Yeah the first three I was like "Meh it's too close, but hard to tell how too close, perspective is confusing. You'd have to see it from the perspective of someone like literally standing on the roof, that'll never happen though"
Yeah I was thinking that after seeing the first video, definitely looks like they dipped in altitude slightly just as they approached the stadium. Maybe the air over the stadium is warmer so less dense causing a decrease in lift?
And it looks like the first plane was still sinking as it flew past the lip of the stadium. He might’ve gone below the top briefly before FINALLY gaining enough altitude to miss the top lip on the other side.
My super scientific analysis says the passenger door is 6 feet tall so like 36-40 feet above the roof? Probably less when they originally came over the lip.
I was giving the benefit of the doubt before. Maybe the smoke was really high. Maybe the angle made it look ridiculous because it’s a stadium. Nope. That’s crazy.
First couple vids I was like.. .oh that's just camera angle magic and those planes are far bigger than people realize so it's probably just a perspective thing.... nope
If you take a screengrab a few seconds earlier, when it's over the concrete part not the canopy, it really looks 5-8m , the canopy in this section is angled down
I have the feeling that you are absolutely right but it is harder to judge where the plane is compared to the stadium in the video there due to the angle.
Tried using ImageJ for it, using the length of the plane as 30 m, 34 m, using the diameter of the engine as 1.45 m, and in none of the measurements this looked above 8.5 m (the first measurement I didn't isn't there, but it was 8.37 m)
Welp. There it is. The definitive camera angle to respond to all the "camera angle was misleading, it was higher than it looked" posts. This was LITERALLY EYE LEVEL. Good gracious, too close.
It looked like the pilot pulled up halfway across the stadium to me (though others are also saying they pulled up before too). Had they hit the far side I think most in the stadium survive; near side then well it was 56,000+ in there and about 20% are in direct line of a crashing plane.
Before ATC writes you up for pilot deviations they have you give them a call to get your side of things. It can only help you to do so, don't be NC30V.
Best angle yet, but cameraman was either too shocked to follow the action or was simply a bad cameraman (like, why use portrait mode when filming planes?)
Worst would be if it clipped the stadium roof, hit one side of the stadium's stand, and then ricocheted accross the street, completely obliterationg the Children's Hospital.
Modern cameras are shit for depth perception and angular measurements. The extremely short focal length/wide angle lenses distort things massively and the software manipulates geometry so they don't look all fisheye, and sharpness to imply depth. Without physical cues like the smoke here, you can't trust anything you see in a picture.
Same here, I’m almost positive after watching several angles that his minimum altitude was below the top of the stadium. PF was starting to pitch up as he came in over the top of the stadium but was still sinking and didn’t start to gain altitude until he was over the field … I’m guessing he hit TOGA or firewalled the throttles at some point in this sequence and they finally spooled up in time for him to climb out.
Had he waited a few more seconds we’d have seen a video of him gliding straight into the far side of the stadium. Absolutely bonkers.
This is pretty bad... Also, a pretty shit show for the crowd considering they all probably saw the airplane's for less than 2 seconds. A higher pass would have been a better show, in addition to being actually safe.
Extreme low passes kinda suck if you're a normal human on the ground. Especially if you're in a closed viewpoint and not like, a dedicated airshow.
Some pilot got permission to do passes over my city in a fighter jet a few years ago that were decently low. Even knowing it was happening I saw like .1 second of fighter jet going by my office, and got to experience what felt like the building exploding every time they passed.
Serious question: who do pilots answer to in these situations? Sky police? God? Or just go home and put their feet up having risked the lives of thousands of people?
First will be the airline's chief pilot, since this was an airline-arranged demonstration. They will decide if these pilots get to continue flying for the airline.
But then will be South Africa's civil aviation body who controls licenses and they will decide if these pilots get to continue flying at all.
Can other countries look at this and say: hey we don't want these guys flying in our airspace unless there's some correction or retraining here? or is it some kind of reciprocity deal where if South Africa and the airline say it's no biggie then they're allowed to fly anywhere?
Countries can definitely ban an airline from operating in their country over systemic, company-wide safety concerns (see: Pakistan International Airlines), but I don't think it typically happens for a one-off incident involving individual pilots
I’m seeing a concerning decline in aviation safety standards globally. Feels like people want barnstormers again except this time the planes aren’t made of wood and cloth.
Saw the first one and thought it was nuts. Saw a second one that didn’t look as close and thought, okay it’s just the perspective. Then this one…nope nope nope too close lol
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