How do you explain away this one?

[The_Pharoah]

Sourece: Fijitimes.com.fj

A CESSNA aircraft fell short of the runway at Nadi Airport as it tried to land yesterday.
Skydive Fiji managing director Tim Joyce said the pilot was on board and miscalculated his approach on the runway.
No one was injured in the process and there was no major damage to the aircraft.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji, which is investigating the incident, did not respond to questions yesterday.

[troppo]

Easy to explain, the boys needed some gas to put in the car to go buy grog.

Does CASA come to town if it is still on the VH register?

[Lodown]

Well, I hope the pilot was on board. Where else could he/she be?

Perhaps one of the parachutists took the key to the ignition and bailed out. Has happened more than once.

[airman1]

Find it very hard to believe a pilot would misjudge a powered approach to a runway! Must have been dead stick in a glide! And running on FIJI TIME :ok:

[The_Pharoah]

lol absolutely love the comments. I wonder which rwy though...probably 20/02 from the pic (they were pushing the a/c towards the rwy) - if I remember clearly, the approach to 09 is over the bay, and 27 is over the main road :eek:

02 does have 10500 ft of rwy....

anyway what do I know aye...I wasn't there. :ok:

[Buster Hyman]

Some idiot turned the conveyor belt back on!:rolleyes:

[Mr. Hat]

was it a 207?

they sometimes decide when they want to stop flying and just land:}

[Wizofoz]

My old mate Tim Joyce!

For those of you who don't know, Tim was the pilot of the Helicopter that was hijacked by the crims girlfriend to get him out of stir.

[basementjaxx]

G'day,

Happened on approach for runway 27. Rumour has it that he ran out of juice and had to glide it in. And apparently not the first time to occur.

BJ:ouch:

[Roubiouh]

Pilot was a fijian instructor and it did run out of juice in final, how could he miss rwy 27? well u can't...
CAAFI(civil aviation authority of Fiji) has been notice that the A/C had problems about 2 month ago...
a report has been sent, it is not the first time this A/C has an engine failure...
Tim Joyce has tried to cover the story AGAIN!! but this time I don't think he can't talk himself out!
I hope CAAFI will do they job, I hope for the public that the truth will be reveal, I hope those Skydivers would jump somewhere else, for their own sake!
I hope Tim Joyce will learn that you can't buy people with Kava and a few beers, at least not anymore for him!!

[milkmonkey]

Ive had a few friends who have worked at skydive fiji and have heard some horrible stories of engine failures and problems with the plane. As for the comment 'pilot misjudged the runway' sounds like a real bad cover up!

[Jazzy78910]

I could understand overshooting the runway (and consequently having to perform a go-around, worst case scenario). But it doesn't take much of a pulse of throttle to arrest the sink-rate long enough to reach the keys...

[basementjaxx]

Jazzy78910,

Umm... a/c ran out of fuel... No matter how many times you pump the throttle, it aint gonna power up.

BJ

[Roubiouh]

to milkmonkey.... heard it from pilots that worked over there too...
CAAFI should stop the parachuting operations, and because the plane is registred in AU for the last 5 years, CASA should as well do something because they had a report from the last pilot saying that the plane was unfit to fly...
How long would it take for those guys to understand??

[KRUSTY 34]

Tim was also the man who rode out the back of the Skyvan on a trail bike for the TV show Who Dares Wins all those years ago!

He was the jump instructor sitting on the back:}

[goflyby]

The pilot definitely ran out of fuel and definitely was not the first time. Skydive Fiji pilots are supposedly always pressured into pushing limits with fuel management and weather etc. CASA and CAAFI do not do anything despite these incidents occurring within skydive fiji time and time again. The same aircraft is now sitting on Malolo island written off due to a hard landing while being extremely overloaded (as usual)

[fencehopper]

Sitting in the Nomad on jump run over Picton one afternoon way back and someone yelled out "Hey Tim where's your rig?"
This is the third or forth time that operation has made the news for the wrong reasons. Worst thing to happen to the sport was the invention of the tandem rig.

[criticalmass]

I remember that incident, Fencehopper, as I recall it was a cause of some hilarity for a few weeks at the DZ. A well-known cameraman also did the same trick, but his lack of "correct skydiving attire" was noticed before the Nomad took off.

Many people who hear the name Tim Joyce will smile faintly and say "a difficult man".