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Forgeties79yesterday at 11:34 PM3 repliesview on HN

You can do advanced maneuvers without getting so close to another plane in some weird attempt at simulating a scenario that will never happen.

Did some cursory searches/math and it looks like about 1-2% of aerial shows in the US have a fatality (1-2 deaths annually with about 2000 shows on average over the last 20 years). If those numbers are correct (and they may very well not be as it’s a mix of LLM and Google quick searches) 1-2% doesn’t seem worth it.

Edit: I’m an idiot. .05-.1%. Seems a bit silly still but not as bad as I thought.


Replies

rootusrootustoday at 12:14 AM

> You can do advanced maneuvers without getting so close to another plane in some weird attempt at simulating a scenario that will never happen.

That is likely true. However, it is a heck of a demonstration of pilot skill. The Blue Angels somewhat regularly post in-cockpit views of their airshow practice and it is wild how tight a formation they fly; I really recommend seeking out some of those videos, it is totally worth it. Well, for me at least :). It is not unheard of (but not common) for them to inadvertently make contact, since they fly like 18 inches apart, but given they have nearly identical vectors it does not often result in a crash.

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bigfishrunningyesterday at 11:55 PM

You might want to double check that LLM... If theres 2000 shows and 1-2 deaths, that's 0.05%-0.1%. still too high, but given the simple math error I think the other numbers are probably suspect too

Don't trust LLMs. They are bullshit machines.

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Schiendelmanyesterday at 11:59 PM

Also I think most of the fatalities in aerial shows are civilian pilots. Control out every nonmilitary flight when considering the risk.