Flying Keys
Line Up and Wait
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- Jul 2, 2021
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Flying Keys
I don't know how useful this info is, if at all, but I saw a video today that I hadn't seen before. Not sure if it's been discussed here yet. Taken from another angle, about the P-63's ~10-9 o'clock low, It depicted what appeared to be some FOD right near the prop and a pitch-down a second before impact. Little more than a couple dark "objects" in a quick few frames on a zoomed-in phone cam.
It's unclear whether this debris either came from the plane(maybe a grenading gearbox?) or maybe a birdstrike nailing the prop? Either way, the plane appeared to have distinctly, sharply pitched down at that moment, maybe a second before impact. Otherwise the trajectory looked like it was just over the B-17's path
I wish I could locate that video again, It was one of those transient Facebook reel-type things that I accidentally closed before I was able to get more info. But it would explain a lot if it has any merit. The comment section was blowing up telling the poster to reach out to NTSB. But who knows if the poster was even the original person holding the camera.
Let’s say it was a FOD incident. What would have a one-second-prior-to-impact window gained the P-63? You also mention a pitch-down moment - let’s say that happened and was the cause of the collision. Back up that one second and remove the supposed FOD and pitch-down chain: by how much would the P-63 have cleared the B-17? A few feet? Would it still have been belly-up to the B-17? Would it have had to perform an evasive maneuver in that one second to safely clear the B-17? Would that maneuver have been part of the plan?
I don’t think giving back that one second buys enough time to not make this a safety issue. The separation bubble was still violated and it doesn’t answer the sightline problem. If this was truly the case, it was still questionable planning and a hell of a lot of bad luck.