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somdcroc · #21 09-21-2014, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CanAm

I was musing about the topic in general, and that scenario came to mind as an example of something crazy but not impossible.

Irfan, I know what you are thinking because I have been to a couple of events this year with RC quadcopter camera rigs (I refuse to use the idiotic term "Drone") flying over the track and thought about the consequences of one crashing or being poorly flown into the cars on track.

BTW--I (as well as least one other Potomac member) witnessed the event Friday evening from the south paddock. It was very surreal watching it and knowing well before it actually impacted the ground that the outcome was not going to be good. The pilot made some very bad decisions that led to a very tragic outcome. We had about thirty folks in the paddock waiting for FSR DE event registration and tech inspection and another ten or so flaggers that just finished working the Rezoom event. The flaggers called for EV response (and 911) immediately. Track EV was on the scene almost instantly although there was obviously nothing they could do and flaggers also controlled the pit gate--even stopping one Porsche with two guys that thought they should go to the scene to assist EV I assume. The track and its workers seemed to do a great job in controlling the situation considering this was such a strange and obviously unexpected event. Those that hadn't made it in the track gate yet were stopped from entering to allow clearance for the local fire and rescue equipment which seemed to arrive almost 15 or more minutes later. The PCA event folks like me had earlier entered the south paddock without staging in the Raceplex but the motorcycle event folks were staging in the Raceplex. Speculation is that the pilot was showing off not for us in the south paddock but for the motorcycle folks (he was a large well known motorcycle race team owner) waiting in the Raceplex. Doing a quick google maps look at the track you can see that beyond the tree line from across the south course is the Raceplex area so it now becomes obvious why he did his passes over our south paddock because it lined up where he was flying over the Raceplex staging. I do have a picture of the aftermath of the incident from the south paddock but will not post it as there is nothing to gain from showing it. What isn't known is why the pilot chose to come out of his roll while over the center of the south course and make the tight 90 degree right turn into an area where the terrain was rising and he didn't have time to level off and climb back out. Some speculate that while still in his roll he knew he was losing so much altitude that its possible he concluded that staying on his current straight path he was aimed right at the ground of the south paddock and the people and cars sitting there so chose instead to pull out and turn toward the infield--probably understanding the outcome. I ended up pulling out of the event I was really looking forward to on Saturday morning because a back problem that popped up Friday afternoon that didn't get better the next morning but I sense that I would have also had problems with focus as well if I stayed. I'm still a little rattled by what I saw. But like every one says--this was an incident that didn't have to happen--it was completely avoidable.

Scott.

CanAm · #22 09-21-2014, 11:51 AM

^ To be clear, I never thought of aircraft being a noteworthy risk for track days, and still don't. It just popped into my head as a crazy possibility during a thought experiment. I mentioned it in this thread only because of the odd coincidence of a plane crashing at a track a couple days later.

old worker · #23 09-21-2014, 01:24 PM

I worked a trans am race in the early 80s at SP when a stunt plane landed on the straight and picked up paul newman for a ride and a short air show. we've been buzzed at pro races before, sure it will happen again. upper end motorsports and private planes are in the same toy box.