2012 was a terrifying year for Russian dashcam videos, but the badness reaches its peak on Dec 29, with this footage of a plane disintegrating crosswise to busy highway traffic.

  • http://twitter.com/pickledbeatnik pickledbeatnik

    Driving in Russia must really harden a person . . .

    • http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

       I would imagine so. I don’t think they call some of their traffic lanes Death Highway just for the grins.

  • gwailo_joe

    It just so happens I was watching Russian crash videos earlier this evening…it must be a thing…

    Only 13 minutes but some jaw dropping footage (the plane into smithereens is pretty hard to beat though…)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXz4P6EpX3s

    • bolamig

      While watching the video of cars losing traction I tried to think about steering into the slide.   Sounds easy in theory, but when the car is heading towards a guardrail or oncoming traffic it would require nerves of steel and well trained responses.  I’m glad for VSC.

  • bolamig

    Speechless.  I remember when “snuff films” were considered taboo, but these days I see footage of people dying more often than I see stories of people being saved.  Hope there weren’t many passengers on that plane, and that I didn’t just see the remains of any of them.

    • http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075

      Zero passengers, it turns out. The plane was returning from dropping tourists off in some central European country.

    • Geoduck

      There was nobody on board except the crew, fortunately.

    • http://twitter.com/colinrosenthal Colin Rosenthal

      Calling it “snuff” is overdoing it slightly, although I must confess that the first time I remember feeling slightly uneasy about such a video was the endlessly repeated TV coverage of the Challenger disaster.

    • http://www.facebook.com/thomashiles Tom Hiles

      Snuff films are still considered taboo. Footage of accidents are not the same thing.

    • http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

       Uh, I can very well recall footage of a civilian being executed with a shot to the temple at point blank range. This was shown on the evening news during the dinner hour. Vietnam war.

  • http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075

    In Gibralter, i believe, a major road has to share part the runway of their airport; because of geography limitations both the runway and the road have to be where they are and they couldn’t do without either one.  But at least they have a traffic light to tell the jets and the cars when they can “go”.

  • http://twitter.com/metal_max Max Allan

    This amateur video has 10 million hits. The ABC news report about the crash only 200k.
    And journalists try to tell us that professional journalism needs saving.

    • Steve Baldwin

       Professional journalism does need saving. ABC can fight for themselves all the way to the bottom.

      • http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

         I can remember when ABC started, it was the FOX of its day. Not totally right wing and all, but they DID change the rules of the TV news game. Before ABC, the news department was not even expected to make money for the network. It was more or less for prestige. ABC changed all that. The news was now supposed to generate profits.

    • fuzzyfuzzyfungus

      Professional journalism does need saving. It’s just that informationally-vacuous disaster porn isn’t “journalism” and any alleged ‘journalist’ who engages in it deserves to be crushed by (much cheaper) amateurs.

      Were ABC actually busy doing Serious 4th Estate Speaking Truth To Power type stuff, they might actually get to qualify as ‘Professional Journalism’ and deserve some salvation…

    • andygates

      Just think for a moment about how a clip would go viral.  The original is much more likely, as it’s been around for longer, and has had an international start.  

      The best metric of professional journalism is probably not YouTube hits, hein?

    • http://twitter.com/PaulDavisThe1st Paul Davis

      compare and contrast the content of the video with the guardian report at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/29/russia-moscow-plane-crash-vnukovo

      now tell me that you think one is a substitute for the other.

  • http://twitter.com/TheRedMonk01 Red Monk

    In Russia plane rushes to catch you.

  • http://www.geekforce.com Hugh Johnson

    Damn you, Gravity!

  • fuzzyfuzzyfungus

    What I want to know is why Putin didn’t just tear off his shirt and guide the plane back onto the runway with his glistening abs? He loves doing that sort of thing.