Plane crash at Zwartkops
 

Good morning all

Can anybody tell me why do they try to land a plane on a public tar road and think they will be ok?

do pilots get trained to do that?
im sure it wil be safer to land in a grass field next to the road.
its not the first time this has happened in south africa and this time the passengers of the car was lucky to walk away.
is it nessecary to put the normal public road users lifes at risk if there are other alternitaves?


CAA investigating Centurion plane crash | News24

The thought process of any crew member in a low level aircraft shortly after an engine out can be complicated. In deciphering the decisions made in an accident one needs to add to that the dynamics of the weather, considering tailwinds, low cloud, perhaps valley fog or what have you on the day, as well as the unknown influences such as a flock of birds, a dust devil, power lines, wind shear, turbulence setting/rising sun, the list is endless.
A person who has not sat in a dynamic cockpit, in other words one that unlike Microsoft sim, has no pause button, or who has only worked in a hanger job like aircraft maintenance for example, where one has ample time to kick back have a cup of coffee and think of the best course of action, may be quick to criticize what seems like an incorrect decision. The hot seat my friend is called that for a good reason.

Think about it for a second.
You are in an aircraft with a failed engine.
You have a surface which is assured to be solid, or a field which should have a number of obstacles through out it from animals to fences to watering troughs.
It is very easy to forget about obstacles such as crossing power lines or cars...

Zwartkops Crash
 

While I agree that trying to land on a single lane, busy road such as the R55, he must have been all out of ideas in orfer to do so.
the open fields in that area are less then smooth and I thin the outcome would have been the same either way.
Surely he would have called in a Mayday and let the tower know of his intention?
If so, why did the tower not contact the relevant authorities to facilitate this landing?
I am not playing the blame game, but I do think that this tragic loss of life could have been prevented.

Unfortunately, the pilot aleays gets blamed first, in this case, an instructor as well. They must have been in serious trouble to even think of that option.
In spite of the 9 million things he had going on in his head, I am pretty sure that trying to prevent loss of life or injury to anyone was foremost in his mind.
Would really like to know what the findings of this accident are.

I wouldn't like to speculate on just how few options the pilot had left, but a road looks very attractive from the air. Unfortunately, roads are littered with powerlines, road advisory signs, plus moving vehicles... and are rarely of adequate width to allow for the requirements of an aircraft in the landing phase.

A friend landed his Piper on a country highway after a fuel supply failure, and thought he'd done exceptionally well with a dead stick landing on a road, as he braked to a halt.
However, he never saw the large advisory roadside sign, with its sizeable pipe supports, that took the wing off, just as he thought he was O.K.!

And by the same train of thought, there was a C172 with a engine failure in my part of the world.
Instead of going for the wide open fields which are usually anything but what they look like from the air. She elected to land on the road and did so with no issues. Not a single scratch.
Plane is back up and flying after they fixed the engine.
Equally I know of other aircraft that have landed in fields and walked away with the same result.

Its a hard one to figure out and it just depends where it happens. Just gotta hope for the best and that it all works out in the end.

I wouldn't like to speculate on the relevance of this but it's legal to land on a state highway in Montana.

The question was posed as to wether this is taught (to aim for a road in an forced landing situation).
Unfortunately the discussion is so open amoung instructors in SA, with varying views and angles on the topic. In my experience, its not standardized that 'in a forced landing one should NOT/Should aim for a pubilc road.' So, it comes down to what each persons instructor teaches.
While the law says that pubic roads may not be used unless its an emergency, that leaves the debate open.
Im my opinion (having not yet been in a real engine out situation), one should have as a general rule to NOT aim for public roads. Simply from the point of view of placing the innocent road users in danger. However, thats not to say if you are flying in a very quiet area, with a nice straight piece of road, and no cars visable, that the pilot should not consider it.
I just think this point should be drilled into pilots, that they should be all means avoid putting others in danger in an engine failure/forced landing situation. I think instructors should make this clearer.
Sure, its tempting in that situation, but maybe the implications should be drilled into pilots when practicing forced landings?

With little time to assess the field and eliminating heavy traffic on the road, I would suggest the temptation would be influenced by a strong urge to 1) save the aerie and 2) avoid a fire.

What is all this about.

Better Luck with engine out
 

Here is a better outcome for a landing on the road with an engine out


UPDATE: Pilot makes emergency landing near downtown Conroe - Your Houston News: News


After looking at the photos I would NOT write, Minor Damage.....