I was there when Mark Hanna crashed

[GADGET]

I have seen that you have some interest in the dead of Mr. Mark Hanna. Sadly, I was there when he crashed.

It was on Saturday Sept. 25th at 12 PM, while getting ready for an airshow in Barcelona that he crashed. He was flying with the Breitling Warbirds Team (P-40, P-51 and the HA Buchón he piloted) practicing for La Merçe (a holiday in Barcelona) in a small airport called Sabadell, with a 800 m runway. On that morning he took the Buchón for a flight and when coming back for landing he overshooted from base-leg to short final. Trying to correct the error, he pulled back on the stick while adding power... bad idea when coming low and slow... and turning hard. The Buichón is a really difficult plane, having the Bf.109G cell with a RR Merling engine... that turns a big propeller in the opposite direcction the airplane was originally designed for.

He crashed a few hundred feet before runway threshold, into a small slope, after loosing control of his Buchón. The airplane burned and when the rescue team could get to the place (outside the airport perimeter)... it was too late, but he was still alive. he was taken to the nearest hospital in Sabadell, where he received a first aid, but he was too burned, so later he was taken to a special intensive care unit for burned people in Hospital del Valle de Hebrón in Barcelona. He died two days later due to the several injuries and burns, in the early morning of Sept. 27th.

May he rest in peace.
My condolences to everyone that might know him.

GADGET

 

 

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101 Escuadrón de Combate Virtual

[Bradburger]

Thanks for the info Gadget. The news broke a day later here in the U.K and sadly most of the news programmes ran the bulletin late on the Sunday evening. As it turned out he had passed away a few hours earlier.

His death has come as a big shock to all with an interest in historic aircraft and he will be sadly missed.

Cheers

Bradburger

[Yeager]

No one needs to be reminded that flying these machines is a dangerous business.  

If there is any consolation in the passing of this fine man, it is that he knew the risks and accepted them.

Godspeed Mr. Hanna,
Yeager

[fyterjock]

Thanks Gadget for the additional info, the web page was pretty sketchy as to what happened.  Really too bad.  Last year it was Jeff Ethell who died just after also doing an article for Flight Journal, seems to be some sort of curse almost.

Fyter