Ditching in the Solent?

[Genghis the Engineer]

Down at my flying club this afternoon, not a million miles from Popham, and somebody said the police had been over just before I got there checking the airfield sheets, trying to identify an aircraft which had apparently (allegedly?) ditched in the Solent today.

Definitely not one of ours, and nothing on the usual news websites, does anybody know anything?

G

[250 kts]

There was a report that one ditched off the needles but it apparently turned up on the ground at SOU.

[LAF]

When I was on a survival course at Boscome Down and they spoke of a light aircraft going down in the Solent over twenty years ago.He got his mayday out SAR and coast guards (knew the he was in the Solent) were called out and yet it took almost an hour to find him (almost dead).
They used it as an example of how likely it would be that you get found if you went down in the North Sea (or worse)!

[QDMQDMQDM]

He got his mayday out SAR and coast guards (knew the he was in the Solent) were called out and yet it took almost an hour to find him (almost dead).

I'm about to buy a Fastfind Plus PLB, incorporating GPS for this reason. Position to 30m, satellite alerting within 3 mins, weight 300g. Amazing!

In the cub, my rationale is to keep sea crossings short, wear an immersion suit and high quality lifevest (Switlik helicopter crew vest) and carry a fastfind and portable transceiver. A raft just isn't practical.

http://www.gps.co.uk/htmfiles/surveqip/fastfind.htm

QDM

[BEXIL160]

Almost Dead err not quite, mild hypothermia actually....but you're right it took a while for the SAR helicopter to find the guy.

Anyway the original article appeared in "The Log", and was recently republished in one of the GATCO publications... the gist of it went like this...

Pilot (757/767 driver) was flying UK to France, should have been in a Twin but that went u/s and he decided to take the PA28 instead. Engine failed SOUTH of the IOW, perfect drills (incl call to D&D 121.5) and text book ditching "Stall warning seemed to be going off forever until I finally mushed into the drink, tail first. Opened door, leap out on wing, head only got so far... forgot to remove headset... everybody does apparently. Didn't appear to be sinking so ventured back into cabin, switched on radios and told D&D down safe... back out on wing... much later a/c finally sank.. watched the glow of the radios below the sea"

... well thats from memory, but I do remember the comments of the AAIB investgator at the time " I wouldn't fly over the sea in anything not big enough to have a toilet"

Rgds BEX

P.S. the GATCO (Guild of Air Traffic Control Officers) magazine is called TRANSMIT and is always worth a read if you come across a copy..

rgds BEX

[BossEyed]

BEX,

LAF may well be thinking of another accident. The Boscombe course often referred to a different accident - a 152 (150?) being returned to the mainland after engine maintenance at one of the IoW fields. As (bad) luck would have it, said donk gave up the ghost over the solent and the a/c wasn't high enough to glide to land (why not was never explained). Pilot had no imersion suit or life jacket, and managed to remain afloat due to a carrier bag found behind the seats. It was early in they year (March, I think) and the water was v. cold - he did very nearly drown, and hypothermic effects were a major contributor - this even though he was close enough to land for a photo to be taken of the tail of the aircraft post ditching.

Anyway, enough of that - simply to say that I believe two different incidents are being discussed.

LAF - no chance I might be your "stunt double", is there? :cool: (If you need to ask, I'm not! ;) )

[Aerohack]

LAF: This may have been the same incident I have in mind. A chap was ferrying a Cessna 175 that hadn't flown in a long while from Sandown to Goodwood for maintenance. He suffered an engine failure and ditched so close to Southsea beach that bystanders were able to photograph the aircraft at the moment it entered the water — I still have a copy somewhere — and immediately alerted Coastguard and police. The pilot, who as I recall had only normal clothing on and no survival gear, used a plastic carrier bag as a flotation aid. He was very close to death when the SAR crew plucked him out, within waving distance of the beach. I spoke to him in hospital a day or two later and he was a very chastened chap and well aware of how lucky he'd been.

[QDMQDMQDM]

For anyone interested in this subject, this is a useful website:

www.equipped.com

It slates the vast majority of survival gear on sale in the UK as grossly inadequate.

QDM