The last flight of 123

[August]

A bit sad yet stirring at the same time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5uHSezeB9k&feature=player_embedded

[August]

45 views and not one comment? You guys are tough!

[Sailor Steve]

'Twas a Lib. PB4Y-2 Privateer, to be exact. But a Lib all the same.

Sad tale.

[Rockstar]

I don't get it, did you know them?

[krashkart]

I don't get it, did you know them?

Do you know what they do for a living? ;)


August, that's a good find. Where were these guys flying at the time?



Edit: Found an entry on Wiki. Also covers a herky pig that was owned by the same company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_airtanker_crashes

[krashkart]

The men aboard were Rick Schwartz and Milt Stollak. Seems a helo pilot died there that day as well; Gordon Knight.

http://www.wildlandfire.com/descr/descr_misc.htm#snake


Still digging around for more information.




Edit:

There was a topic at the Firehouse forums.

http://www.firehouse.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39076

[Matador.es]

This is kind of old.....

On July 18th, 2002 Tanker 123 crashed, signaling the end of the world war two era four engine airtankers, and the end of Hawkins and Powers as one of the biggest air tanker companies in the US


.... news

[krashkart]

Old news is new news to me in this case. :)


But I do see your point. Why bother doing something as stupid as looking into something I hadn't heard about before?

[GoldenRivet]

Old news is new news to me in this case. :)


Same here.

I watched a moment or two of the video, read no comments and moved on.

I assumed being an old airplane they just retired her and this was a sort of farewell montage... i was wrong. :shifty:

[krashkart]

I watched the whole video, but just now read through the comments. Second one down... dictionary.com doesn't list that word but I found an unrelated news article that mentioned a wood chipper. Didn't sound like a pretty word to begin with.

[August]

I just thought you guys would like to see that video. Sorry that it's not "new" news.

[UnderseaLcpl]

To be perfectly honest, I crash-dived to 150m the second I saw the silohuette. I only just recently came back up.

[Rockstar]

Ya, I know what they did for a living. But it seemed to be a very impersonal tribute. Had more to do with the type of aircraft that crashed than the crew. The ballad was really bad too. Should be removed from youtube to avoid further embarrassment and the creator of it heavily fined and imprisoned.


morselization? ewwww

[August]

To be perfectly honest, I crash-dived to 150m the second I saw the silohuette. I only just recently came back up.

:DL

[August]

Ya, I know what they did for a living. But it seemed to be a very impersonal tribute. Had more to do with the type of aircraft that crashed than the crew. The ballad was really bad too. Should be removed from youtube to avoid further embarrassment and the creator of it heavily fined and imprisoned.


morselization? ewwww

You must have never served in a crew then. The crew is part of the ship, the ship is part of the crew. The same thing applies to aircraft. To honor one is to honor the other.

[Growler]

You must have never served in a crew then. The crew is part of the ship, the ship is part of the crew. The same thing applies to aircraft. To honor one is to honor the other.

And in this case, a worthy honor. These guys flew low-level in aircraft designed for level bombing at higher altitude; they flew low through heat-roiled air obscured in many cases by dense smoke, at altitudes that would make any pilot's sphincter pucker on a good day, in aircraft that were built before they were born, handling four powerful engines and a large airframe that will suddenly get a lot lighter after that load is away.

Having ridden in a similar-era aircraft - and for pleasure, at that, not carrying a full load as they were - and then seeing the photos of the wing failure and crash... words fail me. "Morselization" indeed; I don't need to look it up for it to conjure very grim images.

[krashkart]

Ya, I know what they did for a living. But it seemed to be a very impersonal tribute. Had more to do with the type of aircraft that crashed than the crew. The ballad was really bad too. Should be removed from youtube to avoid further embarrassment and the creator of it heavily fined and imprisoned.


morselization? ewwww

Oh, now I see what you mean. Sorry for the misunderstanding. :yep: That's a good point about the focus of the video. Maybe the creator intended it that way out of respect, or simply could not find any candid photos of the crew. :)


Apologies to Matador.es. Don't know what it was that ruffled my feathers. :oops: