Effectively what happens is the plane is being followed by the camera, then when it crashes the camera loses focus for 2s, then refocuses in on a dead body, pans around to a few dead bodies, and zooms out to show you a bunch of bodies and some wreckage. Like Gosling says in his post, there are no flames, no gore, not really even any smoke. What makes it so disturbing is that it's just lifeless bodies, instantly killed... just lifeless, no blood or explosions. I suppose that some of them may be unconscious, but just knowing that Gosling said most were dead or uninjured kind of makes me think otherwise.
A lady ~90ft (or nearly twice the distance from the disaster as Mr. Gosling) from the accident said, "I saw body parts and gore like you wouldn't believe it. I'm talking an arm, a leg," Higgins said "The alive people were missing body parts. I am not kidding you. It was gore. Unbelievable gore."
I'm inclined to believe both of these are true, but I would not be surprised if one of these witnesses, in their understandable shock, had their minds fill in the blanks in their memories, wiped clean by stress. I've been through a firefight or two myself and IMO these life-and-death situations are a mix of crystal clarity and swiss cheese memory. Sometimes the brain puts things there that weren't.
It's not so much the dead bodies it's the fact it was a sudden tragic event if this was the evening news and they were showing a video of the results of war I think that should be allowed to shock the audience.
I'm alive Friday September 16, 2011
Just fucking barely. I'm at the air races in Reno with a bunch of friends and a horrific accident just happened. One of the very high end racers, going about 500 mph, lost control and nose dived straight into the audience. The news is currently saying that the plane missed the grandstand, but that's only technically true: in front of the grandstand there are several rows of box seats. It impacted right in the middle of them. I was in a box seat with my friends only 50 feet from the impact. I was watching the plane as it lost control, so I saw the whole thing. The impact happened so fast, there was hardly any sound: just one huge shock wave. No fireball. The plane, and many people, disintegrated instantly, right in front of me. There were bodies everywhere. No crash you've ever seen in a movie is even remotely authentic.
Update: it's already on YouTube. I was in the middle of the dust cloud you see around the impact. They're saying "30 serious injuries" but I know that's a long way from the truth. At least that many died instantly in the impact. I suspect that there were not a huge number of serious injuries. It was not a small airplane. You either died or you didn't. I didn't. My brother and I are still shaking.
Another Update: They're now officially calling it a "mass casualty situation". The plane was Galloping Ghost, piloted by Jimmy Leeward. It was a very cool, highly modified, P51 mustang with a very unusual approach to engine cooling. I doubt that this was at all connected to the accident - it looked like a control system failure.
Ten of the traditional forty subjects of Buddhist meditation are the asubha, the "repulsive subjects", corpses in different states. Meditating on these is intended to help you come to terms with your own mortal nature, and to prevent you from coming to worship things of the body as if they deserved it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamma%E1%B9%AD%E1%B9%ADh%C4%81n...
In many Buddhist areas of the world, you can buy sets of cards with images of all forty, to be used as a meditation aid. (It's easier to hold your attention on a subject when you're looking at a picture of it.) Imagine the righteous indignation of the preserve-your-ignorance squad here if such a thing were to be displayed.
http://www.livestream.com/loadedtv/video?clipId=pla_b2efcd7d...
This is really tragic.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/21/us-kansas-airshow-... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14602900 http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/homepage_showcase/accident-at-selfri...
I'm not even sure where you could begin improving safety for crowds at air racing events without forcing them to move much further back from the action. With cars you can move back 50 feet, put up a barrier, and improve your safety tremendously. For planes, you'd probably have to move the crowds way further back than they are now. I imagine being up close and in front of the action is part of the spectacle though.
One unorthodox approach could be restricting these events to landscapes where the crowds could be on an elevation above the planes. I watched the video and in the background are hills/mountains where crowds could safely be located above the planes.
Of course, nothing will take your breathe away like the unbelievable near-miss videos of rally racers missing spectators by inches on YouTube.
immediately prior: http://imgur.com/QuAnm
impact: http://imgur.com/CcS91
There's a Wikipedia article about the crash, with a bunch of news links: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/2011_Reno_Air...
Another angle, showing the plane climbing high into the sky before turning over and diving: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndd9PVDM3jU
Assorted photos of the crash and aftermath (no gore, but beware): http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=J7&Dato=20...
For the 'Unlimited' class of race aircraft, this typically occurs once a day during the races. These aircraft are running 3000hp engines, and race at speeds around 500mph.
Link #3 has the best angle on this maneuver. It looks like the pilot lost control shortly after pulling the plane vertical, after which it rolled 180 degrees and pitched straight to the ground.
i.e. like the Sknyliv disaster(really recommend not watching the video of that one)
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110917/NEWS01/10917033...
http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=J7&Dato=20...
Photo 7 is very peculiar. The pilot is not visible. I am familiar with this cockpit, and there is no where to go backwards, so he must be all the way forwards out of view.
In photo 38, you can see how visible he is when taxiing out.
Just absolutely terrible. My thoughts are with all involved.
