Thunderbolt crashes into New York Hudson

[Normandy]

I heard about the crash Friday, what a terrible loss of a well respected pilot.
I've seen this P-47, Jacky's Revenge many times at the American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale and flying over my house.

There is something about sight, sound and smell of these old Warbirds rolling
down the runway and back into the air where they once flew in conflicts and
now remind of the sacrifice of those before us.

[Seigfried]

Or better yet, leave it in a museum!

Well I can see your point and agree partly, but these machines were meant to fly - not sit on the deck. They can only be truly appreciated when you see them flying, even though it is nice to get up close when they are static.

[Willi Z.]

I heard about the crash Friday, what a terrible loss of a well respected pilot.
I've seen this P-47, Jacky's Revenge many times at the American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale and flying over my house.

There is something about sight, sound and smell of these old Warbirds rolling
down the runway and back into the air where they once flew in conflicts and
now remind of the sacrifice of those before us.

I agree completely. Tragic loss of a life. I too have seen this aircraft, but at the Reading Air Show, and it was on their schedule for this coming weekend. More and more of these warbirds are being grounded for various reasons (like insurance) due to the crashes, and I doubt this one will fly again.

[NickG]

Here's the salvage operation filmed by ABC news

http://abcnews.go.com/US/officials-l...05&cid=abcn_fb

[Jägermarty]

Poor bloke, might be still alive if that gunsight was not fitted. RIP.
Hope they get the Thunderbolt flying again

[Alan Smith]

I, too, cringed at the "salvage" photos - I hope that the A/C was not further damaged. Looks like it is now a great candidate for restoration to static display.

At least it did not end up like the CAF's HE111 (Spanish copy); the P-51 that crashed on takeoff when piloted by a wealthy oil/gas executive out West a few years ago; or like the P-51 that crashed in Galveston, TX recently; or the B-17 outside of Chicago; or the P-51 that crashed in February, 2016 in AZ killing 2 (one of which was the A/C owner, the former President of Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation). All of these were TOTAL losses of the A/C, and all of these are just my personal recollections of vintage A/C crashes in the U.S. within the past few years. Oh . . and let's not forget the highly modified P-51 that crashed at the Reno air races a few years ago . . . I think it killed 10+ people and injured 60-70 more.

I love the sights and sounds of these vintage A/C flying just as much as anyone else, but I wonder if now (some 70+ years out) we are to the point where the FAA may consider grounding most or all of them? Such A/C operate under the FAA "Experimental" classification which, if I understand correctly, leaves the FAA with a lot of discretion as to whether or not to certify the A/C as airworthy. With so many recent fatal crashes of these old warbirds, I bet the grounding issue is at least under discussion within the ranks of FAA (who is probably reluctant to push the issue, as these A/C are typically owned by very wealth individuals who, IMO, would likely push back hard against any FAA grounding efforts).

[cbuehler]

I doubt it, it is probably a write off. Pilots are ten a penny, these planes aren't. It is tragic but the pilots know the risk when they step into a 70 year old aircraft.

One aspect to consider is that most of the pilots of these 70 year old aircraft are themselves of this age or getting close to it.
I love to see these aircraft in flight myself and have enjoyed seeing them over the years, but these aircraft are inherently unsafe to a degree that modern aircraft are not. They used to crash all the time during the war due to pilot error or aircraft malfunction as we well know.

CB