US Navy 040925-N-4459K-016 The Skytypers Air Show Team fly down the runway in formation at the 2004 Naval Air Station Oceana Air Show

The GEICO Skytypers Air Show Team was an

aerobatic Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aerial" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and glid ...

team that performed at

airshows An air show (or airshow, air fair, air tattoo) is a public event where aircraft are exhibited. They often include aerobatics demonstrations, without they are called "static air shows" with aircraft parked on the ground. The largest air show m ...

around the United States using six

SNJ-2 The North American Aviation T-6 Texan is an American single-engined advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), United States Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and other air forces ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

-era planes. The team was most recently sponsored by

GEICO The Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO ) is a private American auto insurance company with headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is the second largest auto insurer in the United States, after State Farm. GEICO is a wholly owne ...

. The smoke system was originally controlled by a manually wired rig, then by paper punch card messages, and eventually able to handle 50,000 messages that could be reprogrammed in flight.

2007 accident

On September 7, 2007, opposing solo - #6, Jan Wildbergh was killed while returning to the runway following a successful rehearsal for the annual

Naval Air Station Oceana Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana or NAS Oceana is a United States Navy Naval Air Station located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Nowadays, the station is located on 23.9 km2. It has total of 250 aircraft deployed and buildings valued at $800 mil ...

Air Show in

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Wildbergh was the last in line to land but did not complete the break in formation after the last maneuver, a flyover at show center. Instead, the aircraft continued straight ahead losing altitude until it hit the ground. According to the team spokesman, Wildbergh was too low to use his parachute and did not have an ejection seat. The airshow went on without the GEICO Skytypers the next day. The Blue Angels flew a

missing man formation The missing man formation is an aerial salute performed as part of a flypast of aircraft at a funeral or memorial event, typically in memory of a fallen pilot, a well-known military service member or veteran, or a well-known political figure. T ...

in that show to honor Wildbergh.

Armenian genocide incident

On 20 April 2016, the company GEICO Skytypers was paid for producing

skywriting Skywriting is the process of using one or more small aircraft, able to expel special smoke during flight, to fly in certain patterns that create writing readable from the ground. These messages can be advertisements, general messages of celebrat ...

over New York City stating "101 years of Geno-lie," "Gr8 ally = Turkey," "BFF = Russia + Armenia," and "

FactCheckArmenia.com FactCheckArmenia.com (@FCArmenia) is a website whose stated purpose is "exposing Armenian distortions and hypocrisies". Despite the name, it is not a fact-checking website; it publishes false information denying the Armenian genocide. Among the fa ...

." The company later apologized for conveying

Armenian genocide denial Armenian genocide denial is the claim that the Ottoman Empire and its ruling party, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), did not commit genocide against its Armenian citizens during World War I—a crime documented in a large body of ...

messages.

2018 accident

On May 30, 2018, a GEICO Skytyper plane crashed in Melville, New York, killing the pilot identified as Ken Johansen. Johansen served as Executive Officer of the team and was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, a Naval aviator, and a professional airline pilot. The team had finished the annual Bethpage Airshow at Jones Beach 4 days earlier. No one on the ground was injured during the crash.

2021 accident

On August 20, 2021, a GEICO Skytyper plane crashed at the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre airport, killing the pilot Andy Travnicek. Travnicek was a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, served in the U.S. Armed Forces, and was also a commercial airline pilot.

References

External links

* American aerobatic teams {{Aviation-stub