Robert E. Irion, Sandy, Utah: an interview by Benjamin Bahlmann, September 20, 2002: Saving the legacy tape no. 537, 538, and 539

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Rob rt . Irion pt mber 20'h 2002 finally tho pictur s probably one hundred and fifty yards behind him i all - and hit him real good then. That's when he rolled over and bailed out. And his airplane wasn't - I mean, I'm gaining on him so he's got some damage. I don't know what it was, whether he's lost one of the engines or what, but the fact that I was overtaking him so much I'm sure he got hit somewhere. But anyhow, he went to bail out and whether he was hit at that time as he bailed out or whether his ' chute didn't open, or whether something happened to him when he hit the ground, I don't know, but they said he was killed in the episode. BEN: So now why were you able to - does your aircraft have a tighter tum radius than that does? ROB: Oh yeah. That was one of the things: if we could turn with them, we could out­turn them very easy. BEN: So anytime he'd tum, you could just take that advantage, right? ROB: Yeah but just the fact that he's turning- you cut off the angle every time. Either way he turns, when he's making a tum, tum right or left, you're going to cut off the angle and you can cut in if you're flying at approximately the same speed. And I really think that our speeds at that time before he started making turns was pretty close. I might have been gaining on him slightly, but it would have been a long time catching him in level flight. BEN: So he turned, dove, and then turned? ROB: He went down like this, then he pulled up and started up this way, and then he went over and did that. Started what I think was started to roll where he could get out of it. They didn't have ejection seats, they just had a - they had to leave it like we did. 97