In 1979, I watched the TU-144 "Russian Concord" go down at the Paris Airshow. It was my first live crash, and it cured me for good of the sensationalist hopes for a crash that I suppose every young boy secretly harbors when watching car races or air shows.
The TU-144 was not really a very bad design. It is just that maybe the time was not ripe (and maybe it never will be) for supersonic passenger flight.
Be that as it may, the Russian pilot was clearly out of his depth during the low passes in his last demo flight, and as he climbed out towards his final stall I watched apprehensively. After a moment in the clouds, he came out in a steep dive, from which he did not seem to recover. When he finally pulled out, clearly too late, the outer wing panel broke off. Fourteen people were killed, mostly in a village several miles out from the airport.
There are lessons to be drawn, which I intend to do later.
The only other crash I witnessed first hand was on a weekday at a local airfield. This was also due to irresponsible flying. The airplane was racing around the pattern endlessly at treetop height, totally against all rules of aviation law, decency an common sense, and on his final round he failed to see another incoming lightplane coming straight in to land. They collided just over the trees, a hundred yards out from the strip, taking the tail off the incoming plane. Both planes crashed into the tree tops.
Again, this pilot was clearly flying outside his capabilities, flying at 60° bank angles in the clearing just ahead of the runway. He got what he deserved, but it is sad that he took three other people with him, although I think they all miraculously survived the crash.