A PA-28R-201T and a Gyroflug Speedcanard collided Sunday, in the vicinity of the Swiss city of Lucerne.
They both managed to land, the Piper in a meadow, and the Speedcanard on the military base of Emmen.
Lucky outcome I’d say…
Press article: Zwei Flugzeuge berühren sich in der Luft und müssen notlanden
Text from the reference article Deepled:
Two small aircraft collided in the airspace in the Seetal/Sempachersee area in the canton of Lucerne at around 4.50 p.m. on Sunday for unknown reasons. The propeller, nose and cockpit window of one aircraft were damaged, while the propeller and right wheel of the other aircraft were damaged, as reported by Lucerne police on Tuesday.
The two private planes were able to make an emergency landing in Emmen, with one touching down on the military airfield and the other on grassland in the Waltwil area.
A total of five people on board
A total of five people were on board the two aircraft, which had taken off from Valais and were heading towards the canton of Aargau. One woman was taken to hospital by the emergency services for a check-up, while the others were uninjured. The two machines were damaged to the tune of around 150,000 Swiss francs.
The Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (STSB) is responsible for the safety investigation. The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has opened an investigation
Wow, a few people have a second birthday! Great outcome.
It does happen. One in the UK a few years ago which felt a bump and after landing found a mark from a tyre on top of one of his wings 
I also knew a Long-EZ pilot based in that area who climbed to 18k, no oxygen, and woke up on the side of a mountain, with thousands of bits of fibreglass in the trees all around him. He spent some months in hospital but was flying a Long-EZ again when I knew him. He came to our 2014 LDLO fly-in, IIRC. Lived near Locarno.
It does happen.
Brilliant! Yes it obviously does…
Knowing both pilots as friends with both aircraft based on my field has me and others around here more affected than others…
Looks like this was a case of „formation“ flying gone wrong. That would mean this is not a typical midair collision.
Dan wrote:
Knowing both pilots as friends with both aircraft based on my field has me and others around here more affected than others…
Yep, same here. I’ve known both for years. Was a heavy case of rubbing my eyes when I saw those pics.
Has to be said the aftermath of the collision was handled quite skillfully. The SC01 managed to land at Emmen AFB, the Arrow just outside it on a meadow. Neither suffered additional damage, but both are in for engine and prop work…
But thank heavens we are not grieving about people this time.
Wow, glad it worked out for the people involved. Yes can celebrate birthdays twice now.
It poses the question: how to do formation flying properly in Europe? How do you learn it?
In America, they have tons of ex military guys who are involved in teaching others. And they take it quite seriously.
Here in Europe, I don’t even know how I would get started.
For example in LSZH Zürich, people can do “VFR formation starts” in order to get >1 plane out in the same slot. But i always shied away from that because usually I don’t know the other pilot.
All the experience formation guys i know are super strict on who they fly with. Some even only fly with other ex military guys.
How do you learn it?
We have a group regularly flying formation, reserved for RVs (but for -10 and -12s). People from Germany, France, Italy, and Switzerland (a couple other countries I might have missed) regularly participate.
We sometimes have rendezvous over the Alps or southern Germany to practice some.
Spring and Fall time sees a few days of what’s called formation clinic, usually taking place in Trento LIDT. All the training is organized thru RV-Pilots.eu and follows the strict Formation Flying, Inc. FFI, syllabus. Qualified FFI instructors, some still active military pilots join in as instructors, and the whole is organized by my friend Tobias, himself FFI qualified flying his RV-7.
Flying the same airplanes helps tremendously by giving the same reference points, same speed range etc. We usually use 130 KIAS as this still permits the outer airplane to keep up during turns.
Formation flying is taken very seriously with briefing/flight/debriefing, is very demanding, and satisfying.
As for myself I basically stopped doing it for different reasons, but will occasionally indulge…
HBadger wrote:
All the experience formation guys i know are super strict on who they fly with. Some even only fly with other ex military guys.
They are smart – only do formation if you are trained, and the others are trained. Even then there is an elevated level of risk, but it can be managed. Without training, it’s ruzzian roulette.
Nice, I’m very glad to hear that the RV guys have something professional in place.
What about non RVs, is there something similar?
