Passing? sounds like it was a formation

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

Reports are still varied and preliminary, but: "National Transportation Safety Board lead investigator Howard Plagens said the midair collision occurred when the pilot of a vintage Hawker Sea Fury TMK 20 pulled up to the left side of his travelling companion flying the Cessna. The Sea Fury’s pilot said he saw the Cessna going down but did not see it crash. The surviving pilot immediately focused on trying to fly his own plane to land safely, Plagens said."

 

Other sources say "passing". but I suppose Dreadnought could have been changing to a line formation or something.

[Feathered_IV]

I hadn't heard of this earlier. How tragic. Without being flippant, I wonder if this would later become a footnote to the history of the Sea Fury as the last time it is credited with the destruction of another aircraft.

[HagarTheHorrible]

Maybe it happened a bit like this.

 

http://youtu.be/jfuUvfxWrWM

 

Formation, tail etc etc,  talk about horrific, what the crew of the third aircraft thought can only be imagined, but I doubt they would have been quite so enamoured with the romance of flying after that.

Edited May 2, 2014 by HagarTheHorrible

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

I talked to some of the race support guys at Stead over the weekend.  The word they got was that Dreadnought pulled alongside and the Centurion pilot reached down for his camera and while he was looking away the Centurion turned into Dreadnought.  The wing was knocked off of the Cessna, so there was no hope of a forced landing.

[DD_bongodriver]

A silly thing to happen, nevertheless RIP to the poor guy in the 210