Light Plane crashes into Building

[Steve6443]

Was watching the news earlier and saw a report of a Cessna crash landing into a building in Herndon, Virginia. Fortunately only light injuries.....

Some reporting can be seen here (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/small-plane-crashes-into-garden-apartment-in-herndon/2013/05/31/6af063b8-c9d5-11e2-8da7-d274bc611a47_story.html), some reports are claiming fuel shortage, other reports talk of electrical issues....

[gileraguy]

I wondered why the pilot didn't try to land in the adjacent road, then a mate said "they ALL walked away".

Hitting a roof would make a good crumple zone to reduce impact energy though. Sheet metal and wood compared to concrete and 2000lb hunks of metal moving at 30mph...

[Blues&twos]

A light aircraft completely removed the very solid roof of a terraced house on approach to Shoreham Airport in West Sussex a few years ago. I have a photo somewhere....it was behind the house I lived until I was 5 years old, hence my interest. I believe that was down to fuel shortage. Again, despite the damage to the house the aircraft wasn't too badly dmagaed, all walked away. What with the railway, high street and River Adur all very, very close by they had a fortunate escape.

BBC News | UK | Pilot escapes plane crash unharmed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1256487.stm)

[Dave Gittins]

Don't you just love the reporting.

".... crashed just yards from a primary school."

[Blues&twos]

The crash site was about 100 yds from Shoreham First School...so for a change, relatively accurate reporting!! AAIB report said the pilot was attempting to land on a small strip of grass, which I'm guessing was the tiny bit of old railway trackbed which used to carry the Steyning line, where it diverges from the coastal main line. Very optimistic, but not anywhere else to go...(except the school playing field :-)

[piperboy84]

Hitting a roof would make a good crumple zone to reduce impact energy though. Sheet metal and wood compared to concrete and 2000lb hunks of metal moving at 30mph.

A guy crashed on TO his Long Eze into a garage attached to a residence at Santa Monica a few years back and was only lightly injured, Same deal, the wood studs and plaster board absorbed a lot of the energy