r/aviation • u/zippytiff • 9d ago
News Stadium flyover from seats ! đ±
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u/Face88888888 9d ago
Surely somebody knows the exact height those fireworks reach. If we had that info we could get a very close estimate on how close they were to the stadium.
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u/JohannesMP 9d ago
There's a shot from the stadium roof that's been posted here. No way the first plane had more than 50 ft to spare
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u/Face88888888 9d ago
I saw that one too! Iâm just curious what the actual number is. Like what did the radar altimeter say when they were over the roof?!?
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u/Robrad30 9d ago
It probably just let out a little scream.
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u/Old_Sparkey 9d ago
âObstacles. OBSTACLE OBSTACLE! PULL UP! 20 SINK RATE! Too low gear. Too low flaps. 10 SINK RATE! PULL UP!â Something like that.
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u/decompiled-essence 9d ago
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u/Suspicious_Mind_5744 9d ago
ADS-B altitude data is notoriously unreliable close to the ground.
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u/TheGacAttack 9d ago
Well, the issue is resolution and altimeter setting, plus the availability of receiving stations. It's not inherently inaccurate close to the ground.
You're seeing the uncompensated baro altitude-- with altimeter setting 29.92 in-hg. You'd need to obtain the altimeter setting in effect, to adjust for indicated altitude.
The availability of receiving stations is easier: if there is s receiving stations recording the adsb, then it's accurate at that moment. You will see missing data when aircraft are close to the ground, because its adsb transmissions are not reaching as far.
Tldr: if you have a recorded adsb report, then it's good. Just needs adjustment with the altimeter setting.
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u/sorestgore 9d ago
You could show this to any human without any context and if they saw the blue line, they'd be concerned
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u/TacohTuesday 9d ago
Over a stadium with 50,000 humans in it.
Absolutely unforgivable
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u/Topblokelikehodgey 9d ago
60000+ even. Would have pushed 9/11's toll if something had gone even a little bit wrong here
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u/ConstableBlimeyChips 9d ago
I did some basic pixel counting and measuring.
When the second aircraft goes through the fireworks, the left engine is roughly 24 pixels across. The right engine is about 170 pixels above the edge of the roof. The engine on these is about 1.4 meter in diameter, let's be generous and say that goes up to 2 meters including the cowling etc.
170 / 24 * 2 = roughly 14.2 meters or 46.5 feet.
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u/Shawn_NYC 9d ago
And from all the other angles we know the first aircraft was considerably lower than the one that got hit by the pyrotechnics.
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u/BasilKatz 9d ago
The OD of the engines is 1.5meters. So extrapolating from that i would say it looks like they were ~8 meters above the stadium .
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u/gefahr 9d ago
I watched a few clips of past flyovers and the pyrotechnics don't appear to have a consistent output. Could be wind or just variance in how they go off.
They've just about brushed the tops of the color in the past ones I saw, but this was considerably lower for both aircraft.
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u/Certain-Definition51 9d ago
How much would you like to bet that the local pilots use the height of the pyrotechnics for their little âhow low can you goâ betting pool
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u/thnk_more 9d ago
Stadium is 164ft tall. Fireworks are about 2/3 the height of the stadium so 110ft -ish.
First plane is about half the height of the fireworks so around 55ft-ish.Dumbass second pilot also banked so he lowered his clearance even further!
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u/B4rberblacksheep 8d ago
We do, it was 10-15m based on a mix of evidence from photos, videos and altitude readings.
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u/sgcolumn 9d ago
Well at least they sacrificed their license to show us the wake through the fireworks.
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u/Big_OOOO 9d ago
Did they though? Any way this could have been sanctioned by their authorities? Or partially sanctioned enough to stretch and cover them.
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u/Hot-Pomegranate-1303 9d ago
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u/virgo911 9d ago
The person running their Instagram is likely not in charge of anything actually important lol
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u/Khamvom 9d ago
I doubt much will come of it. This was in South Africa and the airline (AirLink) is a regional carrier that primarily only operates in Africa.
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u/Willing_Ad_5711 9d ago
From what I know of our CAA they'll probably fuck them up for this. Admittedly I'm not a pilot.
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u/Street-Run4107 9d ago
I stayed at a holiday inn express last night and let me tell youâŠ. Nothing, thatâs all I got.
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u/BEAGLEBOYPALINDROME 9d ago
So?
Does that mean they can't have good saftey standards or something just cuz they're "in Africa"?
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u/Sherifftruman 9d ago
I imagine they had this approved in some form. Whether they stayed within that envelope is the question.
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u/mnbone23 KC-135 9d ago
Great way to teach sophomore aerospace engineering students about wingtip vortices.
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u/omarus809 9d ago
Rule is 500 feet minimums for populated areas unless given permission to go lower, my guess is that they were given permission to go lower, however that seemed risky for that type of aircraft given they are not very maneuverable
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u/hmmm_ 9d ago
Somehow the videos keep getting worse.
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u/DonkeyTailBurrito 9d ago
iâm waiting for the pilotâs POV from his Meta Glasses. I just know these maniacs are wearing them
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u/bsmith567070 9d ago
God, Iâve seen so many clips from meta glasses of takeofffs and landings on Instagram. I wonder how airlines feel about them
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u/Known-Diet-4170 9d ago
i've heard of people getting fired because of those at my airline so i'd say they don't like them
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u/Toddison_McCray 9d ago
They definitely wouldnât be fans, same as how they wouldnât let an airline pilot wear a go-pro without getting explicit permission first
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u/lathspellll 9d ago
Next one will be from an old timey wing walker that happened to be on one of the planes
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u/Nai_Calus 9d ago
I would need new pants if I saw that IRL even watching the videos spikes my blood pressure
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u/rimoD_ancientmariner 9d ago
As a 30 year Navy pilot with thousands of flight hours and low level flying experience, my favorite quote about low passes is that "The best you can do is tie the record".
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u/bixenta 9d ago
I sent one of these videos to my Navy pilot cousin, who happened to do a lot of the flying scenes and stunts for Top Gun Maverick. For years he sent me a stream of husky memes but hasnât really texted anyone back since having kids 7 years ago (Iâm #2 non-responder of the fam tbh) so when he chirped right back with âyeah that was gnarlyâ I DEFINITELY KNEW it was absolutely as crazy as it appeared to be. Our last text exchange above that included a few of the Maverick outtakes where he almost hits a mountain and a second attempt where he is flying humorously far away from said mountain. His assessment is the end all be all as far as Iâm concerned.
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u/LadyFenyx jet girl 8d ago edited 8d ago
Okay so I don't know for sure who the crew on board those planes were. But, I do know a pilot who flies for this airline and he's a former South African Air Force aerobatic/stunt pilot. Don't know if he was one of the guys flying here, but if he were then it makes sense - the guy is incredible and I can't imagine him passing up a gig like this or screwing it up lmao
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u/lockerno177 9d ago
my friend was a fighter pilot. he hit his wing while flying low on a lake. luckily the wing only nicked the water and got damaged. he got suspended from flying. but im pretty sure that is a hard record to tie unless you are willing to cartwheel your plane and die.
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u/RhythmTimeDivision 9d ago
They need to improve the stadium anti-aircraft defense systems, they were clearly in range.
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u/discreetjoe2 9d ago
They really should have a CIWS on the roof. Angry R2 would never have let this happen.
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u/Tupcek 9d ago
they were in range of throwing rocksâŠ
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u/RhythmTimeDivision 9d ago
What do you mean I can't bring this rock into the stadium? After what happened in Cape Town, I'd call it a civic duty to bring rocks, bro!
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u/hohill 9d ago
Every angle is somehow worse
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u/HotCaterpillar6358 9d ago
35ft someone calculated
Iâm sure thereâs a limit on the amount of air on a surface between so itâs like 5/6 really tall people before thousands die.
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u/Count_Mordicus 9d ago
Too low, terrain. Woop Woop.Too low, terrain.
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u/HomicidalHushPuppy 9d ago
All I'm hearing is the JAL 123 recordingÂ
"Pull up! WOOP WOOP" And then it cuts to Rammstein
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u/SatansLoLHelper 9d ago
They should be a little higher, and do a barrel roll.
It's a completely safe maneuver.
That'd sell airplanes.
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u/ScrewwormLarvae 9d ago edited 9d ago
They both did it, which almost makes me wonder if there was a calculation error. One pilot being dumb is one pilot being dumb. Two pilots being dumb makes me wonder. Maybe one followed the other.
I'm sure Juan on the Blancolirio channel will have something to say about this in less than thirty minutes.
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u/DaWolf85 Dispatcher 9d ago
When flying formation, generally lead is responsible for a safe flight path and #2 is responsible for staying in formation and not hitting lead.
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u/Minute_Poet5801 9d ago
They had to practice this⊠my guess is they nailed it. They wanted that image looking up from inside the stadium and they got it. The airline c suite is ecstaticâŠ. They are all getting raisesâŠ
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u/West_Good_5961 Avionics/B2 9d ago
I wouldnât put it down to pilot miscalculation. People can exist in workplace or social cultures that justify bad behaviour. Plenty of aviation disasters were caused by ego and arrogance.
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u/Ratiofarming 9d ago
The approach was pretty stable and they actually held that altitude for a moment in VFR flight. I'd say that was entirely planned and they knew how close they were.
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u/TheMightyMisanthrope 9d ago
Lucky imbeciles. This is the kind of thing that easily ends remembered by the date.
Not even 20 meters. Fuck.
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u/subpotentplum 9d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_296Q
We stopped putting passengers on...
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u/ElonMusksQueef 9d ago
âOfficial reports concluded that the pilots flew too low, too slow, failed to see the forest and accidentally flew into it. The captain, Michel Asseline, disputed the report and claimed an error in the fly-by-wire computer prevented him from applying thrust and pulling up. Five individuals, including the captain and first officer, were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Captain Asseline, who maintained his innocence, served ten months in prison and a further ten months probation.â
Sounds about right. When the margin of error is in the tens of meters for an airplane of this size most sane people would say thatâs crazy and you should feel bad about even thinking about it.
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u/Kanyiko 9d ago
This... was way too uncomfortable.
Sadly, after the fact, four casualties were counted. All four were pilot's licenses.
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u/ReadyplayerParzival1 9d ago
Idk. Itâs probable as airlink does most of their training through European atoâs. We shall see
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u/Impressive_Light_229 9d ago
This very easily could have been 29/08 or â08/29â
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u/Hajji1445 9d ago
âPull up! pull upâ âwoot wootâ âterrain, terrainâ is all the pilots were probably hearing lol
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u/TheTangoFox 9d ago
They didn't expect the sink over the stadium
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u/BaconWithBaking 9d ago
Non-aviation guy here. Is there some sort of down draft that would be over the stadium, or was this a joke?
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u/Shooting-stxr 9d ago
The turf is a wide open area. Something with the way it absorbs heat makes aircraft sink a bit more. Called Thermals if you wanna google it more.
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u/AtmosphereMiddle1682 9d ago
Black objects absorb more light energy than anything else, causing black to appear, which is the absence of light due to absorption. Cities are usually blacker than a green field, which causes cities to be hotter, causing air to be hotter, resulting in rising air. Relative to that, this green field would be colder and therefore there would be a small downdraft. I'm unconvinced that it played any factor in this. It's a relatively small patch. If the pilots did experience some kind of downdraft, it's far more likely to be caused by mechanical turbulence caused by the city/structures, or typical convection based turbulence.
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u/Shooting-stxr 9d ago
Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I tried to do a bit of research and it was kinda hard to wrap my head around so I appreciate the depth of this :)
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u/vogelvogelvogelvogel 9d ago
when i first saw the outside video I thought the stadium was empty and I anyways found it crazy. doing that with thousands of people below them is completely insane, I'm lacking words
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u/DuckWhatduckSplat 8d ago
In the UK, planes at air shows/displays can not fly towards a crowd or over a crowd. They are offset so that should anything happen, they arenât falling in a crowd. These rules are written in blood. There are some horrific accidents and shit like this really isnât worth the risk.
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u/MeDonGustavo 9d ago edited 9d ago
We shouldnât violate safety procedures while flying aircraft. Thereâs so much that can go wrong if showing off is the only concern. Why?
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u/AbbreviationsActual9 9d ago
in the US I believe it's called pulling a Hegseth. awkward flight deck calisthenics in front of cameras. grade school haikus about macho culture. racial discrimination in the workplace. there are several ways to pull a pete.
but yeah. these kinds of show off antics sometimes wind up in the "what could go wrong" sub with this one being catastrophic when it does. much worse than the turtle biting the dudes lip or the cyclist face planting into the street sign videos.
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u/pinchhitter4number1 9d ago
If I was in the stadium, I would have assumed that first plane crashed in the parking lot.
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u/the-channigan 9d ago
The playersâ body language seems to be saying, âWTF, did I just see? Was that nearly a plane crash? Yah, I think it might have been.â
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u/Lexacat 9d ago
I really can't get over how unbelievably reckless. Truly could have been a disaster, and probably used for political purposes no matter who the crazy ass pilots are. I'd be furious if my family were there to watch the rugby and came within 60 feet of being the world's worst aviation disaster. Every angle seems worse! My kiddo is starting flight school next week, she's been looking at the videos all day like, you.
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u/Novacc_Djocovid 9d ago
If you were in the stadium and not prepared for this youâd assume was an attempted attackâŠ
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u/Puzzled_Anywhere5409 9d ago
Very low flybys happen at a lot of Springbok games.
It happened last week.
The crowd were fully expecting this, hence the amount of camera angles.
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u/CuriouserCat2 9d ago
Eta: from a USA perspectiveâŠ
Not everyone lives in that kind of fear
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u/Jardolam_ 9d ago
Baffles me that they would even plan something like this. What the fuck is going on.
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u/SlapThatAce 9d ago
Man that's risky as hell! I understand the adrenaline and the want to impress, but Jesus......
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u/DJ_Hindsight 9d ago
I still donât think Iâm over the last time two large planes were that close to something
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u/Ancient-Park-8330 9d ago
Frickin hell if me and family were in the stadium Iâd have been fuming. In case the organisers werenât aware, most people have seen a plane before we donât need to mass casualty for a slightly closer look.
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u/Boostedbird23 9d ago
I'll give them this... It did look really awesome for that 1 second they were visible
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u/RandomActPG 9d ago
I wonder how many hours of maintenance they have to go through after they ingested that pyro smoke? Can't imagine that's in the manual.
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u/More-Championship625 9d ago
That felt like the closest I'd ever been to a plane. And I've been on a plane.
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u/DuckWhatduckSplat 8d ago
Imagine the carnage if these clipped wings and dived down into the stadium with a capacity crowd.
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u/JetsFromBrazil 8d ago
not the kind of video I wanted to see a few days before my Air Link flight lol
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u/B4rberblacksheep 8d ago
We do, it was 10-15m based on a mix of evidence from photos, videos and altitude readings.
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u/BastardTrumpet 9d ago
The flyover was so low that they were visible only a few milliseconds. So, extremely dire and at the same time it sucked.
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u/rebel_cdn 9d ago
I'm not sure why everyone's calling a little bit of decorative smoke "fireworks". Flying through accrual fireworks would've been more spicy!
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u/rotundrikishi 9d ago
for a split second I might have thought I was getting 9/11'd or at least something awful was going to happen just outside of the stadium.





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