Air Show Takes Tragic Dive

Air shows are all about danger. Even before Sunday's fatal crash in Westhampton Beach, the audience at the Wings Over Long Island show was supposed to be scared by the stunts and races they witnessed; the stunts were death-defying and the pilots who accomplished these feats were daredevils.

One of those daredevils died after his craft collided in midair with another plane, both crashing to the ground and one exploding in front of nearly 20,000 horrified spectators.

The audience was about a quarter-mile from the crash site and was not in danger, said James Vliet, vice president of the Formula V Racing Association.

Earlier Fatality

The first-ever air show at Francis S. Gabreski Airport was 20 years ago, and it too was marred by a crash that killed an air acrobat. A second was not held again until last weekend. Airport officials and Wings Over Long Island organizers said this week they did not know whether there would be a third.

The show was sponsored by North Fork Bank and three local Rotary Clubs and received support from county officials.

The pilots who crashed Sunday afternoon flew Formula V aircraft, tiny one-seaters designed for racing. Disaster occurred, at about 4 p.m., just as the four competitors crossed the finish line.

Clipped Wings

They had competed in a Formula V race around a two-mile oval course marked by pylons, at speeds of up to 170 miles per hour and at times within 50 feet of each other and the ground. As the planes crossed the finish line, they increased altitude to 300 feet and spread out into a wider, supposedly safer, formation for landing.

That was when two of the planes, one slightly above the other, clipped wings.

Chris Kalishek's yellow plane, named Sunbeam, crashed behind the trees lining the runway and disintegrated. Hot Wings, the blue plane piloted by Dick Goodlett, spiraled out of control, slammed into the ground in full view of the spectators, and exploded into flames.

Witnesses said Sunbeam was the higher of the two, and that it clipped Mr. Goodlett's wing.

Racing Novice

Both were licensed commercial pilots who had completed special training for racing. Mr. Kalishek was a racing novice. Mr. Goodlett, president of the Formula V Racing Association, had been racing about two years.

Both were taken by ambulance to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital in Patchogue and later transferred to Stony Brook University Medical Center. Mr. Goodlett, 51, a stockbroker from Kentucky, was airlifted there with severe head injuries and burns over 90 percent of his body. He was pronounced dead at 7:38 p.m.

Mr. Kalishek, a 37-year-old computer engineer from Wisconsin, arrived by ambulance a few minutes later and was listed in stable condition yesterday after surgery to repair a punctured lung and several broken bones. His plane did not catch fire.

Cause Unknown

Fifteen minutes after the crash, a thunder-and-lightning storm rolled over. Officials said they did not believe weather played a role in the crash, but as of yesterday afternoon still could not name a cause. The Federal Aviation Administration removed the debris to a nearby hangar within a few minutes of the crash to examine it for any mechanical defect.

The National Transportation Safety Board was also questioning witnesses and reviewing videotape taken by spectators. The F.A.A. has no special guidelines for air racing, except rules to insure spectator safety.

The thrill of the three-day air show, which began Friday with a show for the press, relied on repeated suggestions of midair collisions and planes flying out of control. The Northern Lights, a five-plane aerobatic team, for example, performed "opposing passes," or two planes flying toward each other and just narrowly avoiding a head-on collision.

Show's High Point

Other performances involved wing walking, gliders and sail planes, and demonstrations of military formation flying by the 106th Rescue Wing of the Air National Guard, based at Gabreski.

Patty Wagstaff, an aerobatic soloist, flew her Extra 300S into the sky at an almost perfect vertical pitch and then allowed it to fall toward the ground backwards for several seconds before regaining control. Her low-level routine also includes the loops and dives that are a staple of all aerobatic performances.

The high point in the show was Tony Kazian's wing-walking act. Using a brace mounted to the top of the fuselage, Mr. Kazian sat, stood, and moved around in a variety of positions as the plane flew low to the ground.

Comic Routine

An actual disaster was obviously not included in the schedule of events, but one event openly found humor in flying out of control and nearly crashing.

Danny Clishman, the air show's dramatic "sky talker," announced a break in the middle of the show to allow County Legislator George Guldi to take off for a flying lesson with his instructor.

A comic routine ensued, in which the "instructor" was left behind and a stunt pilot - the crowd was told it was Mr. Guldi - drove erratically around the runway. He eventually made a shaky takeoff, bobbing up and down in the sky, disappearing behind trees, and re-emerging with a clothesline full of laundry in tow.

Not Amused

The sky talker coaxed "Mr. Guldi" out of the sky as toilet paper and a pilot's manual were thrown from the bobbing and weaving plane, emphasizing the chaos inside the cockpit. The crowd didn't seem particularly amused by the skit; there were no cheers or laughter.

Mr. Guldi, who lives in Westhampton Beach, had his own, minor crash two years ago during a flying lesson.

Mr. Guldi, reached yesterday afternoon, had spent the past three days consulting with the organizers and F.A.A. officials overseeing the safety checks.

Otherwise Flawless

"Pray for the victims and their families. This was an unfortunate incident," he said, adding that the show went off "flawlessly, but for an incident that occurred after the race was over."

The fact that the disaster overshadowed the commercial success of the event and the hard work of hundreds of volunteers was "a second tragedy," he said. The beneficiaries of the event would get their due "when the checks are handed out," he said.

The show was staged, in part, to raise money for local charities, including the Rotary Clubs' Gift of Life programs.

Mr. Guldi said the skit based on his attempts to get a pilot's license - he does not have one yet - was performed Friday and Saturday and was next on the roster when the crash occurred. It did not go on.

The show's organizers seemed to take great pride in America's war machines. As the P-47 Thunderbolt flew across the sky, Mr. Clishman told the crowd such planes fought in World War II to insure that we would still speak English today.

Three Previous Deaths

In discussing the strength of Ian Groom's Russian-made Sukhoi SU-31 aerobatic plane, Mr. Clishman said Russians are "just human beings like us" and that "we're learning a lot from our former enemies" about airplane construction.

On Friday, during a performance for the press, one of the Formula V planes came in for a landing a little too fast and nosed into the runway. Mr. Clishman assured the crowd that no one was hurt but repairs would have to be made to the plane.

In the last six years, three Formula V pilots have perished. One died in 1991, in a race in Iowa. Another was killed along with his wife in Alabama. The third died in August, part of a group of four planes, which also included Mr. Goodlett's, heading to a competition in Kentucky.