Photographer Scott Belanger took some impressive shots of the pilots ejecting from the MiG-23 Flogger that crashed at Thunder Over Michigan airshow.
As reported in detail, two pilots successfully ejected from a privately owned two-seat MiG-23UB Flogger, registration N23UB/1038107, on Aug. 13, 2023. The aircraft was taking part in the Thunder Over Michigan airshow at Willow Run Airport, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, when, at about 16.15LT, an unknown problem forced the two crew members to abandon the jet.
The pilots ejected and landed in Belleville Lake according to the media reports, while the jet crashed near the Waverly on the Lake Apartments in Belleville. They were then sent to the hospital out of precaution. There were no reported injuries.
Several photographs and videos of the incident were posted online, but the shots taken by photographer Scott Belanger (@darkroomeagle) are almost unbelievable.
In fact, Scott was able to catch the entire ejection sequence from the stricken MiG of both the pilot Dan Filler and the backseater Mark Ruff. The photos he posted on Instagram provide a great insight into the ejection process from the two seater, with, as usual, the backseat being ejected first, followed by the ejection of the front seater.
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The close up images are even more impressive.
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As our US correspondent Tom Demerly (who was attending the airshow when the MiG-23 crashed), the interesting thing about this most recent accident is that it continues a long legacy of successful ejections from Warsaw Pact/Soviet-era aircraft during flight demonstrations. Indeed, you will probably remember the famous Anatoly Kvochur ejection from a MiG-29 at the Paris Air Show in 1989, the two pilots ejecting from the Russian MiG-29s that collided during RIAT at Fairford in 1993, and also, the two pilots ejecting from a Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 Flanker that crashed at Sknyliv airfield near Lviv, Ukraine, on Jul,. 27, 2002, in what became the deadliest air show accident in history.
“The subject of Russian aircraft airshow crashes with ejections is a whole story on its own. This latest one adds to that,” Tom commented.
