Ramstein air show disaster
The Ramstein airshow disaster is one of the world's worst airshow disasters. It occurred in front of an audience of 300,000 people on August 28, 1988 at the US Ramstein Air Base airshow Flugtag '88 (Ramstein, county of Kaiserslautern, Germany). Three of the ten Aermacchi MB-339PAN jets from the Italian Air Force display team, Frecce Tricolori, collided in mid-air in front of the audience while performing their 'pierced heart' (a.k.a. cardoid) formation. One aircraft crashed directly into the crowd [1]. Sixty-seven spectators as well as all three pilots were killed and 346 were seriously injured in the resulting explosion and fire.
Accident process
On that day, the Frecce Tricolori, an Italian Air Force jet demonstration team attempted a maneuver called " the piercing heart". In the 'pierced heart' formation two groups of aircraft create a heartshape in front of the audience. The stunt called for the planes to all rocket toward each other at 350 MPH. The heart is then pierced in the direction towards the audience by a lone aircraft. The accident was caused by pilot error as the piercing aircraft came in too fast, too soon and too low, resulting in it hitting two planes just completing the heart formation at an altitude of less than 40 meters. See the images just before and just after the collision. It is suspected that the pilot of the piercing aircraft attempted to correct his position by extracting the landing gear. The excessively low altitude of the piercing aircraft meant that it could have collided with the control tower, had it not collided with the other aircraft. Unfortunately, the piercing aircraft crashed into an ice cream truck placed in the crowd, where a lot of people were lining up on the hot summer day. The tumbling aircraft spread aviation fuel and the resulting fire in the crowd was intense. At the same time, one of the damaged aircraft from the heart-forming group carried on for some distance along the runway and crashed into the emergency medical evacuation Black Hawk helicopter killing the American military helicopter pilot. He died weeks later from burns he suffered in the accident. This medical asset had been placed on what was thought to be a safe distance from the runway to be available in case of an accident. The pilot of this aircraft was the only one who had time to eject, but he was killed as he hit the runway without his parachute opening. After the crash the remaining group had to circle the airbase until they were told to land at Sembach Air Base. There were many children among the victims with 16 of the fatalities occurring in the days and weeks after the disaster due to severe burns. In total about 1,000 people had to seek hospital treatment following the event.
Aftermath
Treatment of PTSD and accompanying suicidal tendencies among the affected were and still are a significant task for the authorities. The victims are also receiving financial compensation for the event. The disaster resulted in a total ban of public airshows in West Germany, which was lifted three years later and replaced with the following safety regulations:
- Increased minimum height and distance from spectators. A picture of the previous airshow in 1987 revealed that there were no safety barriers near the runways; existing rules prescribed a distance of 400 meters (approx. 1300 feet) according to the aircraft types.
- Banning of maneuvers in the direction of spectators
- All maneuvers subject to approval by authorities
Ramstein Air Base itself has not held an airshow since the incident.
Trivia
- The German tanz-metall band Rammstein is named after the disaster. The final track on their 1995 album Herzeleid is also named Rammstein. The lyrics to the song graphically describe the events of the disaster.
External links
- West Germany Hellfire from The Heavens (TIME article).
- Crash moment pictures
- Picture sequence on liveleak.com (warning: disturbing graphic content).
- Research report on PTSD following the event.
- Marc Heesters - Airliners.net
- Survivor websites
- Blog of USAF Officer based at Ramstein AB at the time of the accident.
- Blog of Roland Fuchs who lost his family in the disaster.
- Support group for the victims
- Ramstein disaster memorial website
- Account of the disaster by USAF servicewoman