A Zlin Savage cruiser crashed yesterday near Soelden in the Oeztal valley.
The Emergency center at Toulouse picked up the satellite signal of the ELT shortly after the crash and alerted Austrocontrol.
Austrocontrol in return alerted local police who had a helo airborne at the time. The crash site was located quite fast as a consequence, and two further rescue helos dispatched.
They were able to recover two badly injured crew members from the wreck and fly them to hospital.
There is speculation that the airplane hit a cable of a transport cable car, as it came to rest pretty much below that cable and the rescue was difficult because of the proximity of that cable car.
There is quite often doubt about the effectivity of ELT’s, but it this case it appears to have been instrumental in getting the rescuers there fast. Also, tehre was no other report of the crash, so most probably, without the ELT, nobody would have known about the aircraft missing until much later, if not days later or discovery by accident.
Lucky
Snoopy wrote:
Lucky
Unbelievable comes closer….
The pilot describes that he saw the cable in the last second and tried to avoid it. When he did, the airplane stalled and went into a spin. During recovery the airplane hit the slope, slid about 50 m downhill before stopping. The pilot states he was wearing a helmet and managed to get out on his own.
