Ramstein airshow disaster

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The moment of impact

The Ramstein airshow disaster was one of the world's worst airshow disasters. Seventy-two spectators as well as three pilots were killed and 346 were seriously injured in the resulting explosion and fire. The event took place in front of an audience of 300,000 people on August 28, 1988 at the US Ramstein Air Base airshow Flugtag '88 (Ramstein, county of Kaiserslautern, Germany).

Contents

[edit] Background

An illustration of the cardioid formation
An illustration of the cardioid formation

Ten Aermacchi MB-339PAN jets from the Italian Air Force display team, Frecce Tricolori, were performing their 'pierced heart' (Italian: Cardioid, German: Durchstoßenes herz) formation. In the 'pierced heart' formation two groups of aircraft create a heartshape in front of the audience along the runway. In the completion of the lower tip of the heart, the two groups of planes pass each other parallell to the runway. The heart is then pierced in the direction towards the audience by a lone aircraft.

[edit] Crash

The standby MEDEVAC helicopter after being hit by one of the aircraft
The standby MEDEVAC helicopter after being hit by one of the aircraft

The collision took place as the two heart-forming groups passed each other and the heart-piercing aircraft hit them. The piercing aircraft crashed onto the runway, it and its resulting fireball of aviation fuel tumbled into the spectator area hitting an ice cream van around which a lot of people had gathered on the hot summer day for free ice cream.[1] The resulting fire in the crowd was intense. At the same time, one of the damaged aircraft from the heart-forming group crashed into the emergency medical evacuation UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter,[1] killing both pilots and injuring the emergency medical technician who died weeks later from burns he suffered in the accident. This medical asset had been placed on what was thought to be a safe distance from the runway to be available in case of an accident. The pilot of the aircraft that hit the helicopter was the only one who ejected, but he was killed as he hit the runway without his parachute opening.[1] After the crash the remaining group formed up and diverted to Sembach Air Base.

[edit] Emergency response

Of the 31 persons who died at the scene, 28 had been hit by shrapnel.[2] Sixteen of the fatalities occurred in the days and weeks after the disaster due to severe burns, the last being the burned and injured med-tech from the helicopter. In total about 500 people had to seek hospital treatment following the event.[3]

The disaster revealed serious shortcomings in the handling of large-scale medical emergencies by German civil and American military authorities and their cooperation:

  • The rescue work was at no point effectively organized and coordinated on a scale larger than the efforts of independently-acting rescue teams - the rescue coordination center at Karlsruhe was unaware of the disaster's scale as much as an hour after its occurrence, although several German Medevac helicopters and ambulances had already arrived on site and left with patients.
  • American helicopters and ambulances provided the quickest and largest capacities for evacuating burn victims, but could not provide or find sufficient capacities for treating them. More than two hours after the disaster, German paramedics arrived at the Landstuhl U.S. military hospital and found large numbers of severely burnt but completely unattended patients. A bus transporting unattended patients arrived at a Ludwigshafen hospital (80km) nearly three hours after the disaster - the driver did not speak German and was unfamiliar with the area.
  • German paramedics used intravenous catheters and lines that were not compatible with the international standard used by the Americans, creating more confusion at the worst time.

[edit] Investigation

Large amounts of video was taken of the accident. It is clear that the piercing aircraft was hit on the right side by the top aircraft in the heart-forming group.[4] The debris from the collision then destroyed a third aircraft in the same group.[4] The accident was caused by pilot error as the piercing aircraft came in too fast and low, resulting in it colliding with one of the planes just completing the heart formation at an altitude of less than 150 meters. It is suspected that the pilot of the piercing aircraft attempted to slow his aircraft by lowering his landing gear. The excessively low altitude of the piercing aircraft meant that it could have collided with the control tower[citation needed].

Better coordination and organization of the rescue efforts would probably have prevented some of the deaths. The German authorities vowed to avoid such failures in the future and conduct regular large-scale drills using simulated disasters that involve all emergency services.

[edit] Aftermath

The airshow disaster memorial with the names of the victims
The airshow disaster memorial with the names of the victims

Treatment of PTSD and accompanying suicidal tendencies among both the victims and the rescue workers were and still are a significant task for the authorities, especially since very little psychological support was given at the time. Since then, psychological treatment of disaster victims and rescue workers has become part of the standard operations of German emergency services.

The disaster resulted in a total ban of public airshows in West Germany, which was lifted three years later and replaced with the following safety regulations:

  • Increased minimum height and distance from spectators. A picture of the previous airshow in 1987 revealed that there were no safety barriers near the runways; existing rules prescribed a distance of 400 meters (approx. 1300 feet) according to the aircraft types.
  • Banning of maneuvers in the direction of spectators.
  • All maneuvers subject to approval by authorities.

Ramstein Air Base itself has not held an airshow since the incident.

[edit] References in popular culture

The German industrial metal band Rammstein is named after the disaster and their song Rammstein is a tribute to the event.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Rocketjones survivor blog
  2. ^ Ramstein survivor support group
  3. ^ YouTube Ramstein base commander Col. William D. Eckhert, in video interview
  4. ^ a b YouTube Documentary of the Ramstein disaster

[edit] External links

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