#8 - Jeff Kuss 32-year-old Marine Captain Jeff Kuss, from
Colorado, took part in a Blue Angels flight demonstration in Smyrna, Tennessee, on June
the 2nd of 2016.
As Kuss piloted his F/A-18 aircraft in preparation for the air show, he attempted to perform
a Split-S maneuver, which essentially entailed reversing his flight path while simultaneously
lowering the altitude.
He initiated the move while flying too fast and too close to the ground for it to be completed
successfully.
The jet crashed and Kuss was killed as he attempted to eject from the cockpit.
Although the captain was a highly trained aviator, it was his own error that ultimately
caused his untimely demise.
Kuss, who was survived by a wife and two children, was memorialized in the town of Smyrna by
a statue of an F/A-18 jet, which is decorated with an engraving of his plane number.
Kuss had originally joined the Blue Angels in September of 2014 and had logged more than
a thousand flight hours and 175 successful landings prior to his fatal crash.
#7 - Kirsten Pobjoy 23-year-old Kirsten Pobjoy of Stroud, England,
is a professional wing walker and a self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie who narrowly escaped death
during the UK’s largest air show, on September the 4th of 2021.
The incident occurred at the Bournemouth Air Festival and the performance involved Pobjoy
being strapped to the wing of a display plane.
Hundreds lined the Dorset coastline to watch her execute her patented wing walking stunt.
A man named Dave Barrell flew the plane that carried the vaunted daredevil.
In the middle of her performance, an announcer told those in attendance that technical difficulties
had caused one of the planes to divert its course mid-flight.
Suddenly, the plane piloted by Barrell descended lower and lower in the sky until it finally
crashed into the water.
43-year-old Libby Chambers, a rescuer stationed on a boat close to the location of the accident,
made her way to the wreck within seconds.
Pobjoy was reportedly screaming in shock and Barrell was visibly shaken as well.
Nevertheless, neither one of them sustained any serious injuries as a result of the crash.
In spite of the perilous mishap that could have ended her life, Pobjoy gave no indication
that she was discouraged from continuing her stunt performing endeavors in the future.
#6 - Corey Hood A US Navy parachutist was critically injured
and later passed away due to an accident at the Chicago Air & Water Show on August the
16th of 2015.
Sergeant 1st Class Corey Hood of Cincinnati, Ohio, struck another parachutist during a
jump from an airplane at the show.
The mid-air collision caused him to careen into a nearby apartment building before ultimately
falling to the ground on the coast of Lake Michigan, which was considerably off course
from his planned landing area.
Hood, a member of the Navy’s Leap Frogs jump team, collided with a fellow team member
during a planned maneuver, which knocked him unconscious, leading into a wayward descent.
The other Leap Frogs jumper suffered a broken leg as a result of the incident.
Hood underwent surgery to relieve pressure on his brain before he eventually succumbed
to his injuries at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Hood had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan on five separate occasions and earned a number
of military decorations for his service, including 2 Bronze Stars and 5 Army commendation medals.
#5 - Jon James A Canadian rapper named Jon James, aged 34,
tragically died on October the 20th of 2018 while performing a stunt for one of his music
videos.
James and his team were filming in Vernon, British Columbia, when the accident occurred.
James had planned to walk out on the wing of a Cessna aircraft mid-flight as part of
the rap video.
He had trained rigorously for months leading up to the day of the shoot, but that, unfortunately,
didn’t stop him from making a crucial mistake as he prepared to execute the final stunt.
While the plane was in mid-air, he walked out onto the wing as planned, but he moved
too close to the edge and caused the aircraft to go into a downward spiral.
James desperately held onto the wing as the plane spun out of control but he eventually
lost his grip and went into free fall.
He didn’t have adequate time to activate his parachute before colliding with the ground.
He was killed on impact.
James was well-known for his willingness to perform dangerous stunts, having suffered
a number of severe injuries over the course of his career including a fractured neck and
two separate accidents each of them resulting in a broken back.
#4 - Gender Reveal Plane Crash A gender reveal party at the Nichupté lagoon
in Cancun, Mexico, went horribly wrong on March the 29th of 2021 and resulted in the
death of 2 people.
A plane was scheduled to fly over the party and emit either blue smoke if the unborn child
was male or pink smoke if the child was female.
Partygoers on the beach watched as the plane flew overhead and released a stream of pink
smoke behind it.
They began chanting “niña!”, the Spanish word for girl, when suddenly the aircraft
lost control and plummeted into the water below.
The aircraft was piloted by two individuals, one of whom was pronounced dead when first
responders arrived on site.
The second pilot was successfully rescued from the wreckage, but later died from his
injuries.
The trend of organizing gender reveal parties is widely credited to a parenting blogger
named Jenna Karvunidis, who has since expressed her regret over popularizing the practice.
There have been a number of reported deaths in connection to such events, which often
involve elaborate and dangerous stunts for the added theatrical effect.
#3 - Jane Wicker and Charlie Schwenker A tragic accident at the Vectren Air Show
in Dayton, Ohio, took the lives of 45-year-old stuntwoman Jane Wicker and Charlie Schwenker,
aged 64, on June the 22nd of 2013.
The latter was piloting the biplane on which Wicker planned to perform a wing walk in front
of thousands of spectators.
At roughly 12:45 p.m., the plane flipped upside down and began to lower its flight path as
Wicker sat atop the wing.
Witnesses at the scene recounted seeing a look of sheer horror wash over the stunt performer’s
face as the plane traveled closer and closer to the ground.
Schwenker continued to lower the plane’s altitude until, at the very last moment, it
tilted sharply and made contact with the earth below, resulting in an explosion that killed
both the pilot and the stuntwoman instantly.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol conducted an investigation following the accident that
determined the crash was caused by pilot error.
Schwenker was apparently attempting to carry out an ambitious airshow maneuver that requires
the flyer to maintain low elevation as well as a low rate of speed.
The crash occurred more than 500 feet away from the horrified onlookers but no one else
was injured.
The air show improved its safety measures the following year, supplying an additional
fire truck for the event.
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#2 - Eddie Andreini The “Thunder Over Solano” air show at
Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, California was the location of a deadly plane crash on
May the 4th of 2014.
Highly experienced aerobatic pilot Eddie Andreini, aged 77, was piloting a 1944 Stearman biplane
as part of the presentation.
As he executed an aerial maneuver, Andreini’s aircraft began descending closer to the runway
below while it was still upside down from the stunt he was performing.
The plane screeched to a halt on the pavement, then began to emit clouds of smoke.
Within seconds, Andreini’s craft was engulfed in flames as he lay trapped in the cockpit
and the crowd of spectators was quickly evacuated from the base.
Despite the chilling sight of Andreini’s plane on fire in the middle of the runway,
the Travis Fire Emergency Services failed to promptly spring into action.
At least two minutes elapsed before fire trucks were dispatched to the scene of the crash,
a delay which may very well have cost Andreini his life.
The well-respected stunt pilot had flown in nearly 1,000 air shows over the course of
his career and, in December of 2013, he’d been inducted into the International Council
of Air Shows Hall of Fame.
Andreini’s family was awarded a $1.4 million settlement by the US Air Force stemming from
the slow response time of the emergency services on-site that day.
The air show subsequently changed its protocols, requiring firefighters to be suited up, in
their trucks and in direct access of the runway at all times.
#1 - Sknyliv Air Show Disaster On July the 27th of 2002, the deadliest air
show accident in history took place at the Sknyliv airfield in Ukraine.
Volodymyr Toponar and Yuriy Yegorov co-piloted a Sukhoi Su-27 fighter plane during an aerobatics
performance.
The air show was attended by more than 10,000 spectators who had come to celebrate the 60th
anniversary of the Ukrainian Air Force’s 14th Air Corps.
The Su-27 is an aircraft commonly used in aerial combat.
Toponar and Yegorov planned a fairly basic rolling maneuver as part of the performance.
However, in the midst of the presentation, the plane’s altitude dropped rapidly and
the crew was forced to eject from the craft before it made contact with the ground.
It skidded into other stationary planes and subsequently exploded as it hurled towards
the crowd of attendees.
Miraculously, both pilots survived the accident with little injuries aside from a few scrapes
and bruises.
The same could not be said for dozens of unsuspecting audience members.
A total of 77 spectators were killed by the incendiary crash and more than 500 others
were injured, resulting in roughly 100 hospitalizations.
The head of the Ukrainian Air Force was dismissed by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma in the
aftermath.
In June of 2005, a military court sentenced Toponar to 14 years in prison and his co-pilot
Yegorov to 8 years.
Three other military officials were jailed in connection with the disaster.
In the tragedy’s wake the disgraced pilots have constantly maintained that the crash
was caused by uncontrollable technical problems and a flawed flight plan rather than their
own errors.
Thanks for watching!
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