Originally Posted by
cncpc
I spoke to an ex RAF guy in England back in the 90's who went into flying Navajo's in civvy world. He had a prop blade come off the starboard engine, go through the nose, hit the other hub, and tore that engine right out of its mounts. The guy somehow landed it, with three or four pax, in a cornfield out by Oxford without injuries.
It was actually near the town of King's Lynn, Norfolk (almost 100 miles north-east of Oxford
) on 7th June 1993. The summary report is available
here.
I
do recall reading a much more comprehensive online report about this accident several years ago, but I cannot recall where it was located.
[EDIT: Found it - full report on this particular Navajo accident
here.
"The aircraft was operating on a scheduled passenger flight from Birmingham to Norwich, with a pilot and seven passengers on board when, as the flight passed south of King's Lynn, there was a loud ‘bang’ and the aircraft immediately rolled to the right and entered a tight spiral dive, or spin. The loud bang was caused by a blade, that had detached from the right propeller, penetrating the aircraft's nose baggage bay and exiting through the upper left fuselage structure. This blade then struck and removed the front of the left propeller assembly. The right engine tore away from the wing, precipitating the loss of control, and the left engine stopped. The commander managed to regain control of the aircraft and successfully carried out a forced landing in a field of cereal crop. All eight occupants evacuated the aircraft with no serious injury".]