View Full Version : Plane nearly lands on man
Lantern10
3rd Jun 2014, 05:43
Talk about a lucky escape or near miss, this is one very lucky chap,
Lucky escape: Plane narrowly misses German sunbather (http://www.smh.com.au/world/lucky-escape-plane-narrowly-misses-german-sunbather-20140603-zrw11.html)
A man sunbathing on a German beach will be reconsidering his choice of location next time after a plane almost landed on top of him as it was approaching the neighbouring runway.
A video filmed by a fellow sunbather shows a small Piper PA-28-181 Archer 11 flying dangerously close over the man as it flew in from the coast of Dune beach in Heligoland, a tiny archipelago in northern Germany.
Volume
3rd Jun 2014, 07:02
Runway at Helgoland (http://www.flughafen-helgoland.de/helgoland-duene-edxh-karten-flugplatzkarte.html) is just 370m/480m, so you have to land short. But not that short...
And the guy in the sand clearly followed the instructions (http://los-runter-von-der-couch.de/uploads/tx_rgsmoothgallery/helgoland19.jpg)... ("Danger - low flying Aircraft - do not stand in the approach area - wait here if an aircraft is approaching"), well at least he followed the middle part and did not stand...
HeadingSouth
3rd Jun 2014, 08:20
...and no one complains about the fence which was mown...
And given the dust at touchdown he clearly landed short.
That's two lucky guys in my equation.
Oakape
3rd Jun 2014, 08:22
It looks like the Archer took out some of the fence posts & then landed in the sand short of the runway.
Piltdown Man
3rd Jun 2014, 08:26
There are three interesting aspects to this report. The first and most obvious is that there are people so close to the undershoot of this runway. The second and less obvious and unreported fact was the fact that the aircraft flew through the perimeter fence just before landing. The video clearly shows damage but despite that the associated report stated "The plane was also in fine condition and Drucker was able to fly home the same evening." Presumably there's a local engineer on the island capable of inspection and repair? The last aspect is that if you drag an aircraft in on a slow, flat approach, you can't see a thing under the nose. What this guy really needs is more training on performing steeper approaches, not a fine.
Exascot
3rd Jun 2014, 08:45
He was too low and the sunbather shouldn't have been there - end of story.
I have plonked down heavy four jets on the threshold of short runways but not when the approach was inhabited. Should normally be crossed at 50' of course.
Some idiot many years ago decided to take a VC10 into Grand Cayman on a trainer (5,000' in those days). I couldn't believe how small it looked on the approach. The whole town turned out to see the biggest aircraft ever to land there. I didn't do that again :eek: Nice night stop though.
flyme273
3rd Jun 2014, 09:16
Did this start as a stunt?
Why was the sunbather there?
Was the sunbather having a dare and his friend was filming or does the person with the camera film every arrival?
(not defending the pilot for an undershoot)
Imagine the negative PR for GA if the guy had been hurt.
Finn47
3rd Jun 2014, 09:46
Original story here, in German:
Helgoland-Video: Flugzeug rast im Tiefflug über Strandurlauber - News Inland - Bild.de (http://www.bild.de/news/inland/notlandung/scharfe-landung-auf-helgoland-36213256.bild.html)
It says, a doctor and his two sons were visiting the island and he had already videotaped some 4 or 5 approaching planes before this one, which to him seemed to come in much lower than the others. Which is sort of true, I suppose :hmm:
An apt demonstration of how not to do short field landing. The old misbelief that a low flat approach is better than a normal glide path at a slower speed to a shorter touchdown. IMHO this was so low & flat, with a high nose, that the pilot would have been straining to see the touchdown point once over the sea/beach boundary. 480m in a Cherokee? You could do touch & goes twice on that. It's a decent Par 5.
Kerosene Kraut
3rd Jun 2014, 10:25
Here is a second view:
Helgoland RW21 EDHX Piper kommt zu kurz rein - YouTube
Hydromet
3rd Jun 2014, 10:57
the sunbather shouldn't have been there - end of story.Surely he had his towel there early?
Kerosene Kraut
3rd Jun 2014, 11:02
With or without sunbathers (and that fence) it was a tad on the short side methinks.
emeritus
3rd Jun 2014, 11:41
That pilot clearly needs a bit more training.
Finn47
3rd Jun 2014, 12:15
The German magazine Bild also interviewed the pilot, who said he´s sorry, he botched the landing and didn´t see the man on the beach. In another article they say the public prosecutor has opened an investigation and if the pilot is convicted of dangerous operation of an aircraft, he could face a jail sentence of 6 months or more. Besides, the aviation authorities will look into it as well.
Haarscharf über Badegast geflogen: Staatsanwalt ermittelt gegen Helgoland-Tiefflieger - News Inland - Bild.de (http://www.bild.de/news/inland/helgoland/ermittlungen-bruchpilot-36231460.bild.html) (in German)
SKS777FLYER
3rd Jun 2014, 12:18
He could get hired to fly the B777 for Asiana.
SKS
:D:D:D:D:D
Very good :ok:
cattletruck
3rd Jun 2014, 12:57
Only needs a little bit of tail wind to upset ones expectations in a lightie.
More training needed.
Maxan_Murphy
3rd Jun 2014, 12:58
Terrible piece of flying imho he took out one of the fence posts too if you look closely, could have ended very badly, I hope they throw the book at him.
Submarine approach - spent all his energy early.
If he does those all the time, he will get into trouble regularly.
onetrack
3rd Jun 2014, 13:39
This bloke flew a 738 into DPS for LionAir previously, right? :E
He can at least get her on the runway now. :E
I wonder if I should let the airport manager know, that I've got a good supplier for PVC fenceposts, so that damage is minimal in any future landings in the same style? :)
Kerosene Kraut
3rd Jun 2014, 13:56
This is why one should never read the swimsuit issue of sports illustrated when sunbathing on the beach.
Phileas Fogg
3rd Jun 2014, 14:34
A GIV crashes in MA killing 7 people and it is swiftly removed to "Biz Jets" yet some idiot in a puddle jumper that didn't hit nor kill anybody remains top of the pile in "Flight Deck Forums"!
Am I missing something?
barit1
3rd Jun 2014, 14:48
http://www.pprune.org/biz-jets-ag-flying-ga-etc/540921-tooo-lowwww.html
This is why one should never read the swimsuit issue of sports illustrated when sunbathing on the beach. - unless you have dug yourself a little pit, of course..................
Amazing what you find on R&N, Phil, innit?
ExSp33db1rd
3rd Jun 2014, 21:17
......or does the person with the camera film every arrival?Good point, when I see some of the so called "amazing" shots taken when the photographer " just happened" to be pressing the shutter release at the moment of amazement, I do wonder just why was he aiming his camera at that spot at that time ?
Not the case here I agree, but with Photoshop so readily available I now view a lot of the stuff published on the Internet with scepticism. You Tube is OK, they are often so obviously deliberately staged comedies.
Cynic ? Moi ?
.......a VC10 into Grand Cayman on a trainer (5,000' in those days)Regular 707 services into the old Osaka - 6000'+ - concentrated the mind, too.
Mikehotel152
4th Jun 2014, 11:49
I would be more concerned about the prop clearance if a plane flew just over my nether regions!
Good thing the chap who did a touch and go on the crossing runway with a 737 in the seventies didn't come short. The legend says he was a Lufthansa captain on his last flight before retirement.
Picture of this old chestnut of German aviation here (http://www.edxh.de/history.html).
Unless I'm missing something that was way too low on approach, fast and flapless. you could hear the tyres squeal under braking on 500 metres of runway! It went straight through the fence so where the fence bits went is anyone's guess.
Should have been steeper and if memory serves (long time since I had an Archer 2) 55 to 65 KIAS full flap.
flaplessNot completely flapless, though.
flyme273
4th Jun 2014, 14:11
flaps appeared fully extended.
Shaggy Sheep Driver
4th Jun 2014, 16:24
Typical 'aeroplane driver' (not a pilot). Not only far too short so he flies through the fence, but plonks it down fast on all 3 wheels then stands on the brakes! Not unusual for Cherrytree 'pilots' to drive it into the ground 3-point and fast, but that guy needs to learn to land.
Excuse me,......I'm an unashamed aeroplane driver since as far as I'm concerned an aeroplane is basically a car with wings. I can land one just as well as someone who thinks flying is about fossicking around the sky to no purpose :E:E
Shaggy Sheep Driver
4th Jun 2014, 18:30
It's not whether you do it with 'purpose' that matters, it's whether you do it with 'feeling'.
Jan Olieslagers
4th Jun 2014, 19:25
on 500 metres of runway
Who speaks of 500 metres? After some initial uncertainty, all forums that mention this "incident" agree that it was on the 21 runway, a bare 371 metres long. Even if the landing was not top class, IMHO the first and main error was the decision to land that plane on that runway. But we do not know the actual gross weight, neither have I seen the local METAR's. Curious, that: all and sundry have their word to say, but nobody has checked the wind.
glendalegoon
4th Jun 2014, 20:54
In the USA we practice our shortfield landings over a 50' obstacle, so the guy would have been OK even if he had been laying on his back.
;-)
a bare 371 metres longI watched a PA28 land at Portland Naval Air Station some years ago - it used about 3/4 of the 229m 'runway' (in nil wind).
Shaggy Sheep Driver
5th Jun 2014, 08:31
There used to be a chap who flew various aeroplanes out of Liverpool, and was keen on farm strip flying. I've seen him land a PA28 with the shortest landing by far of any of the more 'strip-oriented' aeroplanes to land there. But, he knew how to land an aeroplane.
There is a video of an aircraft hitting a car crossing a track very close to the end of the runway.
Yes this was bad flying but there are many bad pilots out there and the approaches should be kept clear.
People should not be allowed to sunbath so close to the runway and in the cars case it is the cars responsibility to check if there are no lights that the approach is clear before crossing with caution.
People and cars should give way to aircraft as that piece of airspace belongs to them and a bit like sailing ships control is not always that accurate.
This guy was an example of poor piloting skills but there are other reasons including wind shear that an aircraft maybe lower than ideal.
it is not the fault of the pilots but the authorities who should make sure that areas so close to the runway are no go areas for the public or vehicles otherwise a tragic accident is in the making.
pace
Kerosene Kraut
5th Jun 2014, 14:10
In 1973 some Lufthansa 737-200 pretended to approach Heligoland as a prank during an empty training flight. Rumours claim the pilots got fired for it.
weiss (http://www.duene1.de/homepage/weiss08/weiss15.htm)
Finn47
5th Jun 2014, 19:19
Jan O, they don´t seem to publish official METARs for this small island airport. The airport website only shows actual wind speed and direction as well as temperature. As far as I could find out, this incident took place on May 30 at 1 pm local time. Weather records from Wunderground show wind at Helgoland at 10 knots from the west, a 60 degree crosswind, but that weather station is most likely on the main island and not on the dune island where the airport is. On the other hand, 4 or 5 aircraft had landed on the same runway (21) before this pilot, so he probably just followed them and the windsock?
what next
5th Jun 2014, 20:42
In 1973 some Lufthansa 737-200 pretended to approach Heligoland as a prank during an empty training flight. Rumours claim the pilots got fired for it.
A little googling reveals that he was degraded to co-pilot (now called "first officer") for three years. After that he made the normal LH career, retiring as long-range captain some years ago. His son is flying with the company still, therefore they keep their name secret.
First_Principal
6th Jun 2014, 01:27
It's not whether you do it with 'purpose' that matters, it's whether you do it with 'feeling'.
Actually (in this case particularly) it's whether you do it with, er, flair :}
FP.
Shaggy Sheep Driver
6th Jun 2014, 09:26
Actually (in this case particularly) it's whether you do it with, er, flair
"Flare", surely? ;)
ChickenHouse
8th Jun 2014, 11:38
I agree that this approach was way too low, but part of the story is also that officials recently pushed the airfield to flatten a small dune right at that point due to obstacles clearance regulations ... If they hadn't done, the approach could not have been such low. So far to the reduction of risk by "officials brain".