Up until this point, I was just watching and hoping, then my inner photographer took over.
Talk about a sigh of relief when the announcer described George standing on top of the plane with his thumbs in the air.
|
|
|
| George Giboney Crash 2010 | |
|
|
Here is George's plane, Rapid Travel a Thunder Mustang, early in the Super Sport Gold race, everything looked great. Just a minute or two later he called a "Mayday"... |
|
|
The landing appeared to be a struggle but
he seemed to have plenty of airspeed and made the runway. He was
fighting to keep it from weathervaning and touched down hot. It took a
funny little hop and the wind took it sideways. The next couple of
pictures are horrific but he walked away with just cuts and bruises.
Amazing! Up until this point, I was just watching and hoping, then my inner photographer took over. |
|
|
The nose dug a pretty good divot and... |
|
|
...then it broke away... |
|
|
...and folded back along side of the fuselage... |
|
|
words fail me here... |
|
|
and here... |
|
|
and here. |
|
|
The plane is basically at rest here, with the fuselage sitting on top of the nose section. |
|
|
Look close, you can see George's feet near
the leading edge of the wing and him sitting in what is left of the
cockpit. A minute or so later he was standing on top of the wreckage
giving the crowd a thumbs up before heading for the hospital to be
checked out. By then the emergency crews were blocking our view. I was
able to zoom in on my camera's display to see this shot but I was
terrified to speculate on his health at that point. Talk about a sigh of relief when the announcer described George standing on top of the plane with his thumbs in the air. |
|
|
A couple of close up shots after all the excitement was over. |
|
|
I am still amazed that he simply walked away. |
|
|
|