By: Lucas Ji
At the Battle Creek Field of Flight Air Show and Balloon Festival, a man died in a fatal car crash. This air show consisted of showing off USAF Thunderbirds, Navy F-18 Rhino, hot air balloons, and more. The person was identified as Chris Darnell, who was driving his jet engine propelled truck as part of the show. At the time of his death, he was racing two airplanes.
The custom race truck crashed, then flipped, which caused an explosion. It was announced that the cause of the crash was a malfunction of the mechanical parts of the car. The two pilots of the planes Darnell was racing were not harmed, and the Federal Aviation Administration says that the planes were not involved whatsoever.
The speedy truck was created by Darnell Racing Enterprises, Chris’s own company, which describes the truck as being able to reach up to 350 mph in just a matter of seconds. Angered people emailed and phoned the company criticizing their vehicles for being too dangerous.
Darnell’s family also agreed that it was a mechanical failure and said “Chris so loved the Air Show business,” his family said. “He was ‘Living the Dream,’ as his father said.”
There was fire involved in the stunt, but it hasn’t been confirmed that it had to do with the death of Chris.
Air shows can be risky because of its dangerous stunts, but there have been many successful air shows. All of them were handled in a safe matter with first responders on site, and pilots that aren’t as willing to take risks.
Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/02/us/jet-truck-explosion-michigan-air-show.html