75years on the wings. The Royal Air Force was behind one of the greatest Airshows in time. A quarter of a million people experienced a sky rumbling with colours and excitement, perhaps a bit too much when two Migs smashed into each other. The audience screamed of fear, and the thoughts went back to the catastrophy at Ramstein, where over 100 people died, when a fighter crashed in the middle of the audience. Such a tragedy could have repeated itself, when one of the MiGs was falling towards the audience. But Miss Fortune was kind this day. Nobody were hit when the MiG crashed into the ground and exploded a second time. The two Russian pilots landed safely with their parachutes, and one of them instantly lightened himself a cigarette. Well, we can sure say he had earned this smoke... Airshows are dangerous, and sometimes things go wrong. The margin of success and failure is not big in this business. It was just a couple of centimeters which brought these two fighters to its knees. The edge of each of the wings touched each other in the last manouvrer. Together the speed was about 1.100 km/h.

Here are the dramatic shots:

(Click to view a larger picture)

Two Mig-29 Fulcrums is taking off in a fine formation. The two Russian pilots are a great team, together they have around 5.000 flight-hours.

...always stunning, but not unusual. Most air-acrobats tend to stay VERY close. Here at 1.100 km/h. This is their last by-pass for today....because here it happens! With just a margin of 5 cm they hit each other. The planes are doomed; and the pilots are still onboard...

With a plane so badly damaged, there is only one thing to do...

EJECT EJECT EJECT !!!

Ejecting....

Here is the first MiG going down. The crowd holds its breath...

But the RAF is lucky. The MiG crashes in the middle of Fairford, and nobody gets hurt. Neither the pilot, who can follow it's fighters death, tangling in the parachute. Both pilots survived the accident. The show can continue.....