re: Bandini

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

My dad wasn't there (probably watching ABC), but he's always said the 
he felt Bandini would have lived if it weren't for the helicopter. 
I'm sure it's been discussed somewhere.

At 7:57 PM -0400 5/12/02, alfa-digest wrote:
>Having seen that fatal accident with my own eyes, I can tell you its an
>image that I will take with me to my grave. One thing about the accident
>that I have never seen discussed is the part that ABC's "Wide World of
>Sports" played in Bandini's death. Here's what I saw. Bandini's car had hit
>the retaining wall, and bounced back to the middle of the track where it was
>burning, slightly. Bandini was obviously injured, but I saw him move, so I
>know that he was still alive. Several safety workers had made their way to
>the car and were tying to extract the hapless driver from the wreck.
>Suddenly an ABC camera helicopter appeared overhead and came down low so
>that the cameraman could get a good overhead shot of the proceedings. I
>could see the effects of the prop-wash from the 'copter blades blow the
>track-worker's hair and fan the flames of Bandini's car around. Inspired by
>the rush of air from the helicopter blades, the flames leapt from the rear
>engine bay of the Ferrari engulfing the whole car. The track workers, who
>had Bandini about half-way out of his cockpit by now, were forced by the
>heat, to drop him back into his seat, and an instant later the car was
>engulfed in flame and Bandini couldn't be seen any more. I've thought about
>this often during the ensuing years and it is my firm conviction that if the
>helicopter hadn't been there, they would have been able to get Bandini out
>before the car was engulfed. Of course I have no way of knowing the extent
>of the man's injuries, he might have died in hospital later, anyway. But he
>didn't get the chance to die (or not) of his injuries. He was killed by the
>fire, a fire fanned into a conflagration by an ABC camera helicopter.
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