Cessna Difficulity - off coast of Ireland

[airbourne]

Received from INN

A cessna plane has run into difficulty several hundred miles off the west coast of Ireland.

The plane which is being flown by the only passenger on board is understood to be low on fuel and is attempting to reach Shannon airport

Ger O'Donnell of the fenit Life Boat service says conditions are far from suitable to mount a resue operation, if that becomes necessary.

Heard the latest that the a/c landed safely in SNN. I think there was a bit of over reaction by the media! So my sources tell me!

[OzExpat]

flown by the only passenger on board
Well, no wonder it was in difficulty. Most planes are flown by pilots - except maybe in Hollywood movies, of course! :}

[hobie]

From the "horses Mouth" .......


"Aircraft lands safely at Shannon after emergency landing
.... Aisling Casey (Clare FM)


The pilot of a Cessna plane which ran into difficulties off the west coast is safe and well.

The aircraft travelling from Canada to England, landed at Shannon airport at ten to two this morning.

The pilot had issued a distress call that the plane was low on fuel, while flying over the Atlantic.

The aircraft later landed safety at Shannon Airport and emergency services were taken off standby.

Kilrush, Fenit and Aran Island lifeboats were all launched as a precaution.

that's it ....... :ok:

[Hairy Mary]

So what was it? A 140, a Citation X, or something in between.
They might as well tell us that a flying apperatus was in difficulty.

[dublinpilot]

According to Today FM new it was a "Cessna type" aeroplane.

[wheelbarrow]

It was a Cessna 172 en route from St. Johns to Shannon.The filed destination was EINN even though it was notamed closed last night for essential maintenance work.The pilot climbe from 4000' to FL60 to avail of any tail winds and that seems to have worked.Aircraft landed with fuel to spare,although not much.

[squeaker]

Could've been nasty, I'm sure we all recall the worst Irish air disaster when a Cessna crashed into a Galway cemetary.
Police recovered over 600 bodies...

[hobie]

Could've been nasty

You can say that again .... especially for the poor xxxxxx guys in the ASR Chopper that would have had to go out plus the other poor xxxxxxx in the Lifeboats, had the aircraft had to ditch ...... the only living beings that should be swimming 300 miles west of Shannon last night had tails and fins ...... no place for mere "humans" :ok:

[wingman863]

Am I the only one thinking how in the name of god a Cessna 172 was going to get from St. Johns to Shannon? Even with ferry tanks what is the range on one of those things?

Well done to the pilot though for landing safely. I wonder how much fuel he had left when the rolled to a stop.

[SevernTMA]

Exactly. And at 4000ft! No wonder she was running out of fuel!:confused:

[Newforest]

Am I the only one thinking how in the name of god a Cessna 172 was going to get from St. Johns to Shannon? Even with ferry tanks what is the range on one of those things?

Well done to the pilot though for landing safely. I wonder how much fuel he had left when the rolled to a stop.

No, I was thinking that as well. Maybe a ferry pilot can explain that to us. And where did the reference to a female pilot come from?:oh:

[Tartan Giant]

Looking at the past few days pressure patterns for the crossing, the guy certainly had a bit of luck on his side - he needed it!

Bloody hell........ the GC distance between t/o and ldg is 1685 Nm and if he had a GS of 110 kts that's a flying time of 15 hrs 19 mins.

Was it wise to try this one hop in a single engined machine, and a certain night landing (or a ditching at night) at an airport with Notam's that did not help the picture! The ILS was 'out' too.

Have a look at the weather St John's was pushing out; then the surface chart (say up to 6000') and the forecasts.

That aircraft must have been stuffed with fuel: the pilot did well not to fall asleep (how did he manage that?) in what must have been a very long day - meal/planning/flying 20 hrs at least.

Did he carry a single-seat dinghy - or was that weight converted to fuel?

Insurance for such a flight must have been an interesting issue (EC785/2004).

I do not find these sort of flights appealing.

That nobody else was sucked into a near death experience is a saving grace. The brave SAR teams get enough real accidents to deal with without having to deal with this sort of bravado.

Somebody must have wanted this C172 quickly and cheaply; that it nearly cost the pilot some serious grief/life is a price they should all be thinking of now.


TG

[rotornut]

This type of thing is done all the time in light aircraft - just do a web search under "aircraft ferrying" for more info. As for long range tanks see
http://www.pilot-international.com/Tank%20Gallery.html

[onehundred]

Just for info:
In the late 80's there was an italian ferry pilot who experienced a total electrical failure on his C-172 while in the middle of the atlantic inbound to Ireland. Without AC/DC he wasn't able to transfer fuel from the aux tanks into the mains and so ditched a couple of hundred mile off coast. He was rescued by a SAR Sea King.

[IO540]

How did they find him? Does radar go 200nm out? Did he carry a handheld radio, or an EPIRB?

[onehundred]

He was lucky because the only working thing he had on board was a handheld VHF radio. With this one he had the luck to get a hold on another ferry pilot who had the chance to relay his emergency.
I must say very very lucky.
Unfortunatly some years later this pilot ran out of luck and flew in IMC conditions into a hill near Rome - Italy while trying to get an IFR clearence.

[englishal]

I'd have a satellite phone and GPS. Then I could just phone the coastguard from the dingy and give them my position;)

[Keygrip]

In the days when I worked at Liverpool Airport (UK), the school had an aircraft (PA28 Warrior) ferried across from the USA.

Girlie ferry pilot taxied onto the customs ramp 24 hours earlier than expected.

When I quized her - as she deplaned, stretched, yawned and scratched herself - she stated that she had intended to land at Shannon for fuel, but did the calculations, decided she still had enough, and elected to continue to LPL rather than bother with an unnecessary tech stop.

Her point of departure was St Johns, Newfoundland - she had been sat at the controls of the aircraft for 27 hours.

[JW411]

I remember talking to two PA-28 pilots one night in the middle of the Atlantic. I relayed a few position reports for them to Gander and Shanwick.

They had a 28-hour flight plan from Gander to Shannon and were talking about doing a refuel stop in Shannon and then pressing on to Esbjerg in Denmark!

[Tartan Giant]

The Law is an ASS.

So here we have solid evidence of flights that are quite extraordinary, and if examined even fairly closely, could point at the pilot/s being so tired as to be unfit to conduct the flight, yet we read about the CAA banning a Spitfire or two to overfly (at a safe height and speed) a WW2 Remembrance Service!


If the CAA take no action at watching and knowing about such solo trans-Atlantic flights in the order of 15 - 28 hours (and that proposed Shannon to Esbjerg one) then Flight Safety has taken a long - nothing to do with me chief - kip in the back of those aircraft.

I know it's conjecture, but what if that aircraft fell out the sky and crashed on top of a hospital - because the guy just fell asleep.
A few dead, and nobody had a "duty of care" to stop such idiot plans to fly beyond the normal human "fit to fly" endurance.

The "girlie" that landed at Liverpool - what if!
she had been sat at the controls of the aircraft for 27 hours
I would not like to be responsible covering the aftermath of a fatal accident due to 'pilot incapacitation'. Talk about litigation.......... blimey.

In my time I have been involved in Long Range SAR for such pilots, and my view of their antics has not changed. I'm not impressed - to say the very least.

TG

[JW411]

Mind you, I think we have to get this into perspective. When I was a kid I met Max Conrad a couple of times. He was one of my heros.

For those of you have never heard of (or else are too young to remember Max Conrad), he ferried over 150 light aircraft across the Atlantic and the Pacific.

When he retired he had over 50,000 hours in his logs. I think this might just be a world record.

He once flew a Piper Comanche from Casablanca to Los Angeles in one hop all on his own and the trip time was 58 hours and 38 minutes!

[Tartan Giant]

I don't doubt the perspective, and as you and I know JW411, Max was, extraordinary.
I doubt those who did those trans-Atlantics we are talking about here could not be classed as MC's. But that is not the point I fear.

Those who don't know Max Conrad have a quick look here:

http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/igy2/conrad/conrad1.html

If experience were the only criteria, then the Ray Hanna's of the world could be given permission to over-fly that Remembrance Day ceremony?

TG