Well maybe somebody who does fly or maintain this type can explain exactly why the decision was made to abandon?
On the face of it, it does seem surprising. Most small aircraft that are landed wheels up for one reason or another are economically reparable. Many aircraft have been landed wheels up without injury to occupants, and I can't think of any examples of crew being injured in an intentional wheels up landing.
On the other hand, lots of people get injured and even killed ejecting, the aircraft is a guaranteed write-off, and there is always the possibility of injury to third party persons on the ground.
Moreover, if you look around on google earth at the areas of sparsely populated terrain within 2 miles of the airbase, it is not exactly the sort of terrain I would choose for a DZ - lots of swamps and lakes to drown in.
I'd imagine they must have been a compelling reason not to attempt a full-flaps wheels up landing, with minima fuel in the tanks, and the fuel cocks off just before touchdown, on that nice long runway with a nice layer of foam, with fire crews following them down the runway. Moreover, the CT-156 has zero-zero ejection seats, so even if it went tits up on the roll out, they would have a safer parachute landing on a nice big airfield than out in that terrain.
Presumably they decided that an attempted wheel(s) up landing would have resulted in a definite fatal crash? Was one main wheel stuck down, and the other stuck up?
Last edited by Trim Stab; 29th Jan 2014 at 19:32.