From the reports just received from the Monroe County, Fla., medical examiner, http://speedonthewater.com/in-the-ne...d-tillman.html.

So sad, and a horrible way to die.

My hope is they never felt a thing. With that type of impact and G-forces it is unlikely they were conscious.

RIP my friends...

OK, I'll ask. Does anybody know what type of air system they were using? What was the failure of it?

When I learned to fly, I often read NTSB online reports about accidents as a way to learn from them. I am hoping that something can also be learned out of these accidents so that they do not happen again.

RIP

+1
I've been thinking the same thing about the air system. Didn't want to stir the pot.

I do not know what type of system they were using, but my understanding is the helmets were damaged, (Bobs helmet: The liner was seperated from the outer shell, I am not sure about JT's) so even if they were wearing their masks at the time of impact, most likely they had came off or at least would have been seperated enough to let water in.

I will be the first to state, this is only speculation with a tiny bit of first hand knowledge..

It was stated by someone in another thread that they died because of drowning due to the length of time the rescue boat took to get to them.

If you watch the video, they were in the water in under 45 seconds... You are confusing the 2 accidents...

There is no reason to turn this into a BS thread like the other one... Bob & JT had a terrible accident and died doing what they loved most (other than family).

based on statements from the ER nurse they were dead on impact, Jt had a fulltime mask on and it was still on just pushed up slightly, Bob had an open face helmet, he chose to have his resperator mounted beside him. The force of the water passing through the cockpit was enough to blow out the side of the hull and deck. This was after passing by them from behind, all of the air safety systems in the world would not have helped in this accident. The time for the rescue diver to hit the water was about 42 seconds ( this is from onboard video that I have seen) again based on the violent nature that the water entered the cockpit, no rescue diver could have done anymore than the diver that was deployed, they could have had medical personel on board and the only different outcome would have been two more names on the cause of death report...

I f this is difficult to understand try to remember this scenerio as a kid, learning to ski or tubing, when you wipe out you take some water in the nose and mouth, and sometimes lose a swimsuit, now that is at 36 mph ( competition slalom speed, and most of us didnt ski that fast) they entered backwards at 140mph, is the picture getting clearer? If not go over to your kitchen sink and take the spray nozzel and shoot it at point blank range up your nose, now multiply that by about 100 times the psi and volume and do the same for every other open orifice on your body.

This was a racing accident, the only thing that could have prevented it was slowing down, but then it would be boat riding and not racing.

and yes I was there, I was a 22 year friend/employee of Bob.