Yes, Virginia, Big Airplanes Can Shred Little Ones

I was watching 'Mythbusters' on the Discovery Channel the other day and they ran a segment entitled something like "Can an airplane propeller shred another airplane?". To test the premise the crew mounted a Lycoming engine and three bladed prop on a railcar and positioned the aft section of a Piper down the way, revved up the Lycoming, and sure enough, they shredded the fuselage-all of which I could have told them with a simple call.

So imagine, today, it was reported that at the annual EAA Fly in at Oshkosh, a Canadian registered two seat light aircraft was ass ended on the taxiway by a Grumman TBM Avenger, which swings a pretty muscular prop. The result was one fatality, coming on the heels of a wreck at Oshkosh on 23 July, the day before the fly in which took two lives.

Folks, airplanes are dangerous when in the wrong hands. I thought you knew that. Even Mythbusters knows it. Big airplanes can and do shred small ones.