Unbelievable coincidence. It’s the fourth incident to a military aerobatic display team in one week, the second today!
On Jun. 9, two Swiss Air Force F-5 belonging to the Patrouille Suisse aerobatic display team collided during a practice display at Leeuwarden air base, in the Netherlands.
One of the Tiger jets managed to land in spite of the damages whereas the other aircraft crashed: fortunately, the pilot was able to eject from the plane suffering only few cuts and bruises.
It’s the first serious incident in the history of the Swiss team, founded in 1964.
What makes the incident somehow shocking is that it occurred on the same day a Su-27 Flanker of the Russian Knights crashed in Russia causing the death of its pilot and one week after two almost simultaneous incidents to the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the U.S. Navy Blue Angels: on Jun. 2, a Thunderbirds F-16 crashed near Colorado Springs with the pilot successful ejecting from the aircraft and, a few hours later on the same day Blue Angels Opposing Solo crashed during a display practice in Tennessee, killing the pilot, USMC Capt. Jeff Kuss.
What’s the odds of four incidents occurring to four display teams in one week? It’s surely an unlucky period.
The Aviationist’s contributor Jacek Siminski was at Leeuwarden today and took the above image of the second F-5 about to land at Leeuwarden with a damaged horizontal stabilizer.
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