Plane hits car... at my airfield

[aur0ra145]

Howdy,

This happened this past weekend at the airfield I fly out of. This is the 4th wreck from planes based out of there since mid September. The guy flying the plane in the video was coming back from his solo cross-country for primary flight training.

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raw video without news commenters

The plane was owned by Marcair, one of the flight schools on the field. Their chief pilot died after the plane he was in lost power on take-off in mid-September of this year.

Charlie Yates

 

[71firebird400]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

I'd expect the driver of the SUV to have a better situational awareness than that. With that said, WTF is a road doing directly perpendicular to a runway? You always have to plan for the lowest common denominator, and in this case Murphy's law has proved true. Glad the pilot made it.

 

[softcock]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

Plane has the Right of way . That's the way it is for small public municipal & private grass, gravel & paved airstrips . Most cases they were also there long before the homeowners & urban sprawl crept in and choked them off . Plane has the Right of way .
.

 

[Mustafa]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

Is it a REALLY short field? Cause otherwise, I don't know why you would want to be that low over a road just to touch down early. I used to fly out of an airport in Utah that had a road just below the runway like that, but it was far enough away that you'd have to be WELL below glide slope and a tractor trailer would have to be coming down the road to potentially cause problems.
At least everyone came out of it ok. Scary for sure!

 

[rrflyer]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

Its not real short but it is pretty narrow.

Student pilot wanting to use all of it available though.

The road is a private road that crosses the north side of the runway. Theres signs and big markings on the road to watch out for aircraft.

The place gets quiet a bit of student training as well as weekend warrior traffic.

 

[Sharpsman]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

Probably talking or texting on the phone!!

 

[Maggot]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

"Thats the landing gear in your car."

"We didnt pullout in front of an airplane."

"Yes you did, thats the landing gear in yuor car."

RFLMAO

 

[mexicanmatch]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

When my Dad was in fixed wing school at Ft. Rucker in the mid 50's one of the students landed in the back of a pick up truck, no one was hurt except the truck. He was flying an l-19 bird dog. MM

 

[Surffshr]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

Growing up flying with pops from a grass strip, we certainly used to buzz the field to run deer off prior to landing. Also watched for trucks on the farm road you would land over with a north wind. This accident looks like it was bound to happen. I can remember seeing shirt tails cut off after someones first solo...would imagine this poor guy needed more than a new shirt!

 

[SniperCJ]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

He's never going to fly a plane again?? What? He never gonna drive again either!?

Definately piss poor awareness by the car driver, but I agree that the guy was landing pretty short give that a road was there. Three more feet of altitude and he woulda been clear.

 

[HawkDriver]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

Go arounds are free. I agree that the driver of the SUV is at fault but there is usually a string of errors leading up to an accident. I personally would blame both the driver and the pilot. The driver for obvious reasons but the pilot for neglecting airspace surveillance (and ground space surveillance in this case) and there may be more factors involved but I'm wondering why he selected the numbers for a touchdown point and not somewhere in the first 1/3 of the runway? I know that a Cessna 172 ( I think this is a 152) does not require much ground run to stop and even if you do over shoot, add power, touch and go then try again. In his defense, he did not have much reaction time once the SUV was in front of him but that's why you look left and right to ensure touchdown area is clear.

 

[rrflyer]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

He never saw the SUV. Would have been impossible in the landing attitude.

The runway is 3500 feet long. Long enough for the airplanes there but landing long and rolling off the end is easy enough to do. Hit the numbers on short fields.

He had no reason to think he needed to go around.

 

[John M]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

He also was a student pilot. Lots of shoulda's and woulda's.

I'm a private pilot. You have so much else going on during the landing, a direct cross wind SUV isn't something you're thinking you have to worry about clearing. A seasoned pilot probably would have caught it. That fella was just lined up to stick his landing. I have a hard time blaming the pilot in this situation.

To me, the main thing is poor design. That's an accident waiting to happen.

 

[HawkDriver]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

I guess I just come from a world that in any incident, pilot error is always at least a contributing factor. I remember being a student pilot as well when I was trying to get my private certificate, and I do agree that he was focused on the landing. Understandable. I also agree with the poor design being an accident waiting to happen. Accidents are unfortunate, but sometimes the best training points are the end result. Regardless, at the end of the day if you are the PIC then everything that happens to or around the aircraft is your reaponsibility. I guess it's just a different mentality of whether you call yourself a pilot or an Aviator. Just my .02

 

[ColoWyo]

Re: Plane hits car... at my airfield

There are many issues with this whole thing. In my opinion, he was quite low. In a single engine plane, while you are in the pattern, you should be able to make the runway from the time you are abeam the numbers if you have an engine failure. He appeared too low for that.

The car was in his blind spot. At the angle he was coming in on, I really doubt he would have been able to see it. He really should have been coming in at a steeper angle. The car does not have this excuse. He should have been able to see it coming.

Back in my freight dog days, I had an employee bus run a stop sign and run right into my Navajo. That bus took three feet of the wing of my plane right in the middle of an active taxiway at Denver International.