did he forget to lower the gear ?

hmmm...that's weird, cause the gear came down after landing. maybe an electrical problem? (just speculating, not an expert or anything)
 
yeah, he could have punched out, but that would be a waste of an aircraft that was still flyable. skillful flying on the pilot's part.
 
I'm guessing that he forgot to lower the gear. My guess is based on two things:

1. It looks like the emergency crews took a minute or two to get there, and they came from the opposite end of the runway (i.e., the end of the runway that he was pointed towards, as opposed to the end that was behind him).

2. There's no foam on the runway.

I'm thinking if he really did have a gear problem, he would have radioed ahead so that (1) they would have staged the emergency assets in such a way to follow him as he landed (and would have gotten there much more quickly), and (2) the airfield could lay down some foam. Even if he was low on fuel after his routine, he should have had at least enough gas for a go-around and then loiter at a max conserve setting to give the airfield five or ten minutes to get everything in place.

On the other hand, the jet could have had electrical problems where he lowered the gear handle and the plane showed three green lights when in fact, none of the gear actually came down.

Anyways, he lived to tell about it and have video as proof!
 
I'm going to disagree.

I think either it was a test or a malfunction.

The reason is simple. Most Modern Aircraft are equipped with a warning system both visual and audio. This is affectionatly known as '*****'in Betty'. This system will warn the pilot if the gear is still up.
 
mmarsh said:
Most Modern Aircraft are equipped with a warning system both visual and audio. This is affectionatly known as '*****'in Betty'. This system will warn the pilot if the gear is still up.
Click to expand...
Right. But as I said:

AJChenMPH said:
On the other hand, the jet could have had electrical problems where he lowered the gear handle and the plane showed three green lights when in fact, none of the gear actually came down.
Click to expand...
If the plane thought the gear was down, then it wouldn't have warned him that they weren't. And do Russian aircraft even have Bitchin' Betty?
 
I'm pretty sure it got a simular version of the BiB (what I call it). They're modern planes.

"If the plane thought the gear was down, then it wouldn't have warned him that they weren't."

That would indeed be a malfunction then.

Which I do think it was, or as mmarsh also pointed out that it could have been a test.
The plane looks rather new.

EDIT:

http://www.aviapedia.com/aerobatic-teams/russian-knights/russian-knights-video-smotr

Intesesting, you nailed it AJ! As of that source, as its a blog you can't be 100% sure but 99% atleast! :)
Nice thinking!

EDIT 2: Serveral other confirm this, he did forget to lower it, but I just cant imagine that it wont sound a warning, might have been taken off the acrobat team's planes because of low flying?
 
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similiar event occured while i was deployed with a Harrier during landing. it landed on its belly (no foam) the entire Navy was up on the flight deck ready for a fire b/c they have nothing better to do but it turned out to be a simple wire that broke in flight so they were not capable of going down. i guarantee it is not a test b/c of how many hours of maintanence
would have to go into that aircraft after landing on the belly, they are not meant to do that. just my 2c
 
I know that Russians do have 'Bettys'. If the pilot did forget the gear my only explaination as to why the Betty didnt sound was that it was disabled. Sometimes this is done on acrobatic aircraft for low altitude stunts.
 
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