su30crash3

"MOSCOW, June 12 (Reuters) - The Russian pilot who crashed a Sukhoi-30 combat jet at the Paris air show on Saturday apologised for his mistake, saying he took the blame after attempting an ambitious aerial manoeuvre.

Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted the pilot, Vyacheslav Averyanov, as telling the plane's chief designer that he took responsibility for letting the jet go out of control.

The plane scraped the ground at the bottom of a downward loop, then attempted unsuccessfully to gain altitude before falling back down and bursting into flames just about a kilometre (mile) from spectators. No one was hurt and the two pilots ejected safely.

``Sorry, I did one too many revolutions in a flat corkscrew and I couldn't pull her out. I didn't have the altitude to get the plane out of the manoeuvre,'' Averyanov was quoted as saying.

Mikhail Simonov, who designed the plane, told Tass he had no hard feelings towards Averyanov ``who owned up to his mistake in piloting the aircraft.''

The designer said Averyanov would remain a test pilot for the Sukhoi-30 jet and would test a new prototype in Russia.

Tass said the aircraft had made three earlier flights at the show in Le Bourget."

(source: Reuters, 06-12-99)

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Never apply breaks when you have not fasten the seatbelts.