Pig wrote:
Again, why land on top of a mountain in snow ? It makes zero sense. In VFR.
I doubt it was her choice…. again, looking at the video it seems they tried to make that col a little above. Looks like they almost made it, but either misjudged or really had an engine issue. In any case, I’m glad they walked away.
Looks like a well executed forced landing, maybe they were able to get a hot soup or glass of chartreuse from the hut?
I doubt they were trying to “out climb the ground”, no one survive such attempt to avoid the raising ground as it results in stall with plenty of height…it seems they consciously landed on mountain by aiming toward the ground and flaring?
I wonder if lot of deep snow helped to cushion impact? I wonder what would be the sights around this spot during summer? I bet they don’t look very welcoming with cliffs everywhere…
In the Alps there are still plenty of land out options when on looks outside (say versus Pyrenees or even Vosges during summer where it’s pretty much game over), if one thinks about geology there is lot of melting & icing every in “low mountains” that makes them very hostile for a forced landing while in “high Alps”, snow is pretty much permanent?
Yes the Alps are much better than the Pyrenees – well over 90% of the time, assuming you are at a decent altitude.
That’s an interesting pic. On the face of it, it appears it is also not straight, when you look at that building, but when you correct it for the building, the slope of the landing site is a lot steeper than the ~30 degrees which it appears to be.
OTOH there are some “pylons” around the building and they appear more vertical…
She has been interviewed by an Italian newspaper (in Italian, of course) while at the hospital.
https://corrieredelveneto.corriere.it/belluno/cronaca/22_dicembre_29/silvia-de-bon-pilota-22-anni-che-atterrata-dolomiti-ho-fatto-cadere-l-aereo-pancia-sbagliato-ma-ci-ha-salvati-64b533a8-876b-11ed-b4d4-e759c43350f1.shtml
She says the engine lost power due to cold temperatures and thin air at that altitude, RPMs were decreasing and she could not overfly the mountain (apparently she flew that route several times before), and crash-landed there.
I never heard of an engine losing power due to cold temperature…but she might have said something different (like not enough power to climb above that ridge) and the journalist interpreted it the way it’s written.
Also her maneuver is described in a bit of a strange way, but if I try to interpret it it seems the aircraft “landed” fully stalled, almost vertically, as she wanted to keep it parallel to the steep slope (leading to very high angle of attack).
- edit – She also mentioned she had to pull hard, saying it’s generally the wrong thing to do (stall) but in this case she had to do it as if she let the plane fly they would have hit hard the steep terrain nose first. With her maneuver they could walk away.
On a side note, her father said in another interview he hopes she’ll stop flying after this accident, and she is saying she won’t listen to him as she wants to become an airline pilot. She just came back from US where she earned her FAA license.
I admire her choice. Did not fly into rock. Did not spin in trying to turn. Heading for col, loss of power leads to descent into the valley, with restricted turning room.
She had to think fast.
Excellent work! Judged it perfectly to dissipate the last bit of energy on the final bit.
FAA license… haha why am I not surprised 
That’s some initiative.
NicoKM wrote:
She says the engine lost power due to cold temperatures and thin air at that altitude, RPMs were decreasing and she could not overfly the mountain (apparently she flew that route several times before), and crash-landed there.
In essence the engine did not give full power due to thin air, carb ice, whatever. Despite that, she tried getting over to the other side, flying against raising terrain? Well, I’ll wait and see what the report says As for now, I’ll stick to my first gut feeling: 99% luck. There are so many other questions also.
In the interview the pilot says that she set the plane to climb to override the cliff but it didn’t climb " maybe a downwind (what’s the term when the wind push you down ?) maybe a little power drop" and soon realized they were unable to override the cliff and to turn back .
In my opinion she simply misjudged the aircraft’s rate of climb but was really good in landing uphill . One spamcan destroyed but three saved lives.
@lesving Ah yes, carb ice could be the meaning of what the article says about engines producing less power in cold temperatures…Thanks for helping me interpret that 🤪
I don’t know the area, the terrain and potential other landing choices, but she mentioned in the interview that turning back was not an option. Maybe it was too late when she evaluated the option…maybe the valley was too narrow and they were flying in the middle…who knows!
But my understanding is that she did not chose that spot, she was forced to land straight ahead there. Landing somewhere else would have probably required different decisions earlier in the flight.
I was tempted to write something earlier, but I stepped back and kept silent. Yes that outcome of the landing is impressive. However I stick to the opinion that there is close to no excuse whatsoever to bring three souls to such a threat.
That involves some poor decision making prior to whatever happened.
No col should be overflown so low to the terrain (and/or without excess energy!) that you have no way out. To either glide above or turn around in case of, e.g., an engine stoppage. Amen.
