Rainwater ditch right by the apron at Samos LGSM before yesterday morning while an aircraft was taxying for departure.
LGSM 200920Z 35010KT 300V030 CAVOK 25/17 Q1009=
LGSM 200850Z 01010KT 330V030 CAVOK 25/17 Q1009=
LGSM 200820Z 02012KT 350V050 CAVOK 25/17 Q1009=
Same ditch has hosted other aircraft in the past but on this (video below) occasion it was a landing, it was windy and it was quite a light aircraft for the Samos gusts.
Click for high res. version.
Presumably the piston twin pilot was reconfiguring his Ipad while taxiing 
But it’s easily done… looking down for too long when the brakes are off, or not working well enough. It’s a mistake I have made twice, luckily getting away with it.
That’s a nice photo of LGSM. I remember one spot quite well
Definitely embarrassing.
Yeap, assumption but a very probable one, and that damn ditch is right next to the taxiway on the apron’s edge without anything in between (apart from sparse blue apron lights) to signify the end of the movement area to the (distracted) pilot. The other ditch is in the grass area but the west one (left side in picture) is right on the apron south edge where you taxi for entering to backtrack runway 09. “Contributing factor” the missing yellow taxiway centerline which was not painted over the asphalt of the west apron extension (you can see it ending at the west holding point).
I have stopped long ago messing with avionics/gadgets while I taxy (BTW is it taxy or taxi ?) because you can loose sense of speed & direction very easily while not looking outside Only with Parking Brake ON.
Just as embarrassing is that at Ronaldsway (EGNS) about a week ago, someone taxied into another aircraft (already on taxiway D), chewing up about 2 foot of the other aircraft’s wing with his prop. (I don’t know any details, but I’ve seen the wounded plane tied down on the grass on the south side of the airport). The most depressing thing though was a Manx Forums post I ran into while trying to find out more about the incident. Some idiot was braying on that the ATC guy in the tower is “incompetent like all other Isle of Man Civil Servants and should have prevented it”. So much ignorance. And life is too short to subscribe to Manx Forums and deal with the small minded idiots there.
If there’s an AAIB report perhaps I’ll get to find out how it happened, but I’m willing to bet that one of the pilots was looking down and fiddling with something and didn’t realise the aircraft had started to move.
Samos LGSM needs… attention. It is not only the ditches between the runway and the apron (btw you can find ditches like that at other airports as well, eg Skiathos LGSK).
The main challenging factor of Samos (rwy 09-27) is the wind (not a factor in this accident I suppose). The usual wind pattern is a wind from the NW (eg 330) with speed 15-25kt, usually accompanied with gusts (eg 33015G25). When this happens, although the “normal” runway would be rwy 27, rwy 09 is chosen, because there is a small cliff on very short final of rwy 27 (Pythagorio village) which produces wind shear. The airline pilots (I’ve heard there is a special endorsement for Samos) and the ATCOs know about this so usually rwy 09 will be active under these conditions. I’ve seen a situation with a wind shear like the one I described, when the “local” OAL/AEE pilot used runway 27 for departure (with a tailwind), but a private jet on the frequency asked for runway 09 for arrival. The latter went around immediately over that cliff and reported wind shear and then landed on rwy 27.
Nicely said atmilatos.
Skiathos though has the ditch in the grass area (like Samos east side) and a taxi centerline so you are “less prone” to reach it while taxiing.
http://hellasga.com/gallery/kyp/sporades/skiathos_island/lgsk/airborne/IMG_5945s
BTW, a nice briefing (for airliners) on Samos http://pilotsbriefingroom.com/?s=LGSM that describes the peculiarities.
Looking now more carefully the local newspaper pictures, 4X-CID did not leave the apron for the ditch on the west side (where apron meets ditch without interruption) but somewhere on the eastern side (close to GA parking area) where there is grass in between close to where Peter circled the Cessna.
Did it happen during day or at night? In the darkness it can be really, really hard to find your way on an unknown airport, and a mistake like this is easily made, especially on a big apron without proper lighting/markings.
