Yak-50 crashes into Beechcraft S35 Bonanza in takeoff run in California
In California, two incidents involving Soviet training aircraft occurred in two days. One of them ended in tragedy.
In the first case, on September 20, at the Watsonville airport, a private aircraft, a 1984 Yak-50, crashed into another private aircraft, a Beechcraft S35 Bonanza, in the takeoff runway.
No one was injured in the incident, however indicatedthat the Yak-50 received significant damage. The owner of the aircraft specified a certain Keith Frost.
A collision between another Yak and a Chinese plane in the sky led to tragedy
On the afternoon of September 22, a Yak-52 training aircraft collided in the sky with a Chinese-made Nanchang CJ-6A aircraft near the city of Lancaster in Los Angeles County.
The cause of the collision is unknown. Both planes committed crash-landed on highways about 15 minutes apart. The footage shows one of the planes on the side of the road. The pilot of the Nanchang, later identified as 62-year-old Ryder Adams, was killed.
Eyewitnesses, a woman with her granddaughter, toldwho saw a small single-engine plane plummet and land just a few meters away from them. At first, they mistook the sound of the plane for the roar of a motorcycle.
Flight data recorder recovered from Nanchang. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) statedthat the investigation into the cause of the Lancaster crash could take more than a year.
Earlier, two Yak-52s collided at an air show in Portugal
In June, two Soviet Yak-52 aircraft collided at an air show in the city of Beja in Portugal; the Spanish pilot died and the Portuguese pilot was seriously injured.
The flight involved pilots from the Spanish-Portuguese aerobatic team Yakstars. The plane crashed, causing a fire. Shortly before the accident, viewers noticed something unusual in the noise of one of the planes. The moment of the incident was captured on video. The footage published by viewers shows six aircraft flying, one of which first flies lower than the others, then soars upward, hits the second plane and falls to the ground, after which an explosion occurs.
The crash has caused the event, which was dedicated to the 72nd anniversary of the Portuguese Air Force, to be cancelled. According to Aviation Safety, the aircraft were manufactured in 1983.
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