Video A310 TAP at airshow how low can you go ??

[156Bru]

Well, to me this looks a bit too steep and in particular too close to the ground for an A310 in such a manouvre. As was already remarked, at such a low altitude (there is no altitude really) one can, however skillful, not judge what an extra couple of degrees of banking mean for the distance of the wing-tip to the ground. Even trying to fly a level ultra-low flypast is somewhat of a challenge with such a plane, and a level-climbing out to gain altitude before any turn would be sensible. In this example the disaster zone is extremely close. This was really an unnesecary "close shave", which might look spectacular, but is outright stupid and dangerous, hardly to be connected with skill and certainly not with professionalism, nor commensurate with the professional image that TAP has in safely transporting millions of (happy) passengers a year.

[FLY4HOURS.BE]

A new video shows that it was an intended but not under-control maneuver, as you can see him lowering the bank in a quick movement.

The closest distance was smaller was about the weidth of the engine cowling, not more than 3 meters.

[kvanhecke]

i heard the rumor that the plane was flown by the chief pilot for tap, it was his last flight before going in retirement. he was planned to get some flight instructor staff job on the side during his retirement, but after this joke, that was cancelled.

as you can see its a miracle that non of the light aircraft on display were tipped over by the wake turbulence of the high speed, low alt beast.

regards
kvh