Pilot gets lucky Pilot gets lucky (September 19, 2003)

Veteran stunt plane flier walks away from spectacular crash at Moffett Air Show

By Candice Shih

After more than 21,000 hours of flight experience and 23 years performing in air shows, Bill Cornick, 70, had his first crash at the Air Expo at Moffett Field on Saturday.

Cornick was performing an act with two other aircraft at about 3:30 p.m. when a wingtip of his Pitts biplane hit the runway. It collapsed the wing and he skidded until it came to a stop.

There was no fire and Cornick was able to walk away from the accident. He was taken to Stanford Hospital for a checkup but only suffered scrapes and bruises.

"Typically, we do this maneuver around 100 feet (altitude)," said Cornick. "I apparently got distracted."

The three pilots were performing an act called "Squirrel Cage," in which the aircraft perform tricks in succession. Cornick was in the middle of a type of roll when his plane went down.

"Because of his professionalism, that's probably what saved his life," said Steve Teatro, the show's executive producer. "He was able to minimize his injuries by the way he landed."

Although ticket sales were not reported, Teatro said several thousand spectators were on hand on Saturday, and again on Sunday. Cornick did not perform during the second day of the show.

The crash delayed Saturday's show by about 40 minutes, but the final F-16 act had to be cancelled because the time reserved for the air space had expired.

While Cornick came away from the crash in one piece, his plane "Big Bad Green," named after its color, was destroyed.

He said he will probably buy a similar plane for the next season of air shows beginning in March. "I'm convinced it's because of the design of the airplane that I walked away from it," Cornick said.

A lifelong pilot, Cornick joined the Air Force in 1953 and was hired at United Airlines as a flight instructor in 1965. He was a captain on Boeing 757s and 767s and flew as a flight engineer on 747s.

A resident of Thousand Oaks, Calif., Cornick started performing in air shows 23 years ago and now flies in 12 to 14 shows in the western U.S. a year.

Although he was forced to land in a riverbed once because of engine failure in a practice session, Cornick had never crashed before. This accident was also the first crash in the Air Expo's three years at Moffett Field, which replaced the Navy air exhibition when the base was decommissioned in 1994.

E-mail Candice Shih at cshih@mv-voice.com