Two Zlin-50 LX aircraft of the Red Bull Flying Bulls aerobatic team, based in the Czech Republic, collided during a manoeuver at the Aero-India defense expo airshow in Bangalore on Thursday 19 Feb.
The team, made up of three of their four Zlins, was going through a formation climbing demonstration. At the point at which they started to split apart and roll level, two of the aircraft, piloted by team leader Radka Machova and left wingman Jiri Saller came together again.
The prop of OK-XRD struck the rear of the right wing of OK-XRC and a further secondary strike of the left wing of OK-XRD also hit the rear of the wing of XRC.
Luckily, they were just about at the centre of the air show,on the far side of the long Bangalore Yelahanka Air Force station runway and so both aircraft were able to make successful landings. First down was OK-XRD with half the length of each of the wooden prop blades missing, and a damaged pitot tube and wing leading edge. Then OK-XRC landed with at least a meter of the right wing severely chewed up, including the aileron, although thankfully, some aileron control remained. Both pilots were unharmed.
