I Observed a Forced Landing while sitting on the beach
Hi,
We were sitting on Werri Beach in Gerringong, NSW, Australia this morning just enjoying the fresh air when my son and I talked about a Cessna flying south and how nice it would be to go and fly today.
A few short minutes later we observed the same airplane (I think it was a Cessna 172) tracking north very slowly coming straight for the beach. When it came over us I wondered what was going on as their flaps were out and they where flying really slowly and descending. I didn't hear any engine sound and saw them make a base turn for what I was now assuming to be a forced landing on the marshland just behind the Werri Beach built up area.
Then I saw something that looked like them trying to prevent / recover from a stall and the next moment after that I saw a sharp turn and it looked like a left wing stall. Then they disappeared behind the trees.
We went looking for them and I drove up and down the streets onto high ground etc to see if I could see them but didn't. At this stage they still could have flown away low without me noticing and I didn't want to call 000.
After a while I kept on feeling I have to look around as I didn't have a radio or could find out what happened and went home to fetch my phone (usually don't go to beach with phone) and called a local Fire brigade volunteer asking if they had any report of a forced landing and he said no.
I called 000 and the Rural Fire Service went out to investigate. Turns out both pilots walked away safely and 'are from a local flying school' but nobody phoned 000 apart from me which was a fair while after the incident. I have no idea if they made a mayday call or not.
All is well that ends well and I must say I have learnt a LOT from what I observed from the ground. I am assuming they changed their minds at the last moment to a different paddock (I am only guessing) and that caused the last (what seemed) aggressive maneuvers.
I would love to talk to the pilot(s) to coroborate what I saw so if anybody knows them, please ask them to contact me.
Cheerio