The showpiece of Oostwold Airport, the Mustang P-51D Damned Yankee, was damaged on Saturday afternoon. This happened when it landed next to the runway at its home base.
The beautifully painted North American Mustang P51-D is a welcome guest at open days, airshows and commemorative flights at home and abroad, and is therefore one of the best-known Dutch aircraft. According to many, the pride of airport owner Tom van der Molen is also one of the most beautiful.
According to the airport, the aircraft overshot the runway during landing and ended up in the grass. The occupants, the pilot and a passenger, were unharmed. The aircraft was transported to a hangar. Experts will assess the damage there on Monday.
Photos show that the propellers are severely damaged. As a result, the Mustang will probably not be visible in the air in the near future. The airport cannot say whether this will be the case again soon. “The mechanics won’t be back until Monday.” The accident is the second since the opening of the paved runway and runway in April. In May, a new double-decker (a Waco YMF-F5C) rolled over. All those involved were also unharmed.
1993
The Oostwold Airshow website states that the 1945 Mustang was used as a training aircraft by the American and Canadian air forces until the 1960s. The aircraft then fell into private hands. It was equipped with an extra heavy engine for air racing and was repeatedly refurbished after two hard landings and a crash on the ground.
Tom van der Meulen was so impressed by the former fighter plane during a conference on agricultural aviation in America (1993) that he brought it to the Netherlands a year later. In 2005 it received the registration PH-PSI, which resembles P51. Van der Meulen has been flying it from Lelystad and Oostwold for years.
More than 15,000 examples of the Mustang, the American ‘sister’ of the English Spitfire, have been built in various types since 1941. According to Wikipedia, there are three with a Dutch registration.