GULF69
20th Aug 2007, 12:12
TAKE FROM AFRICAN PILOT NEWSLETTER:
Small plane lands on a car
By Gill Gifford of the Star
A ‘normal’ emergency landing for pilot Dale de Klerk ended alarmingly when he accidentally touched down on the roof of Sid Mann's car in an incident that has left aviation experts gasping in disbelief. The case of a ‘Teeny Two’ single seat plane landing on a Mercedes Benz driving along a quiet road is apparently a freak incident which, according to De Klerk, "nobody I have spoken to can ever remember such an incident happened before. I was gliding down after an engine failure doing everything I have been trained to do. I could not see anything below the plane and ended up landing squarely on top of a car travelling directly underneath me at exactly the same speed. The chances of an encounter must be a billion to one!"
This incident that brought Mann and De Klerk together happened last Tuesday morning on the R512, about 23km from Brits. Mann, a loss adjuster who has his own company, was on his way to an appointment in Brits in his Mercedes C240 when he received the shock of his life. "I was driving along and suddenly this massive explosion occurred," Mann said on Wednesday explaining that he had been cruising well below the speed limit as he was running early for his appointment. Fortunately neither man was injured in this bizarre accident.
Small plane lands on a car
By Gill Gifford of the Star
A ‘normal’ emergency landing for pilot Dale de Klerk ended alarmingly when he accidentally touched down on the roof of Sid Mann's car in an incident that has left aviation experts gasping in disbelief. The case of a ‘Teeny Two’ single seat plane landing on a Mercedes Benz driving along a quiet road is apparently a freak incident which, according to De Klerk, "nobody I have spoken to can ever remember such an incident happened before. I was gliding down after an engine failure doing everything I have been trained to do. I could not see anything below the plane and ended up landing squarely on top of a car travelling directly underneath me at exactly the same speed. The chances of an encounter must be a billion to one!"
This incident that brought Mann and De Klerk together happened last Tuesday morning on the R512, about 23km from Brits. Mann, a loss adjuster who has his own company, was on his way to an appointment in Brits in his Mercedes C240 when he received the shock of his life. "I was driving along and suddenly this massive explosion occurred," Mann said on Wednesday explaining that he had been cruising well below the speed limit as he was running early for his appointment. Fortunately neither man was injured in this bizarre accident.