Frecce Tricolori - the Italian Precision Flying Team

These guys are the Italian version of the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, or Red Arrows. But whereas the Angels and such are known for precise machine-like maneuvers, the Italians have flair and panache.

On this page, maneuver #5 is the closest to the 'Pierced Heart' routine which resulted in the disaster at Flugtag. The difference being that the solo plane which breaks from the pack at the top of the split is shown flying off to the left. In the 'Pierced Heart', this plane did the same arc as the rest of the planes, but heading directly away from the crowd. As he came down towards the meet with the rest of the planes, he crossed over the top of the other nine planes and flew directly over the crowd at low altitude. Pretty spectacular.

At Flugtag, that aircraft clipped two of the other planes and broke apart, plowing into the spectators in a giant fireball.

The same modified maneuver is titled "Big Apple (figure 3)", and no mention is made of the "Pierced Heart" routine.

You can see all of the related Flugtag posts here.

Posted by Ted at March 23, 2004 06:18 AM | TrackBack