probably everyone watching TV and listening to the radio, or with Internet access knows about Belarussian Su-27 crash. two-seater version went down, killing both pilot and weapons operator.
the flight itself, before the crash, was beautiful - as usual in the case of russian fighters. the real honor for sacrifice goes however to both pilot and weapons operator. why? despite the fact, that the fighter hit high voltage lines and they were perfectly capable of ejecting, they decided against. they were positioned directly in front of the small estate. so, in split second both of them decided not to eject and instead, seconds before crash, they redirected their struck bird right into nearby forest. having done that however, they’ve lost time they could use to eject. essentially - they sacrificed their lives for people below them.
the other drama at Radom was the organization itself. simply said, this ‘show’ shouldn’t happen at all. i was recently in Góraszka, where the walk from parking to field was around half a kilometer, not three. there was ample food and drink stations. in Radom, once you reach the airport, you have over an hour to wait in the queue, because of complete lack of organization from security and military forces. there was a guy from military police trying to steer the traffic - he couldn’t however handle even himself, not to mention traffic passing from all of the directions. if Su-27 would crash in the crowd, in the ensuing panic probably more people would get trampled by others than by the crash itself. the organizers were totally unprepared and probably the scale of the event simply surpassed them. it was drama waiting to happen.
and i have enough - i won’t go to Radom anymore. it was four hours just to get in and out, and that is simply too much. ah, and one other thing. cardinal error of air show organizer is to constantly change your flying schedule. Red Arrows for example, appeared over the airstrip over an hour before they meant to be there based on the published (and not updated) agenda.