Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

Lucky escapes

One of my greatest fears, something I have occasional nightmares about – not frequent, but returning, maybe once per year – is to see an aeroplane crash close to me. Today that fear almost came true.

I had just pulled my horse (since I fly for work I need to do something different for recreation…) out of the stable, which happens to be in the valley below Mount “Farrenberg” – EuroGA has it’s own thread about it: Link – when I saw a glider fly over very low, less than twenty metres above my head, banked and at a steep angle. It disappeared behind the building of our riding arena followed a second later by a very unpleasant noise. Instantly, I pushed the horse back into the stable, grabbed my phone and ran for assistance – after all we have to do these first aid courses every year and maybe I could bring to use what they taught us.

By the time I reached the site of the crash landing, the pilot, a young lad not much older than my son (who is 14yo), had opened the canopy on his own and started to get out of his glider. He had a few bruises where his legs had hit the instrument panel and contusions on his shoulders from the seat belts – apart from that, he was a little shaky but otherwise unhurt. Between farm buildings, trees, power lines and the steel lighting posts of our riding arena he had brought down his plane in a small field of high crops with a landing ground run of less than 10 metres – quite a deceleration from a speed of around 50KT… Visible damage to the plane was minimal, I collected the gear doors that had been torn off, but apart from that, the glider was in one piece – carbon fibre is a wonderful stuff! We called the airfield by phone about his “landing” site but other pilots had already seen him and help was on it’s way and on the site within ten minutes. The ambulance – if necessary – would have taken twice as long to get there. I know that from several horse riding accidents…

He was taking part in the gliding competition presently held at Farrenberg and intended to land there. His speed brakes got stuck in the extended position and he didn’t make the airfield and turned for the valley instead. Which is almost unlandable with small fields, fences, several power lines, trees, farms and roads (a link to Google maps – the glider site is on the left, he landed on the right close to the “Seebach” caption – what is not obviuos from the satellite image is the fact that this is a valley with not many flat spots! Link). With his extended speed brakes he had zero options to alter his glide angle in any way and he could have hit a building or other hard stuff easily. I told him and his fellow glider pilots who came for assitance to hold a birthday party tonight and leave all the rest for the insurance.

Since some time I am thinking to buy my son some gliding lessons at Farrenberg – but now, I’m not so sure any more…

NB: I deliberately didn’t take any pictures since I hate to document the mishaps of fellow pilots. But I noticed a GoPro Camera he had mounted in his cockpit, so maybe a movie about his lucky escape will appear on YouTube soon.

Last Edited by what_next at 12 Jun 19:02
EDDS - Stuttgart

Perhaps not a lucky escape but a good landing.
After all isn’t a good landing a landing that the pilot walks away from, whatever happens to the aircraft?

EGBJ, EGBP, EGTW, EGVN, EGBS

Quite bad for a glider to loose the speedbrake functionality – must be as bad as a “powered” pilot loosing the engine. And because in gliding everything is more critical anyway, the net effect must be worse. Without having seen the scene, it seems to me the young glider pilot did an excellent job.

Regarding carbon (and glass fibre): yes it makes very strong objects; however when it breaks, the shards are as sharp as blades. He was lucky, there too, that the glider did not break up: serious cuts might have been his part.

PS I quite second your “pudeur” about photographing the scene.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

Had a similar experience two years ago. Even though it turned out well, it was definitely an unpleasant experience.
I had just landed at Jastarnia (EPJA) and was inside the aeroclub building when I suddenly heard a roaring engine sound, soon followed by the sound of bursting wood. We all ran outside and found a DA40 had hanging in trees at the runway end. Unbelievable, but seconds later, a young father, his wife and a two year old child climbed out of the wreck.

For who is interested, it turned out it wasn’t a short field take-off gone bad. Instead, it was a too fast approach and a late decision for go-around. The pilot apparently had never been to a short nd tricky field like Jastarnia before and saved this occasion for his first summer trip eith his family…

But again, a thoroughly unpleasant experience as a spectator…

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Glad to hear the pilot wasn’t hurt.

I’ve probably posted before about being ‘right there’ as Jack Roush crashed his Beechjet next to me, and watching it break in half. Then waiting to see if it would go up in smoke, engines roaring, before anybody could get he and friend out of the plane. Not a pleasant experience, I’d agree. Somebody else’s video here, but the photographer must’ve been standing near me.

Last Edited by Silvaire at 12 Jun 20:21

Since some time I am thinking to buy my son some gliding lessons at Farrenberg – but now, I’m not so sure any more…

I can understand you being shaken by this, it’s a natural reaction when we see something like this happens – but stuck airbrakes is amazingly rare (the first time I’ve heard of it!) and gliding is a fantastic way of getting into flying – you really “grok” weather, energy management and more when you learn to fly through soaring. If your son wants to get into flying, you’re doing him a great service by getting him started via the gliding route.

Back on the original topic, I witnessed a near fatal crash at Andreas a few years ago. I was waiting for a friend from the USA to arrive on the ferry, and it was a nice morning so I decided to go for a bimble in the Auster. When I got to the airfield there was rather more activity than is usual for a weekday morning (i.e. greater than zero). Someone had finished a microlight and the BMFA guy was there to do some test flying in it, he had arrived in a Europa tri-gear. This microlight was one of the “looks like a small GA plane” types – I don’t remember what type it was, but it was rather underpowered. I’d seen a couple of previous test flights and it didn’t climb well.

The wind was out of the north. A little off the end of the airfield to the north is a set of low hills (a terminal moraine from the last ice age) which are no more than 200 feet tall at most, but they are quite steep. After flying around the local area for about 30 minutes, I had decided to do a couple of take offs and landings, and I saw this microlight lining up to take off while I was on downwind. I saw him start off down the runway and continued my circuit, landing after he’d taken off. I put the flaps away, re-trimmed, and took off again, and lowered the nose to try and see where the microlight had got to. I noted something white on the top of the hills but from a distance I just assumed it was some agricultural equipment – the hills are covered in sheep usually, and it’s not unusual to see farm vehicles there – so I continued to climb. But then someone on the radio said “I think the microlight has crashed”. So I levelled off and looked again, and as I drew closer it was pretty obvious that the white object was the wrecked microlight, facing in the opposite direction to his original flight path. I circled overhead and saw someone crawl out of the wreck, and then climbed higher and reported the crash to Ronaldsway. Turns out there was a Navy Sea King in the area who heard all of this going on, so the Sea King attended the accident. There were two people in the aircraft (the BMFA guy and the owner) and the BMFA guy who was in the front and ended up wearing the engine was airlifted by the Sea King and taken to Noble’s Hospital (due to the IOM TT they are quite good at treating people who have been injured as a result of coming to a sudden stop). The owner was just bashed and bruised and was taken by road by ambulance to be checked out at the hospital.

As far as I can tell what happened is that the microlight had climbed straight out over the hills and had got into the “clutching hand” on the lee side of these small hills. The pilot had attempted to turn but the turbulence probably masked any warning of the onset of the stall – the aircraft stalled then entered an incipient spin but crashed (fortunately on a fairly steep downslope so didn’t come to a dead stop like it would have if it had spun into flat ground, which probably what stopped it being a fatality). The owner who was in the back seat recounted that he remembered turning the switches off when the windscreen filled up with nothing but ground, realising they were certain to crash (this type was tandem seat, so he was in the back, and the switches were on the wing root like they are on a Decathlon).

Andreas IOM

… and gliding is a fantastic way of getting into flying – you really “grok” weather, energy management and more when you learn to fly through soaring. If your son wants to get into flying, you’re doing him a great service by getting him started via the gliding route.

I know this – I started my own flying in gliders at age 15. But one gets reminded from time to time that it has it’s own dangers. One of my gliding instructors got killed in an accident during a winch lauch. He was a very experienced pilot who flew Focke Wulfs in the last days of WW2 when he was just 18. British and American pilots were unable to kill him, but a simple winch cable was…

Last Edited by what_next at 13 Jun 10:13
EDDS - Stuttgart

I just seen this on BBC regional news. Not only did they have a lucky escape, they escaped to the nearest pub.

Link

It was not until she ordered a drink (non-alcoholic) that she said she was a bit shaken up because she’d just had a plane crash. I asked if she was OK and she had a little bit of a cut to her arm.

Grand! There’s the real spirit! Could have left a note for the poor firecrew though (“Both of us are mostly allright, walking to nearest point of civilisation”) – but perhaps they got a round at said public house.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

The Europa looks like a good landing into a crop rather than a crash.
Fifty years ago, I was working on a glider tail skid outside the Aberdeen Gliding Club hangar, at Litterty, when a Weihe (wood, about 60’ wingspan) spun in from low level. Two of us were watching it with concern when it dropped its right wing and disappeared just behind the hangar. As we ran round the hangar, the wreck looked unsurvivable. The canopy lay undamaged nearby. The right wing had disappeared. The left wing stuck up at a high angle – split lengthwise in two. There was a 180 degree twist in the fuselage bertween the wings and the undamaged empennage. The cockpit area was just a mass of matchwood.
I shouted I would keep running to the nearest farm house and phone for an ambulance. An excuse to not see what was under the wreckage. John’s voice from the matchwood shouted “Who needs an ambulance?” We started to pull the smashed wood off him. He was short, with short legs, and had only got a bruise to his face, and to a foot. A Club member with medical qualifications arrived as we helped him out. He drove him to Casuality at Aberdeen before taking him home.
Over a year later, he was still getting bugged as to why he had described the injuries as “slight” while the casuality doctor had said “severe bruise to face,” severe bruise to foot".

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom
96 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top