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Kevin E. Schmidt / Quad-City Times via Zuma Press
A fireball rises after a Soviet-era Czech L-39 military training jet with the Hoppers Flight Jet Team crashed, killing the pilot during the Quad-City Airshow on Saturday.
Jeff Cook / Quad-City Times via Zuma Press
The jet was flying in formation shortly before it crashed alongside the I-80 highway. It plowed into a field near the Eastern Iowa Industrial Center in northern Davenport, Fries said.
-- Reported by Reuters
A jet crashed, Saturday, at the Quad City Air Show in Iowa. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
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I was just talking with someone the other day about how I don't feel safe when the air show has all kinds of jets and such flying over downtown Milwaukee. It's just creepy and seems unnecessarily unsafe for them to fly over a heavily populated area, especially since we're right on the shore of lake Michigan (which they could safely fly over and not be a hazard). I understand nobody but the pilot was killed in this crash but it could have been much worse (not that that really makes it any less traumatic to anyone who was there).
When I was at an air show in 1996 Peggy Alcorn crashed on the runway and died - I was 8 years old. Maybe that event gave me this sort of paranoia about air shows, but lately it seems somewhat justified.
As long as there are Air Shows, there will be accidents.
God Bless the innocent.
My heart goes out to the family of the pilot. I lost my son-in-law to a similar accident of an L-29 during a flight demonstration at a 4th of July celebration in Tehachapi, CA three years ago. David was a competent pilot as was the retired Air Force test pilot who was in the back seat. No one is certain what happened nor who was at the controls including the FAA. There were many family members at the celebration when it happened. The L-29 crashed into the foothills outside of the city. Both men were doing what they loved when it happened. The families are learning to cope. Sad, but it happens. Life goes on.
Just too many of these tragedies at such air shows. Please regulate them more if needed, or stop them altogether. Not only are the pilots at risk, but hundreds of innocent onlookers. Can't people just go to airports, look out the window, and watch planes take off and land?
yes they can - as long as they like watching the same thing t/o and land (the only thing that changes is the paint job)
What a buch of haters -- both sides! The believers and nonbelievers. This crash is a tragedy, whether you believe in god or not. People have lost loved ones in this crash. Still, only a couple of the comments address this, the point of the news story. Instead, the discussion has turned to religion.
How about a kind word or two for the dead and those left to deal with the loss? Does EVERYTHING have to turn into a political platform?
sucks
People die everyday in car accidents, shootings , disease and just being old. You might as well have some fun because the story always ends the same way. You will also find out if heaven exists at that time. So it goes. Believe what you want to believe. I like to go to air shows and I accept the risk of driving my car there which is less safe than watching the show. I do not go to Nascar races 25 miles from my house. So it goes.
I agree gene!
I like air shows. I went to my first one in downtown Chicago many years ago. It was all military, and done right over Lake Michigan, and the coolest thing I remember is a couple of F4 Phantoms going almost straight up in a climb and crossing the supersonic threshold while doing so. That BOOM was pretty loud at ground level, but I'm sure most of it dissipated vertically, or there would have been some broken windows in the skyscrapers on the shore. I'd go to another tomorrow if one was local to me. Condolences to the pilot and his family. The shock and horror of that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Why do r tards always get the serious stories? If you can't spell or write better than a kindergartener, please don't phucking write!
Airshows are the STUPIDEST things in the world.
No, extreme "fighting" comes in first.
Whats the POINT....... all you safety police types....go live in a padded cubicle ....... My self, ride ATVS ....... drive an old hot rod......... climbed mountains when i was young........ went 140 mph a few times......... fished 200 miles offshore on a 40 ft boat........ backpacked 20 mile in grizzly country........ Im 54....... The POINT is ....LIFE quit being scared and go LIVE
This summer I drove an ATV to 12,500 and saw the whole world below, and then I drove it up the side of a mountain... which was not smart, but FUN! and I went rafting, and jumped horses, and learned how to shoot and chop wood... seriously, whats the point of living if you're going to stay inside and stare at the idiot box all day
What did you learn to shoot?
some sort of glock... very specific, I know. ;-) it had bullets and it shot things lol
Bet that would have been fun to watch, I have a .40 glock.
Another reason never to visit Iowa.
Then this pilot is my hero... Iowa doesn't want you to visit... we have our own idiots
or Kalifornication, Kolorado, Cansas, Montana, Texass, Arcansas, Missouiery, Missedyerpeepee, New Dork, and the list goes on and on. You run a bigger risk of getting killed in a major City than at an Air show. Personally, I fly a Quicksilver MXL2 Sport Ultralight and ride a Yamaha crotch rocket. I split lanes on Kalifornication freeways and date married people. I've been doing this for over 25 years and still going strong. If you don't try something wild and crazy, you will get too old to say you did. Real life begins at 140 mph on the road and at 1,000' agl.
Whats the matter Bill, you don't like nice people and good times?
Why would ANYONE get into a Soviet jet that was built in the 1960's?? Stupid is what stupid does.
This is a sad ocurrance as the pilot was trying to provide an entertaining show for the attendees. The comments of ending air shows due to crashes is idiotic...every day, YES, everyday...117 people die in car crashes. Should we end driving?
No, God will weed out the 117 bad ones daily. Tongue in cheek
Why do these planes always have enough fuel in them to cross the Atlantic when they are doing a 10 -15 show. The ball of fire from that plane shows the fuel must have been topped off risking a huge fire and cause of death for many on the ground had it been closer to spectators. Why not enough to do the show with a little reserve and that's.
From a realist in a world full of dreamers
Cornfields are Takin a BEATING this Summer!
It wasn't a cornfield that it crashed in, it was an Alfalfa field. Despite what may have ben said--these were RUSSIAN PLANES...
If you are a pilot, you would understand why we fly and go to airshows. I go to be around and socialize with other pilots. I go to see the warbirds...love the sound of those radial engines of all sizes...and the aerobatics.
This year the show at Rocky Mountain Regional Airport featured the F-22 Raptor, a sight (and sound, WOW!) not to be be missed. I have found that people who spend their whole lives looking at the ground are missing the whole point of being alive.
from video its clear it was pilots fault
pilots fault
sorry for double post , but msn dont like save and paste videos
Actually there were less than a hundred fatalities per day in 2011. And half of those were due to DUI. Let's figure out how to eliminate those.
330 privat owners ,L-39 Dolphin start build in 1974 , nothing russian on this plane
it was not a waste of fuel,look at the fireball!
Gee toredown. Your intellignce or should I say ego is amazing. To have so many things figured out. But really it seems that the most intelligent people that I've met in my life were the least judgemental. You must have a real problem with your self image to have to put down so many people with your little snide comments. This isn't about you. It isn't about religion or peoples political beliefs. It's about an accident at an airshow. Show some respect to others you pompus *ss. Or didn't the humans that raised you teach you any manners?
Dork and greg both have their right to their athieism, they are just what they say they are.....ignorant. America allows this sort of thought process, but then again, we also allow dogs to piss on fire hydrants. All the same context, they blow off their minds the way they were taught, or not, but they have that right. And everyone else has the right to call them anything they want, remember that dog? NOW, about that crash, the Czech's can't make good drill bits, just imagine the quality of their jets. I was drilling a piece of aluminum and the Czech made bit jammed and the flutes went straight. It wasn't even good aluminum, just some cast junk I was goint to use for a counterweight, Chinese crap. Oh well, I hope GOD FIXES EVERYTHING, INCLUDING DORK and GREG.