Flew over my job site at Oakland and A1A about 5 seconds after that.

if the water isn't to bad i'll take the cat down and run with FPC and if it is still rough we'll go to Sunfiest in West Palm

Wife & I Were At The Beach...
 

And about a half hour after we were set up, about 2:00 p.m...we were watching a solo, very good stunt flyer, loose control & spin down into the ocean to his death. Very sad. It has already been on the news. Ed :(

Damn! They highlighted that guy on the news last week. He trained pilots for the Dept. of Homeland Security on how to perform tricky maneuvers when chasing the bad guys.



Pilot Killed as Stunt Plane Crashes into Waters off Fort Lauderdale

sun-sentinel.com
Posted April 30 2004, 6:00 PM EDT

FORT LAUDERDALE – A small plane practicing stunts for the upcoming Air & Sea Show crashed into the Atlantic off the city's famed beach Friday afternoon.

The pilot was quickly taken aboard a Coast Guard boat and rushed to shore. The pilot was reported dead shortly after he was brought ashore.

No one else was on the plane, Coast Guard spokesman Luis Diaz said.

The Coast Guard later in the afternoon confirmed that the dead pilot was Ian Groom, a Boca Raton resident and pilot of a speedy Sukhoi Su-31 stunt plane that became a regular at the Air & Sea Show over the past 10 years.

The Russian-built single-engine, single-seat plane was practicing corkscrews and other acrobactic-type stunts in the air over State Road A1A, between 14th Court and 21st Street, around 2:15 p.m. when it went straight down into the water about 2,000 feet offshore, witnesses said.

Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said he entered a flat spin and failed to recover in time.

Hundreds of beachgoers and boaters saw the crash.

Stewart Barcalow, of Fort Lauderdale, witnessed the crash from a sailboat: "It was one of the stunt planes doing a stall procedure. It would do a turn, spin around and let out a little puff of smoke. He was dropping straight down. At the beginning it looked controlled. Even at the very end it did. We just expected him to pull out, but he didn't."

The final stall took place within 50 to 100 feet of the water, Barcalow said. "There was a splash and that was it."

The wings of the airplane were reported ripped off in the crash. It sank immediately.

The Coast Guard and divers responded immediately to the crash site and recovered the pilot's body.

Air show practices were briefly stopped, but resumed after the pilot's body was recovered, the FAA's Bergen said.

The plane was practicing for the McDonald's Air & Sea Show, the air show spokeswoman told WFOR-TV, the CBS TV affiliate in Miami, according to the Associated Press. The air show begins Saturday.

The air and sea show features performances by military planes, including the Navy's Blue Angels and the Canadian Forces Snowbirds. The show draws millions of spectators to the beach each year.

"The air show will continue as planned," Elaine Fitzgerald, the show's spokeswoman, said.

Groom was a native of South Africa who became a U.S. citizen in 1995. He held a World Aerobatic Championship and was a consultant for the federal Department of Homeland Security.

This guy was AWSOME! I saw him the last several years here, besides the Blue Angels, he was the only one worth watching!
He died doing what he loved and may he rest in peace.

Air show starts 11:30 Sunday.

No trimp-pump hose...no air show.

:(

D. Ocean
Pompano Beach, FLA

I'll be on the rocks at Point of Americas taking pics of boat parade!

Don't forget to post pics for us northerners..