Plane lands on CA freeeway....happy ending

[ePilot22]

?

Ok, I think I have it!

The plane stalled when they lost the engine because they had been flying for six months.

Wadsworth, 28, of Acton had been flying about six months. He brought the plane low - about 20 feet above the eight-lane freeway that divides a golf course and an open-air strip mall.

Maybe the term "power" should have been used after engine? Or maybe six months is a little to long to be flying the plane.

Everything in the article aside, NICE JOB! Way to FLY THE AIRPLANE!!!

 

[Cardinal]

Bad decision making, IMHO. Roads are for cars, and it's a minor miracle somebody didn't die. All it would've taken is one mom on a cellphone in a Montero and they'd be scraping up little bits of crispy flesh off the freeway with a putty knife. For everybody that thinks landing on a freeway is a good idea, think harder. Many people have died doing this sort of thing, including innocent motorists. You signed up for the risk when you departed in your light single over an inhospitable area, you take the fall when the engine dies. Trees are in fact softer than cars.

 

[ePilot22]

Take What You Can Get!

Bad decision making, IMHO.

Would you have prefered a house? At least he didn't panic and crash and die! He flew the plane and put it down where he could. I don't think my first pick would be the tops of trees.

The bad decision MAY have been made during preflight. Was there enough fuel or oil? Why did the engine loss power? Something he missed?

Suppose everything looked fine during preflight, he did a good job of not hurting himself or anyone else. I won't complain!

 

[Cardinal]

YOU shoulder the risk when YOU go flying, it should not be the general public! How many airshow pilots have risked and sometimes sacrificed their own lives to nurse thier crippled aircraft away from the crowd?

Further: If you abort above V1 for a nuisance item and nobody dies, that doesn't make it the right course of action. The fact that nobody died in this incident doesn't make the aviator any less stupid and selfish.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001211X11196&key=1
I've flown with this (terrible) pilot. She made a choice, and she lived but another human died. "The pilot exited from the burning airplane receiving serious injuries. The sole occupant of the Mazda did not exit, and received fatal injuries. Both the airplane and the Mazda were destroyed in the resultant fire."

 

[FlyingFisherman]

YOU shoulder the risk when YOU go flying, it should not be the general public! How many airshow pilots have risked and sometimes sacrificed their own lives to nurse thier crippled aircraft away from the crowd?

Further: If you abort above V1 for a nuisance item and nobody dies, that doesn't make it the right course of action. The fact that nobody died in this incident doesn't make the aviator any less stupid and selfish.

As an avid fisherman...I suggest you switch to a carolina rigged soft plastic rather than trolling.

It'll help you when the water is cold this winter when you're swimming after an engine failure because you selflessly decided to land in 40 degree lake rather than the nice open stretch of road going alongside it.

You've never had an engine start throwing oil right out of a return hose on to the exhaust manifold and start smoking like a sonofabitch and for grins coat the windscreen with a new coat of ashless dispersant have you? When it happens...let me know how it worked out.

 

[Phoenix45]

Bad decision making, IMHO. Roads are for cars, and it's a minor miracle somebody didn't die. All it would've taken is one mom on a cellphone in a Montero and they'd be scraping up little bits of crispy flesh off the freeway with a putty knife. For everybody that thinks landing on a freeway is a good idea, think harder. Many people have died doing this sort of thing, including innocent motorists. You signed up for the risk when you departed in your light single over an inhospitable area, you take the fall when the engine dies. Trees are in fact softer than cars.

In the pilot's defense, after passing him by on the freeway, there was no other place to put it down. It was in a mountainous area, with very few trees. It was either put it down on the freeway (best choice) or crash and die.

:smash:

 

[starchkr]

He did the right thing for a plane that can fly slow enough to "almost" fit in with "normal" traffic flow. Yes i realize this is CA, and "normal" traffic flow is slower than a human can walk, but i believe you get my point. Now if he was flying something with some get up and go, say a Lear for instance(i am biased at this point in time) then yes, he might have made a bad decision to land it on a highway since landing speeds are much faster than "normal" traffic flow, let alone CA traffic. Odds are that if he took that lear down on the highway, he would not have made it, and yes he probably would have taken some motorists with him, but HE WASN'T IN A LEAR! He made a smart choice for the a/c he was in.

And yes, 6 months is a long time for one of those little things to be in the air...must be some new kind of mid-air refueling procedures approved for the pipers.

 

[bugchaser]

You knew there would be some fool on here that would say the pilot did the wrong thing. Maybe he is basing his opinions on his many thousands of hours or maybe he has many emergency landings under his belt? Like someone else said, until you have been faced with this type of situation, it is best to not offer your opinions on how it should be done.