Air Ambulance goes off runway at Aberdeen

[MMCMME]

Heard on the news at lunchtime that a King Air had over ran the runway at Aberdeen.

Conflicting articles saying it overshot, others saying it left the taxiway.

BBC News - Aberdeen flights resume after air ambulance runway incident (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-24478334)

[First.officer]

BBC News - A patient, being routinely transferred from Shetland, was on board the plane, along with an escort, a paramedic and two crew. No-one was injured.

Being the terribly dirty minded individual that I am, one has to ask what type of "escort"......perhaps there was a "crew distraction moment" as she (my presumption on gender) inspected the undercarriage shortly before landing.....

[RTN11]

BBC News - Aberdeen flights resume after air ambulance runway incident (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-24478334)

Isn't a three hour closure excessive for a king air on the grass? Doesn't seem to be any other particular issue here.

[Piltdown Man]

Three hours is pretty quick. Just think about it. The entire management team have to find their highviz jackets and make an appearance, saving the lives of everyone else as they do so. Someone will have to draft a press release saying the airport is shut. Then a major incident plan will have to be initiated. By the time they have got to page 194 of the plan, the managers will be getting close to missing pre-dinner cocktails and itching to depart. This is when one of the pilots of stricken plane suggests he might just be able to taxi off the grass. But that will require a full risk assessment. When that's done another press release will have to be drafted to announce the reopening of the airport and praising the heroes in the airport fire service for laying down their lives to save others. The aircraft then taxies off the grass and the airport reopens. Then everyone with a brand new highviz jacket congratulates themselves on doing a professional job and they recommend each other to receive a nice fat bonus!

[Dysonsphere]

Well if he had steering problems taxiing off might be tricky till steering is fixed wouldn't you say :ugh:

[ManaAdaSystem]

Piltdown,

Aberdeen as well? I thought this procedure was only in use at LHR! :)

[matkat]

Posted the link to our HSE guy he thought it was hilarious but agreed:}

[Tom the Tenor]

Piltodown Man, you said it all, sir! Your are not only close to the bone you are on it too but on the Funny Bone!

[Burnie5204]

Piltdown man - you forgot to say that as the managers all dispose of their hi-viz jackets (must order a new one, that one they just wore is used now) and drive off into the sunset the non-management guys will be stood around wondering "didnt we suggest doing that 3 hours ago?..."

[Rocket2]

Surely before leaving for home they have to re-draft this years appraisal to add "Copes extremely well in an emergency" thus ensuring a nice fat pay rise & bonus :suspect:

[Fortissimo]

Very droll, guys - love it.Returning to the original question, the 3 hours is easy to explain. It starts with the need for people to contact the AAIB (because it falls within the definition of accident or serious incident), who would then need to determine whether a field investigation was required and thus whether the evidence needed preserving in situ. And that would be done in order to make sure all the other King Airs weren't at risk of falling off the runway in the same way. You would in any case expect FDR and CVR data to be secured.The operator also has the right to expect that his aircraft will be recovered without further damage being done - you would not expect it to be bulldozed out of the way (a la US Navy) just to reopen the runway. I suspect the insurance underwriter would have an interest there too.So the 3 hours was actually quite quick, it could have been a lot worse. And the good news is that no-one was injured in the making of this thread...

[navstar1]

Slightly off thread. Two weeks ago I broke my leg in Northern Scotland and the Scottish Air Ambulance King Air transported me down South to Exeter .Absolutely brilliant service and a highly professional crew and medical team. The service is available 24 hours a day 365 days a year well done the Scottish Ambulance Service and GAMA Aviation in providing such a vital service in that part of the UK:ok:

[gcal]

Please ladies and gentlemen do not knock the HiViz jacket even if you have worked on airports for umpteen years without being knocked down by a product of Boeing or Airbus.
The profusion of them leads me to wonder why anyone who works in the industry would ever go to a car accessory shop and buy one (they are required to be kept in the car one for each pax in many EU countries).
Thus this simple but effective measure can save you a lot of £s or Euro.
Whether it will ever actually save your life is another matter but think of the saving.

[mad_jock]

Whether it will ever actually save your life is another matter but think of the saving

Its very doubtful they have saved anyone's life. And if they really were about safety on air ports they would be made out of something that doesn't melt and implant itself into your skin when it gets hot.

All the incidents I have read up about both wearing and not wearing a hi-viz the reason for the incident was the piece of machinery wasn't under control.

Plus also these days everything is high viz so the effect is lost. I would wear one on a road if the car broke down. Because it contrasts with the surroundings. Airside the effect has now gone. And there is just a ratcheting off requirements after every incident. First it was the jacket, then it was the ttrouser's, then the caps were mandating. What's next everyone has to wear a beacon on there heads and a couple of strobes on there shoulders.

[Globalstream]

Three hours is pretty quick. Just think about it. The entire management team have to find their highviz jackets and make an appearance, saving the lives of everyone else as they do so. Someone will have to draft a press release saying the airport is shut. Then a major incident plan will have to be initiated. By the time they have got to page 194 of the plan, the managers will be getting close to missing pre-dinner cocktails and itching to depart. This is when one of the pilots of stricken plane suggests he might just be able to taxi off the grass. But that will require a full risk assessment. When that's done another press release will have to be drafted to announce the reopening of the airport and praising the heroes in the airport fire service for laying down their lives to save others. The aircraft then taxies off the grass and the airport reopens. Then everyone with a brand new highviz jacket congratulates themselves on doing a professional job and they recommend each other to receive a nice fat bonus!

Brilliant :D

[TurboDak]

Those three hours gave me a nice excuse to visit lovely Stornoway, and give the fire brigade there a chance to familiarize with the DC3T...although I had been quite hoping to visit Aberdeen, as I've been told there are numerous distilleries of fine nectar nearby. All that aside, I'm curious as to the nature of the steering difficulty, and from the picture in the article, I don't see a taxiway nearby. Having only taxied a King Air 200 once or twice, I seem to recall braking being effective at turning the aircraft (forgive me, my current airplane has no "steering" aside from braking and differential power).