“Beware of Jet Blast”.
Filmed at Kleine Brogel Air Base, Belgium, on Sept. 14, 2019, the video below shows a Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 Flanker blowing away some ground crew members as it taxies before take off during the Spotter Day for Sanicole Airshow 2019.
The somehow funny mishap, that fortunately did not leave anyone seriously hurt, was mainly caused by the extreme proximity of the (occasional) ground crews to the taxiway.
Actually, as the video shows, some barriers of the spectators area were also blown away by the jet blast.
By the way, here’s the incident as seen from other points of observation:
According to our readers who were there, spectators and photographers were invited to leave the area because of the risk of being invested by the jet blast.
I was there. Spectators and photographers were warned to leave the area close to the Su-27 because of this reason.
— John Cuppens (@JohnnyCuppens) October 18, 2019
Watching the video of the Ukrainian Su-27 blowing people and barriers at Kleine Brogel reminded me of a famous incident that occurred at RIAT Cottesmore in 2001.
Some photographers were at a spotting point next to the perimeter fence on the northeastern side of the airport next to the runway 23 threshold, a spot that provided a unique point of view on arriving and departing jets.
A B-1B Lancer, 86-0104, 34th Bomb Squadron, preparing for its rehearsal, taxied to the holding point of runway 23, entered the runway and lined-up. Many photographers gathered at the spotting point to get some impressive shots of the departing “Bone”. However, as the pilot pushed the throttles to the stop, to full afterburner, exhaust gases reached the spotters assembled just a few meters behind the American bomber.
Heat haze hit the photographers, some of those barely manage to escape the jet blast: some were burnt, others slightly injured cuts and bruises, others simply shocked. Click here for the video of that famous incident.
Back to the Kleine Brogel video, it’s worth remembering that another weird “incident”, once again caused by the proximity of the spectators to the aircraft, occurred at the base in northeastern Belgium last year: during the Belgian Air Force Days in September 2018, some people were able to briefly and gently touch a new Italian F-35A belonging to the 13th Gruppo (Squadron) of the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force), MM7359/32-09, that was being towed so close to the crowd line that the right wing actually protruded over the orange spectator fencing.
