Oh boy. A video released by the US Forest Service shows the moment when a gender reveal party in Arizona went horribly wrong, sparking a wildfire that burned nearly 47,000 acres and caused more than $8 million in damage.

Shot on April 23, 2017, the clip shows a makeshift target with the words "Boy" and "Girl" written on it, placed in the middle of the desert near Green Valley, Arizona, south of Tucson.
Seconds later we hear a gunshot, and the target explodes, revealing a blue cloud and immediately igniting the surrounding brush. Someone shouts, "Start packing up!"

The flames spread to the nearby Coronado National Forest, where they became the Sawmill Fire and burned 46,991 acres owned by the state of Arizona, federal agencies and private landowners. Firefighters from at least 20 agencies fought the fire for about a week,

The man who shot the target, off-duty US Border Patrol agent Dennis Dickey, pleaded guilty in September of this year to a misdemeanor violation of US Forest Service regulations and was sentenced to five years' probation. He also was ordered to pay $8,188,069 in restitution, starting with an initial payment of $100,000 and monthly payments thereafter.
The expectant dad, 37, had packed the target with a highly explosive substance called Tannerite and shot it with a high-powered rifle, according to the US Attorney's Office. The target was supposed to burst pink or blue to reveal to attendees whether Dickey and his wife were expecting a boy or a girl.

According to KGUN, Dickey immediately reported the fire to law enforcement, cooperated with the investigation and admitted that he started the blaze. He also repeatedly told the judge that the fire was "a complete accident."
CNN has reached out to Sean Chapman, Dickey's attorney, but has not heard back.As part of his plea agreement Dickey will make a public service announcement with the Forest Service about the cause of the wildfire.
According to KGUN, the Dickeys haven't said if the child was a boy or a girl. But the blue puffs as the target exploded might be a clue.

A critically ill patient’s life was saved when an F-16 fighter jet was used to rush specialized medical equipment more than 280 miles in less than half an hour.
After falling ill, the man had been taken to a hospital in Bodø, Norway, but the hospital did not have an ECMO machine – a device that supports the heart and lungs – without which he would die.
Doctors at the hospital knew the nearest available unit was at a hospital in Tondheim, 280 miles to the south. With the machine more than 10 hours away by car due to terrain, they believed the man would die before the machine could arrive.
Before resigning themselves to fate, the medical team contacted the air force base near Trondheim to ask if there was any way they could help save the patient, who was in critical condition.

“Chance would have it that we had two flights bound for [nearby] Moss on an exercise,” Lieutenant Colonel Børge ‘Gaff’ Kleppe, leader of 338th Squadron, told local media outlet.

​“One of them had even a cargo tank where there might be room. I called and asked them to keep [back] one plane, while we checked on it [for] all the possible places which could accommodate the machine.”
Militaries around the world have often helped with civilian medical emergencies, yet this is believed to be the first time a fighter jet has been used in such circumstances.
“Usually we spend about 35 minutes in flight,” said Lt Col Kleppe. “But because of the special cargo, the pilot gave a little extra, so he was there in less than 25 minutes.”

tags: breed of speed , f16 used to save mans life , f16 falcon , nathan finneman , nathan finneman colorado , fighter pilot , medical emergency , norway , military medical

Florida man’s hang gliding ride in Switzerland turned into a “near-death experience” when the pilot forgot to strap him in for the trip — leaving him dangling from the craft hundreds of feet in the air.
Chris Gursky, who lives in North Port in the Tampa Bay area, posted a GoPro video of his wild ride on his YouTube account.

“My first time Hang Gliding turned into a near death experience as my safety harness was never hooked to the Glider,” Gursky wrote on the YouTube account. “For 2 Min. 14 seconds I had to hang on for my life! The landing was a rough one, but I lived to tell the story.”
The video shows there was trouble immediately after takeoff when Gursky realized he was not attached to the craft. With his left hand trying to hold onto to a control bar, his right hand kept seeking something to hold onto — including the pilot.

After takeoff, the pilot tried to quickly land the craft but instead he ended up going hundreds of feet higher into the air before navigating the hang glider over a forest of trees and down the side of a mountain to a grassy field — where Gursky dropped off the glider before it landed.
“I remember looking down and thinking, this is it. I was losing grip with my right hand, that was holding onto a strap on the pilot's right shoulder. He was trying to make a bee line to the landing field as he knew what the situation could bring,” Gursky told London’s Daily Mail newspaper.
“I ended up holding on bar with the left hand and the lower part of his leg with the right when we were nearing the ground. I looked down to see my feet hit first, which ripped me off at about 45 mph as it was a hot landing and I was under the landing gear.”
But Gursky said in his YouTube video that he’s not too traumatized by the experience.
“I will go hang gliding again as I did not get to enjoy my first flight.”

tags: hang gliding , hanggliding accident , pilot hang glide passenger , passenger holds on for dear life , nathan finneman , breed of speed , nathan finneman colorado , hang , glide , switzerland , flying , aviation , viral hang glider

There was a terrifying crash at the Macau Grand Prix on Sunday. 17-year-old Formula 3 driver Sophia Floersch crashed, went airborne, and slammed directly into a photographers’ box. And it was all caught on camera.

The video above and the two below show the 168mph (270km/h) wreck from different angles.

Floersch survived the crash and later underwent surgery after being diagnosed with a spinal fracture. Another driver, a marshal, and two photographers were also hospitalized.

Hong Kong-based Australian photographer Christiaan Hart was one of the five photographers inside the box when the crash occurred.
“Everything happened so fast, the sound was horrific,” Hart tells PetaPixel. “One minute you are shooting the next thing we were all picking ourselves up off the floor, the impact threw us down, camera gear and bags were all over the place.”
Here’s a photo sequence Hart captured showing what happened before impact:

Russia’s Zvezda TV channel “accidentally” exposed model of a secret hypersonic 6th-generation fighter jet.
In a live broadcast of the Zvezda TV Channel was revealed a model of modern Russian-made hypersonic 6th-generation fighter jet that is likely in unmanned version.
Russian sixth generation combat aircraft will be hypersonic, first flight is scheduled until 2025. This was reported on 09 June 2016 by TASS, citing the head of the directorate of military aircraft programs, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) Vladimir Mikhailov. “He [prototype] rise into the air, as we plan, no later than two or three years after 2020”, said Mikhailov. United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) expected to fly a hypersonic “sixth-generation” fighter before 2025. Mikhailov stated it was currently under research and development, including engineering design.
Certain military experts point out that the project of a new hypersonic fighter jet is called the Pigeon, because of the similarity of the tail assembly.

The new Pigeon fighter jet will have massive twin-tail that allows it to use its own shockwaves to increase its lift and decreases drag.
Russia’s unnamed Pigeon hypersonic 6th-generation fighter jet would smash records and travel at five times greater than the speed of sound, over Mach 5-6. Quite possibly, the cruising speed of the future fighter aircraft will be identical today afterburning speed – Mach 1.5-2.
The type of engine is not reported. Maximum speed is not specified also as a range. Officials declined to comment on the image of the new aircraft model.
But some source reported that this only photo consists of Russian disinformation campaign or a joke of Russian military sector because the model in the photo “accidentally” released is a 1/72 Italeri Mig-37 “Ferret” or a 1/48 Testors Mig-37 plastic model.

tags: russian stealth , russian air force , top secret aircraft , classified aircraft, nathan finneman , breed of speed

wildfires that are sweeping through the state. Though the matters at hand are grim, one fascinating image was posted by a local news station ABC7 of a crew who encountered a rare 1966 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 in Malibu, removing it from the burning home. The firefighters pulled the vintage Mustang from the garage and pushed it near the side of a cliff, far enough from the brush and burning home to keep the car safe. Another photo shows the car nested safely away from the flames as they spread rapidly towards the garage.
Just under 1,400 Shelby GT350 Fastbacks were produced in 1966, making the car as rare as it is valuable. Similar examples are fetching well into the six figures; one for sale in Northern California has a hefty asking price of $165,000.

An Air Force pilot with the Thunderbirds flight demonstration team was killed in an April 4 crash after he lost consciousness while performing an aerial maneuver, the investigation into the incident determined.
Maj. Stephen Del Bagno died after his F-16CM went down at the Nevada Test and Training Range near Creech Air Force Base, Nevada.
Released on Tuesday, the investigation found that Del Bagno blacked out for five seconds after pulling 8.56 Gs. He regained his bearings one second before impact, but he was not able to pull the plane out of its dive.
Del Bagno "had a reputation for exceptional fitness" and had successfully performed many maneuvers that require pulling a lot of G-Forces, the investigation found. But being physically fit is not enough to protect against the effects of going from negative to positive G-Forces, which can cause a rapid drop in cerebral blood pressure.
Just prior to the crash, Del Bagno had been flying inverted, the investigation found. In the last two seconds of flying upside down, he endured a sharp increase in negative G forces, which lowered his blood pressure and heart rate at precisely the wrong time.
"The resulting outcome was more vascular space created by the widened blood vessels for the blood to flow away from the brain at the onset of the [positive G-Forces] and a lowered heart rate and blood pressure making it more difficult for the body to counter that dynamic," the investigation said.
As a result, Del Bagno was not physically prepared when he began a descending half-loop maneuver called a "Split S," during which he pulled nearly 9 Gs, according to the investigation, which said that he should have waited two extra seconds before pulling the stick up for the final maneuver.
Fighter pilots are taught several ways to prepare for the sudden onset of positive G forces to avoid losing consciousness, said retired Air Force Lt. Col. Darren Sorenson, a former F-15 pilot whom Task & Purpose consulted about this incident.
"Many other factors could have effected this pilots G tolerance on that particular day," said Sorenson, who had not read the crash investigation. "Very sad and unfortunate mishap."

In 1981, Rolls-Royce reportedly started getting demands for a very different sort of car: A rally-prepared Corniche that stood a foot or so taller than the standard car, with monster tires, a growling exhaust note, and a stripped out interior. The problem? Rolls-Royce didn't build a remotely similar car.
Those demanding the car could be forgiven. That very cool and very un-Rolls Corniche actually existed, but the company had nothing to do with it. It was the star of that year’s Paris-Dakar Rally, the hellishly long and arduous race across the Sahara from the post-Christmas revelry of Paris to the winter warmth of Senegal in West Africa. The event's beginnings saw amateurs having a bash in the family 2CV or farm Land Rover. But, by 1981, it had started attracting factory Range Rover teams and race legends like F1 and Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx. 
​Not surprisingly, Thierry de Montcorgé and Jean-Christophe Pelletier were not taken too seriously when their Rolls lined up with 290 others in the French capital. But at the race's halfway mark they were 13th. The rivals's view of the car had changed completely.
The super suave De Montcorgé, who would not be out of place if thrown in a gaggle of other unconventional and swashbuckling Rolls drivers like Lawrence of Arabia, invited me to a sandpit just outside Paris to drive the Corniche.
“It was Jean-Christophe's car. And because it was often [breaking down], we decided to put it in the desert,” Thierry recalls. The ‘eureka’ moment came aided by copious amounts of Pomerol over a lunch in Bordeaux. On the outside it still looks like a Corniche, albeit one that has had an intense course of steroids. But that is where the similarities end.

Each night, deep in the Sahara, de Montcorgé and his codriver Pelletier, sponsored by Christian Dior aftershave brand Jules, would set up an impromptu bivouac behind their 1970’s Corniche. From a basket they would pull oysters and other gastronomic goodies to ease the pain of battling the world’s largest desert. All washed down with champagne and Pomerol but without a drinks cabinet.
“The oysters only lasted for three days,” smirks de Montcorgé.
The rally Rolls is designed to be strong and comfortable, but to also have huge grunt. With up to 500 miles a day to endure, little else mattered. One stage, en route to the mythical oasis of Timbuktu, stands out in Thierry’s mind as where the Rolls was at its best. “It was a big desert in the south of Algeria. In my memory the sand was very white and so smooth. The car was running perfectly. I keep this image in my head.”​

It's a trip down memory lane for me too. I've commentated on 14 Dakars since 1987–when Peugeot brought their outlawed Group B rally cars and superstar drivers like Ari Vatanen to the desert–and I've been to the remote corners of the Sahara where the Corniche excelled. Nor am I a stranger to driving a Rolls off-road. A few years ago, I led a 6000-mile trip round South America in a Phantom, including some gnarly dirt and sand sections in the Atacama Desert. Without all the rally paraphernalia, the Phantom soaked up the conditions amazingly well.
Like an English stately home which has been stripped of its lavish furnishings, the Corniche no longer smells of Connolly leather and Chanel No.5. The odor is now of stale fuel and eau de old car.
“The car is almost exactly as it was when it finished the Dakar,” Thierry says as I get comfortable in the drivers bucket seat. “We knocked out a dent in the front, that’s all.”

Inside I search for familiar features. I can only find three. The wood dash and original dials (the odometer was the only trip meter they had to navigate the Sahara) and the original turn signal stalks. Oh, and the key. Except, with a turn it ignites not a purring Rolls-Royce lump but a V8 lump of Detroit iron connected to a drainpipe of an exhaust emanating from beneath the doors. This is clearly no Roller. It’s a more of a Rocker.
“Forget the brakes,” Thierry advises before I double-declutch into first gear. “They are almost non-existent.”
The course we have is a 1/3 mile loop up and over a pile of sand so yellow, Dorothy, the Tin Man and even Elton John would feel at home. It was also soft. I walked it and sunk up to my shins in places. But Thierry tells stories of climbing 100 foot African dunes in this monster so I short shift into second and let the immense torque and squidgy sand tires paddle away beneath.
It might have four wheel drive now, but somehow this desert brute has retained some of the Spirit of Ecstasy. The Corniche’s steering is still finger-tip light, the ride is supple and (as Rolls like to say when questioned ) it has ‘sufficient’ power. 350hp back in 1981, though I suspect it's less now.



Driving a boat or riding a Jet Ski is a good skillset to have when driving in sand. If you aren't using the power, you aren't turning. And once I plow through and over the deepest sections with no hint of bogging down, I play with the power band to make this brute dart this way and that.
The more I tickle the throttle, the more playful the Dakar Corniche becomes. The original suspension groans a little and the lack of speed in this sandpit makes it run a little hot but the years have not sapped youthfulness.

I briefly nudge into third gear which equates to 50mph, but it gives me a sense of what hour after hour of surfing the desert sand must have been like. Thrilling but brutal. My eyeballs struggle to keep up with the undulations and, even after 10 minutes, my neck muscles are over-compensating.
Three weeks of driving this car for 12 to 14 hours a day on sand and rock is unimaginable. I pull up, get out and now see Thierry as a hard-core adventurer, not as a debonair playboy. His car isn't a joke of Tonka truck, but a sublime yet simple piece of engineering that just happens to have a Rolls-Royce grille.
If the team wasn't disqualified for an illegal repair after a collision with a tree in Burkina Faso in 1981, the Rolls could have finished high on the Dakar leaderboard. It was still allowed to arrive in Dakar unclassified. Possibly because Jules had laid on enough champagne (and maybe oysters) in Dakar for the whole event.

Its high-speed, flowing corners make for great racing. They also make for scary, possibly career-ending crashes when it all goes wrong.


Then there are the fickle, sometimes frigid winds off the ocean. And the seagulls. Every couple of years, some seagull that for some strange reason thinks it's a good idea to hang out in the middle of a raging pack of unmuffled race bikes will lose his life in a collision with a World Superbike or a MotoGP prototype.
Even worse luck befell this track day rider at Phillip Island. A goose. He didn't even hit the goose. Another rider did. But he still paid the price in broken parts and shattered fairings.
Clearly, nothing in this video was good for the goose or the gander.

This car, a twin-turbo Lamborghini Huracan built by Underground Racing, smashed the half-mile world record earlier in August of last year at an airstrip in Indiana with a speed of 256.99 mph. That speed beat the next fastest recorded run—also set by an Underground Racing Huracan—by over 6 mph. It was then taken to another half-mile event held by Shift Sector last weekend where it beat its own record, laying down a speed of 259.67 mph.
This Huracan, driven by Gidi Chamdi, is reportedly equipped with a top-spec Underground Racing X Package, which includes a fully built twin-turbo engine capable of over 2200 horsepower on race gas, mated to a sequential transmission.
Here's the 259-mph run: