Originally Posted by
MrBernoulli
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".]
That's the very one. Thank you for finding that. I expect more than one reader thought it was some bull**** story.
I was in Dublin working on starting a competitor to Ryanair and this guy sent his resume in for a pilot's job. Never even mentioned this incident. I called him and eventually it came up and he was "no big deal" sort of.
I think he won some high award for airmanship. That has to be one of the top examples of outstanding airmanship in general aviation piloting of all time.
Anyways, a detached engine severed cockpit, and even if its only one blade, a lot of things can happen in that sequence.
Maybe something entirely different here.
Open chutes, blue sky where the cockpit was, an awful scenario, but maybe some grabbed chutes and bailed, without being strapped in. Pulled, but couldn't hang on. Respect to all.