All possibilities regarding the causes of the plane crash in Tanagra remain open. The Air Force and all of Greece are in deep mourning following the crash of the ill-fated F-4 Phantom during Athens Flying Week and the deaths of the two pilots, 40-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Ioannis Bletsas and 37-year-old Captain Dimitris Petrou.
The severity of the crash is also evident in the extent of the area where the wreckage was found, as parts of the aircraft were hurled hundreds of meters away, even reaching the outskirts of the nearby neighborhood.
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Rubio’s messages from Athens are significant, says Letympiotis
Rubio’s messages from Athens are significant, says Letympiotis
The exact causes of the tragedy in Tanagra remain under investigation. The Air Force has launched an investigation to determine what happened in the final seconds of the flight, when the Phantom, during a demonstration as part of Athens Flying Week, was flying at low altitude and at a steep angle before crashing into the ground.
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“It was a high-risk flight, at high speed, with a very steep descent and an extremely tight turn, with high G-forces. I believe that either it lost one of its engines—it was flying too low— couldn’t maintain altitude, and that’s why the plane struck the high-voltage power pole.”
Crucial evidence for reconstructing the final moments of the flight is expected to emerge from the videos that recorded the crash frame by frame, as well as from the final communications between the two pilots and the Control Tower.
Tanagra: “Why did the aircraft lose altitude?”
On Monday morning, aeronautical engineer Faidon Karaiosofidis spoke on MEGA about the crash of the ill-fated Phantom. As he noted, the question that will occupy the Air Force Flight Safety Committee is why the aircraft lost altitude.
“Aerobatic maneuvers differ from aircraft to aircraft. For example, the F-16s, Mirage 2000s, and Rafales perform very differently. These are aircraft with different capabilities, and they perform demonstrations featuring dogfight maneuvers. As for the Phantom, anyone who has seen demonstrations—whether at air force bases, at Athens Flying Week, or even abroad—knows that visits by Greek Phantoms are very rare because they’re truly a rare sight. In other words, Greece and Turkey currently have the last remaining Phantoms. They travel for exercises or to visit other air shows. Very recently, they went to France and were truly the main attraction for thousands of visitors who had traveled from all over Europe to see the Phantoms. There’s a mystery to it—there’s been a fascination with this aircraft ever since it first appeared. The Phantom essentially performs flybys: it takes off, flies over the runway, climbs high, and then flies far enough away to realign with the runway and perform a low, slow flyover—which is what thrills the audience,” he said initially.
“What happened wasn’t during the demonstration itself. It was during the repositioning. That is, after the first flyover, the plane flew quite a distance beyond the Tanagra runway and turned to align itself for the second flyover. At that point, while flying straight and level, it began to lose altitude. And the question that will certainly concern the Air Force Flight Safety Committee is why it lost altitude. And all possibilities remain open. Was there something wrong with the aircraft? Was there something wrong with the crew? The human factor is never absent from these incidents. But first and foremost, we look to see if a malfunction occurred on the plane—a rapidly developing one that didn’t give the crew a chance to address it—a mechanical failure, something unexpected. Bird strike. On low-altitude flights, this is one of the possibilities. A collision with a bird or birds. They get sucked into the engine. The Phantom is a twin-engine aircraft, and the loss of one engine—depending on how it happens, of course—is survivable, but at the altitudes it was flying—that is, 500–550 feet— 150–170 meters, at a speed of 500+ knots, there’s no time to react,” he continued.
Tanagra: Was an attempt made to activate the ejection seats?
According to Mr. Karaiofidis: “The ejection seats in fighter jets can function and allow for an escape even at zero altitude and zero speed. The issue is whether they were deployed. And the question here is: were they deployed? Was an attempt made to deploy one or both? As far as I can tell, none were ultimately deployed, but that’s something the Air Force will tell us once the wreckage is recovered. But as for the reaction times, as seen in the video, we can’t make a technical assessment based on a distant video.”
What he said about the air shows
“Air shows are organized by an entity. In this case, it’s a private individual. This event has been taking place for ten or twelve years now. As some may recall, back in the 2000s, the Air Force organized two spectacular air shows, “Archangel 1” and “Archangel 2.” Some air forces had been invited, along with companies that were then trying to sell fighter jets to Greece and had brought fighter jets for demonstration purposes. The Air Force is participating. In other words, just as it sends planes to Thessaloniki for the parade, just as it sends them to various celebratory events, the Air Force is participating in this air show, the Army Aviation and the Navy Aviation. All these years, the primary purpose has been to demonstrate the capabilities of the Air Force and the other branches, but also to attract young people.”
As Mr. Karaiofidis stated, “On the issue of safety, I’ll tell you this. First and foremost, regarding the public. Because there’s been a lot of talk about how dangerous air shows are. What if such an incident were to result in casualties on the ground as well? We had a tragic incident in 1986 in Wiesbaden, Germany. Two Italian planes collided in midair and crashed into the crowd. Seventy people were killed. Since then, there have been clear, extremely strict protocols governing how air shows are conducted. Specifically, the area where the vertical maneuvers take place is several hundred meters away from the line where spectators are lined up. So we’ve eliminated a significant portion of the risk factor. But if you look at the many air shows held all over the world, there are quite a few incidents that occur every year in such situations.”
“Our pilots carry out such flights daily to intercept Turkish aircraft.”
Former pilot and aviation accident expert Pantelis Fragkoulis also spoke to MEGA about the accident in Tanagra.
“This flight is the same one these pilots make every day to intercept Turkish aircraft. It’s just that those flights take place from sea level up to forty thousand feet. That is the difference. Now a flight has taken place so that the whole world can see just how many Gs these pilots endure in order to intercept those aircraft. It was a high-risk flight, at high speed, with a very steep descent and an extremely tight turn, with high G-forces; I believe that’s where he lost one of his engines—he was flying far too low, it couldn’t maintain control, and that’s why the plane struck the high-voltage power pole—and from that point on, the plane was lost to me. It hit a power pole on the Profitis Ilias hill. It probably lost an engine or was flying too low. Birds get startled and fly off immediately. If a bird flies into an engine, the engine burns out in seconds. Phantoms are flying everywhere. It’s the best aircraft right now. It’s what the Turks fear. We have to say that it’s a heavy twin-engine aircraft with very demanding requirements, and that’s why we’re still maintaining them. “We have about eighteen aircraft out of the 36 we had in 1990,” he said initially.
He continued: “It’s a very demanding aircraft. We need to know that the Phantom carries 7,500 liters of kerosene. It was loaded with 7,500 liters. And if it takes off for a flight, it burns through all that fuel in an hour and a quarter. But if it’s on a mission—that is, if we see the flame coming out the back—it will burn through all that fuel in ten minutes. Imagine what this aircraft is capable of. The whole world needs to know that we pilots who fly these aircraft—and I myself come from the Army Air Force—have a much higher sense of moral integrity. We don’t consider ourselves to be more patriotic than you. In other words, we know that when we enlist in the Air Force or the Army Aviation, an accident could happen to us too. It’s part of the job’s risks.”
Source: In.gr
