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PC-12 Deadstick - Alaska

Well done!

Slide path:
https://m.imgur.com/gallery/Zic7EtJ

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A chartered patient transport flight made an emergency landing on a frozen lake after losing engine power in flight on Christmas Eve.

According to Clint Johnson with the Alaska Regional Office of the National Transportation Safety Board, the flight departed Anchorage with a passenger and two medical personnel on board on Christmas Eve.

Johnson says the Pilatus PC-12 series turboprop aircraft dropped the passenger off at New Stuyahok before heading back to Anchorage.

The pilot then reportedly experienced a loss of engine power and was forced to make an emergency ‘gear up landing’ on a frozen lake according to preliminary information from NTSB.

A helicopter pilot dispatched from Dillingham rescued the pilot and medical crew. No injuries were reported.

NTSB says the investigation will take time as the aircraft is in a very remote location and still reportedly on the frozen lake with its landing gear in the up position.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified the flight as a medevac.

Copyright 2019 KTUU. All Rights Reserved.

always learning
LO__, Austria

Well done indeed !

A tidy job of a forced landing. Interesting that the prop does not appear to be feathered, though it would still glide okay, just not as far. Depending upon how deep the snow was on the lake, landing on [thick enough] ice is pretty forgiving, you just slide…. If they’re really lucky, and can get it up on its wheels, prop replaced, and the engine serviceable, they might be able to fly it off the ice.

Home runway, in central Ontario, Canada, Canada

So much for the legendary turbine reliability !

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

Another pc12 accident in this end of year, a bad one for the legend…. The crash that happened in early December was much more dramatic.
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2019-12-02/fatal-pc-12-crash-claims-nine

LFMD, France

LeSving wrote:

So much for the legendary turbine reliability !

We know way too little about this accident in order to say something like that. A lot of other things could have happened as well that has very little to do with the engine reliability.

However, even turbines can fail. It is rare but not impossible.

ESSZ, Sweden

Pilot_DAR wrote:

Interesting that the prop does not appear to be feathered,

Interesting observation, indeed. In this part of the country you have many quite long (as in km long) lakes. So many options for a lake landing and glide range should not be an important factor. Question would be more, if you could fly slower with a feathered or an unfeathered prop.
Might be even easier with an unfeathered prop to hit the beginning of the chosen lake.

Germany

Malibuflyer wrote:

Might be even easier with an unfeathered prop to hit the beginning of the chosen lake.

A chance I would never take. Get everything working most in your favour first, than dump lift for a closer landing if you need to. A sideslip, and then use of flaps will do much more for you than leaving the prop coarse. The sideslip can be modulated for glidepath control. The difference of feathered vs unfeathered with a PT-6 is very noticeable. I was testing this last week in a Grand Caravan, feathering the prop gives you a nice push from behind when you are established in a stable glide.

The PT-6 is an excellent engine, though not perfect. I was right seat in a Piper Cheyenne in the early ’80’s and shut one down hastily due to a fuel control unit runaway.

Home runway, in central Ontario, Canada, Canada

The prop was feathered after a complete failure of the Gas Generator module on the PT6-67B,
During the gear up landing the props non rotating 4 & 8 o’clock blades dug into the ice which bent the blades and rotated the blade angle to where the photo shows them.
The airplane is back in service with a new engine and prop. Minimal damage mostly limited to flap fairings and flap support brackets.

Panc, United States

Thank you for the follow-up.
Blueraven wrote:

The prop was feathered after a complete failure of the Gas Generator module on the PT6-67B,

Can someone confirm that this is indeed a rare kind of failure?

huv
EKRK, Denmark
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