Midair Collision P51 Mustang & Skyraider

Sunday, July 10, The P-51 Mustang dubbed Big Beautiful Doll was lost after a midair collision with a Douglas Skyraider while performing a flyby at the Duxford Flying Legends event in Duxford, England. The Skyraider completed a full roll to the right after hitting the P-51 and landed safely, missing a portion of its right wing. Rob Davies, who was flying the Mustang gave a local news station this account.

According to Davies, he was at about 500 feet, "at the time of decision-making." "And by the time I got out and got the 'chute open I was down to 200 feet. And unfortunately as I came out I hit the tail plane, so I suffered a few injuries through hitting that." His injuries, first reported as a broken arm, ultimately amounted to nothing more than bruises. But the Mustang nosed in and was lost. It did not burn and Davies landed close by.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• big
• beautiful
• doll
• p51
• skyraider
• duxford
• england
• midair
• mustang
• collision
• wing
• davies
• tail
• plane
• glenn
• pew

[jasleil]

RIP Big Beautiful Doll.

Thank God that the pilot was alright.

[NYCadet273]

Pretty sad to see a Mustang loss... Thank goodness both pilots are ok... And the skyraider. Those are probably rarer than the Mustang anyway and the damage seems repairable.

[sammyflyboy]

I was there. It was a very sad event, but luckily everyone was OK. Very nice video.

[Prapatui]

i cry :'( :'( bye bye big beauty.... the world will miss yu

[PhilTN]

@mrFalconlem

i know...it just seemed really fast. I didnt see he ejected the canopy right away...

[mrFalconlem]

@TheTopBloke Its called poor coordination, they are both lucky they survived at all, most collisions at least one pilot always buys the farm.

[mrFalconlem]

@PhilTN of course he bailed out manually.. no ejection seat in mustangs man.. 

[PhilTN]

another question.... he didn't bailout manually, climbing out of the cockpit, did he? or do they have some jet like escape mechanism in those old birds now?

[PhilTN]

wow. that was really about the last split second in which he made the right decision....

[477450661]

Keep flyin' 'em until there aren't any left

[TheTopBloke]

How the hell does that happen?