Fly-Low Editor Ralph McCormick tells ANN that the first air show
in Santa Fe in four years has turned into an unexpected
tragedy.
The air show opened at 1 pm MDT, Saturday. As the aerobatics
started, Larry Salganek of Santa Fe (NM) performed in his T-33
‘Thunderbird’. The second act was Rick Bobbitt of
Avalanche Aviation, Parker, Colorado. Bobbitt took off in his
Sukhoi-29, gaining altitude to begin his performance. As he started
his routine from the north, he descended to gain airspeed and
entered a hammerhead. Dropping the nose, he set up for a loop and
after re-positioning, he flew in front of the crowd to pull the
Sukhoi veretically into another hammerhead. The two seat Sukhoi
SU-29 hung there on a pillar of smoke… finally tail-sliding
earthward--into the smoke. As expected, the plane came out of the
smoke at the bottom, "while he pushed the nose over to recover and
the plane began to tumble."
Ralph tells us that it was a move he had performed many times
before... "The plane was getting closer to the ground. At that
time, I thought that the aerobatics was over and he was attempting
to simply get control of the plane. The nose came up as if he
intended to recover, but his plane was now so close to the ground,
it seemed to stall and impact the ground at about a thirty degree
angle. The plane was not inverted at the time of the crash, it was
upright. Several witnesses said that the engine was not obviously
loud at the time of the crash. When the Sukhoi is at full power the
engine makes a tremendous noise. It happened so fast, it is hard to
determine if the engine was at full power or even running at the
time of the impact. Fire consumed the front of the plane within
seconds of impact. It burned uncontrolled until the fire truck
finally arrived at the scene."
McCormick posiuts that "for some reason, Bobbitt was unable to
maneuver out of the uncontrolled flight after coming out of the
tail slide."
In his conversations with Bobbitt just before the crash he said,
“The Sukhoi is one of those planes that when it is out of
control, I simply release the controls and it begins to fly again.
It is one of the best aerobatic planes on the market today. I am
here to have fun and I don’t do anything that is that
dangerous. There are three things I always follow. I never scare
the FAA, I never scare me, and I always have fun.”
The accident happened at about 1334 pm MDT. The fire truck and
ambulance both went to the scene, as of 2:10 pm neither had left
the scene. It is assumed that Bobbitt was killed immediately (and
officials have now confirmed that Bobbitt perished in the crash).
The air show officials made no announcement to the condition of the
pilot, the airport was closed and the crowd was asked to go
home.
Bobbitt was a retired U. S. Naval aviator and currently was
employed by United Airlines. He received his Navy “Wings of
Gold” in 1979. During the “Cold War”, he flew
throughout the world as a P-3 Orion Aircraft/Mission Commander
tracking Soviet Russian Submarines and was a veteran of Desert
Storm. Rick Joined United Airlines as a pilot in 1994. His total
flight time was 11,000 hours. He held an ATP, FE, and CFIIMEI
“Gold Seal” instructor ratings. [On-site photos
courtesy of Ralph McCormick.]