Almost Saw and Accident-Who has seen one

[DC4boy]

I was 30 seconds ahead of the S2 midair in Cal. last year, 4 mins behind a 182 that spun in on a departure last spring, heard one on the radio, but have been fortunate enough never to have seen one.

 

[Jump Pilot]

Third year of flying jumpers. Everyone has made it. We kind of have a ritual before I call door. They wish wish me a safe ride down and I tell'em I'll see them on the ground.

Why jump out of a perfectly good airplane? You hven't seen our plane.

 

[EagleRJ]

I was number 5 or 6 in line for takeoff at John F. Kennedy, and watched a Swissair MD11 go by on the takeoff roll. It wasn't until I got into the hotel that night that I found out he had gone down off the coast of Nova Scotia (Flight 111).

 

[POKEY]

Back in the early 80's I was at Fort Bragg, NC for some kind of military display. A C-130 was coming in to do kind of a touch and go (think its called a LAPES?) and drop a tank out the back as it touched down and was supposed to fly back out. Instead they came in high, nosed it over and as they were getting close to the ground pulled up a little late and smacked the ground real hard. the airplane then bounced a couple of times went off the end of the dirt strip and exploded in the trees. I think six or seven were killed including some on the ground. I was about two or three hundred yards away.

 

[stingray]

After working for 5yrs for an airport in sw fl. I've witnessed a few.
an R-22 lost its tail rotor while I was staring right at it. it whent into the trees
A couple of gear up landings.
various pilots screwing up on landings, nose gears getting torn off, a few planes flipping, and most of them departing the runway.
2 planes that i flown the very next guys to fly them wrecked them.
all lived.
Here is one that I won't forget though. I will try to keep it short.
When I was still flying a 414 I was on a flight I did about 4 times a week into Boca Raton. On one of them, about 30 seconds after I checked in with Palm Beach approach, a convair comes on the freq doing the mayday call saying they have a major control malfunction they don't think they can make it to any airport. either the pilot or approach said something about using the turnpike. Then in a shakey scared voice the pilot says again we are not going to make it, ( you can tell these guys thought they where going to die). Approach ask me to stay in the area so I could tell them where the convair goes down at. I'm thinking holy sh** this isn't good at all. Boca Raton got closer so they started to head directly for the field. Approach again ask me to stay on the freq so I can tell them what happens.
The convair lands safely, I let approach know, everyone is releaved. I land a minute behind the convair. My paxs go on there way. I run into the pilot of the convair as the paramedics where checking him out (His hands where raw from fighting the plane) I told him I was the other plane up there and that he did a dam good job at getting the plane down safely, he looks at me in a daze and with a shaken voice says thanks, then gets in the ambulance. The planes elevator trim tab was 70% missing, the right elevator itself was torn completly in half from the leading to trailing edge, along with other holes. It was amazing they made it.
My father who is retired from Eastern once told me a few yrs ago:
If anyone is in this Busines long enough your are bound to have friends loose their lives to it. Unfortunatly it had already came true when i was about 25, 10 yrs ago.

remember everyone Fly Safe

 

[newmei]

Hey DiamondJim,

Was that Twin Commander accident that you saw in Ennis, Texas???? If so the right seater was a friend of ours. Sad....

 

[ShawnC]

Unfornatly I saw two, both on Saturday at Sun n Fun.

 

[avbug]

I was doing a cleanup pass in an AgTruck outside Dighton, KS, when the airplane ahead went through four powerlines. You don't have any forward vision when putting out 2,4-D in calm winds, because the windscreen is painted white. It was early, no wind, no turbulence. He pulled up at the end through a quad set of lines. I had to land ahead of him because we weren't sure if he could shut down the runway.

Cut a good share of the way through the prop, removed the leading edges and wing tip, messed up the gear a bit, tore off the booms at the outboard boom hangars and removed the boom ends, cracked the canopy, and a few other things. Three hours of emergency field repairs, and we were back in the air working again. I flew it to Wichita that fall for repairs.

 

[enigma]

Once is enough

I was watching a third rate airshow in Killeen Texas sometime aroung 1984 when I was in college. Most of the performers were from a nearby, (Dallas if I remember correctly) Aerobatic club. The accident happened when a Stevens Akro attempted a snap roll and allowed the plane to rotate an extra 180 degrees which left him inverted and pointed slightly towards the crowd with about 45 degrees nose down. I was sitting on top of an old Beech 18 that our flight school had near the opposite end of the field, watching through the long lens of my old Pentax and never had the presence to click the shutter. Anyway, instead of aileron rolling back upright, the poor soul decided to split s from about 400 feet. You could see it when he realized that he didn't have enough altitude to complete his pull out, he pulled so hard that he stalled the aircraft and it pancaked in from about 75 feet. The Akro broke in half and the poor bastar-d pilot bounced about 20 feet in the air.

Watching that really stunk.

It turned out that the pilot had had a leg operation some weeks previous and that was the first time he had flown after the operation. The investigators thought that maybe he didn't have the leg strength, or feel, to adequately use the rudder. We later learned that his leg was bothering him enough that he had another pilot walk the three hundred yards to the hangers to get the Akro and taxi it to the flightline.

This is a depressing thread, but I'm adding this in hopes that we all are reminded not to fly when we are not 100%.

8N

 

[DiamondJim]

New MEI --- Ennis

NewMEI,

Yes, it was the crash in Ennis. I believe it was Charlie- Can't remember his last name from Cardinal aviation in Lancaster in the right seat. I dont mean to judge, but I can't figure for the life of me how someone with his experience got in that situation. I was standing outside the FBO building when they came screaming over just over the flagpoll and then went in.

Are you from that area? I flew out of Ennis for a while and also over at Mid/Wae in Waxahachie.

DJ