Originally Posted by
patowalker
You have to listen/read the whole message. When the controller asks which beach, the pilot replies "Cova do Vapor". This is far less crowded than Sao Joao beach, where the accident happened.
It's also quite a distance away. It would have been apparent well before that they were not going to make that beach.
Now that the reports are pointing to an engine failure and not a loss of control, my sympathy levels for the PIC have dropped to zero. I do not buy the instructor not being able to see the people he struck because he was on the right. The airplane would have had a solid nose down attitude and the crowded beach with people was there to be seen.
What's the glide ratio with engine out and flaps on a C152? About 8:1? That means when you are 60 feet above ground, you can choose to hit the surface 480 feet out to sea and not on top of an 8 year old girl. There is no excuse for landing on a populated beach if you still have control of the airplane and an instructor should know better. If it was an engine out, that may have been an accident but the accident part stopped when the decision was made to land somewhere with people instead of the sea with no people.