Photographer Scott Belanger took some spectacular pictures of the pilots ejecting from the MiG-23 Flogger that crashed at Thunder Over Michigan airshow.
As reported in detail, two pilots efficiently ejected from a privately owned two-seat MiG-23UB Flogger, registration N23UB/1038107, on Aug. 13, 2023. The plane was collaborating within the Thunder Over Michigan airshow at Willow Run Airport, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, when, at about 16.15LT, an unknown downside compelled the 2 crew members to desert the jet.
The pilots ejected and landed in Belleville Lake in line with the media reports, whereas the jet crashed close to the Waverly on the Lake Residences in Belleville. They have been then despatched to the hospital out of precaution. There have been no reported accidents.
A number of pictures and movies of the incident have been posted on-line, however the pictures taken by photographer Scott Belanger (@darkroomeagle) are virtually unbelievable.
In truth, Scott was capable of catch the whole ejection sequence from the stricken MiG of each the pilot Dan Filler and the backseater Mark Ruff. The images he posted on Instagram present an excellent perception into the ejection course of from the 2 seater, with, as traditional, the backseat being ejected first, adopted by the ejection of the entrance seater.
The shut up photographs are much more spectacular.
As our US correspondent Tom Demerly (who was attending the airshow when the MiG-23 crashed), the fascinating factor about this most up-to-date accident is that it continues a protracted legacy of profitable ejections from Warsaw Pact/Soviet-era plane throughout flight demonstrations. Certainly, you’ll most likely keep in mind the well-known Anatoly Kvochur ejection from a MiG-29 on the Paris Air Present in 1989, the 2 pilots ejecting from the Russian MiG-29s that collided throughout RIAT at Fairford in 1993, and in addition, the 2 pilots ejecting from a Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 Flanker that crashed at Sknyliv airfield close to Lviv, Ukraine, on Jul,. 27, 2002, in what turned the deadliest air present accident in historical past.
“The topic of Russian plane airshow crashes with ejections is an entire story by itself. This newest one provides to that,” Tom commented.
David Cenciotti is a journalist based mostly in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and skim army aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and lots of others, overlaying aviation, protection, conflict, business, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with completely different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Pressure, a personal pilot and a graduate in Pc Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.
