Plane hits powerline- no one hurt!

[tmmorris]

Report and video here:

Video: Small plane crashes into street in Mukilteo | The Seattle Times (http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/no-injuries-after-small-plane-crashes-on-mukilteo-street/?utm_content=buffer72c88&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=owned_buffer_tw_m)

No serious injuries, despite impressive fuel fire after it hit wires on the way down. Good effort!

[CONSO]

Stunning ‘fireball’ video captures the moment a plane clipped a power line and crashed

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2017/05/03/stunning-fireball-video-captures-the-moment-a-plane-clipped-a-power-line-and-crashed/?utm_term=.fa2dabd68439

The plane, a Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six that had taken off from a nearby airport, went down Tuesday afternoon at an intersection in Mukilteo, Wash. The crash along State Route 525 was no doubt terrifying.
“I thought it was the end of our lives,” one witness told NBC affiliate KING (http://www.king5.com/news/local/small-plane-crashes-in-mukilteo/436150277).
But police said there were no serious injuries, even though the plane “struck the light pole where it erupted a fuel cell,” Mukilteo Police Officer Myron Davis told KING. “It spilled fuel onto the roadway, onto a vehicle which ignited.”

[stator vane]

Cool to see the black vortex lingering in the lower right!

[pattern_is_full]

From the traffic flow speeds - that dash-cam owner was likely extremely lucky that the traffic light turned red when it did. Or (s)he would have been right under the plane when it "arrived."

Looks like it was the impact with the traffic lights themselves that actually split the plane's fuel tank and caused the fuel explosion.

OTOH, the fuel exploding and burning off before ground contact probably contributed to the survivability. Most of the released fuel was "back there" in a black cloud over the highway. Not surrounding the wreckage.

[MurphyWasRight]

Looks like the plane went -under- the high voltage distribution wires, hitting those would probably have resulted in a much worse outcome.

They would be at least 4-8Kv and possibly much higher, hard to tell from video.

The arc would have been much longer (time and distance) possibly enough to directly set off the fuel cell.

[roybert]

The line looks to be two circuits with the top line likely being transmission voltages 72 kV or higher and the bottom line were the distribution line at 34 kV or lower and if you watch the video closely he clipped the lower line and sheared the conductors as they are hanging down at the end of the video.

[akaSylvia]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXW4bXEBDmM&feature=youtu.be


FXW4bXEBDmM

[akaSylvia]

Dramatic dashcam video shows plane crash into busy street | myfox8.com (http://myfox8.com/2017/05/03/dramatic-dashcam-video-shows-plane-crash-into-busy-street/)

MUKILTEO, Wash. -- Dramatic dashcam video captured a small plane crashing into a busy street in Washington Tuesday afternoon.

The pilot took off from Everett’s Paine Field around 3:30 p.m. and quickly began losing engine power, Q13 reports.

The pilot told investigators he was losing too much altitude to return so he attempted to land on Harbour Pointe Boulevard because it was clear. The plane, however, clipped power lines and then hit a street light, rupturing a fuel cell.

Driver Amanda Hayes said there was a fireball after that, and she and her co-worker ducked down under the dashboard.

Nearby resident Ron Cohen, a pilot himself, told Q13, "It looks like he did an incredible job."

Witness video shows cars involved in the fire.

No one was seriously injured, and the pilot and his passenger walked away from the accident.

[tmmorris]

I started a thread on this in 'Accidents and Close Calls' which attracted no interest at all. Which makes me wonder if the latter forum is pointless...

[Jonzarno]

I started a thread on this in 'Accidents and Close Calls' which attracted no interest at all. Which makes me wonder if the latter forum is pointless...

Agreed. There is much more activity on accident threads on other fora such as Flyer and COPA when they are part of the main discussion. Learning from these events, sad or even tragic as they are, is important especially given the depth of experience of some of those who post here but seem not to be present on the Accidents forum.

[Pilot DAR]

Acknowledging tmmorris and Jonzarno, as I moved and merged the three threads on this topic to this place, before I noticed your comments. We'll leave it here if we may, as I have left a redirect from the previous location. Hopefully, readers can seek posts on accidents in the accidents and close calls forum....

[akaSylvia]

I would love it if this forum got more activity! It does seem to be hidden away though. I will try to post more.

[India Four Two]

Location of the accident, just west of Paine Field:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/india42/02BED2D8-40B7-4747-88C0-6B4070437F90_zpsynwxfqz3.jpg

It seems an odd choice for a forced landing, given there was so much of Paine Field available. I also thought the Cherokee was flying very fast.

[tmmorris]

Was he heading west when he touched down?

[India Four Two]

Yes, he landed on the east-west Harbour Pointe Boulevard. The power lines run north-south along the east side of Mukilteo Speedway.

GE image looking east:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/india42/C4485E01-C944-44B6-8B3B-28589EAF3517_zps5vzfgq7d.png

PS Thread drift. The two white hangars, behind the three parked Dreamliners, in the bottom half of the first image I posted, are the home of the excellent Historic Flight Museum. With three museums to visit, plus the Boeing Factory Tour, you could easily spend two days at Paine Field.

[tmmorris]

Struggling to imagine how he ended up pointing that way. Some sort of failed turn back perhaps. However once he was that low heading west I guess he had no option.

[First_Principal]

Good to read that no-one was seriously hurt (or worse).

I guess many of us think about fuel issues when we read
of such events shortly after takeoff.

It's been a while since I flew a Cherokee Six, but I recall a great
deal of time spent in training on the fuel system - the precept being that it was easy to balls up so better get it right.

Obviously unclear at this stage what the outcome of any investigation into this event will be, but it does appear it certainly had some fuel on board, given the fireball. However I will be interested to see if there were any problems around the supply control...

FP.

[India Four Two]

I've found the ATC recording:
http://archive-server.liveatc.net/kpae/KPAE2-May-02-2017-2200Z.mp3

Starting at 2226:40Z, the Cherokee is cleared for takeoff, with a southbound climb out. Subsequently, a Boeing test flight calls for takeoff and is told to lineup and wait, due to the Cherokee departing from an intersection. The Tower then asks the Cherokee to make a right turn out, to allow the Boeing to take off. While the Tower is giving the Boeing takeoff clearance, there is another transmission, that might have been from the Cherokee. Unfortunately the recording stops there and the next half hour from 2230Z is not available.

[Geosync]

Crop dusters chop powerlines as matter of routine business since they operate around and under them. Most of the time they land safely, swap engines on the plane and have it airborne again in weeks.

[9 lives]

Watching the video carefully, it appears to me that it was not hitting the wires, but rather the outboard right wing tank (which in a Cherokee is the leading edge of the wing) being sliced by the perfectly aligned knife edge of the traffic light shield projecting up.

Crop dusters handle wire strike a little better, as they are often equipped with wire jumpers, which will, to some degree, redirect a contacted wire, up and over the fin. Cherokees are not so equipped - they just will not handle wire strikes well.

This pilot made the best of a difficult situation. I courteously turned out of the way of a jet behind him, which I have done too, and in doing so, surrendered his opportunity for a safe landing straight ahead - which moments later, he really needed.

The air traffic controller, and the Boeing pilots may be rethinking their need to rush since that accident, 30 seconds of patience on their part would have made a world of difference for the Cherokee pilot. Happily, this is a relatively little deal. It would be a really big deal, had there been a full city bus going around that corner at that moment, and a bunch of people were impacted.

I'm getting old, and more willing to wait for better conditions, particularly for a departure with a safe return to earth place....

[India Four Two]

ST,

I too have enthusiastically complied with "turn when able" requests in the past. After listening to this tape, I think in future, I will wait until there's no runway ahead of me and not below 1000' AGL.

[cooperplace]

the jabiru I fly regularly hit a powerline some years ago (not with me at the controls); it seems the power line (415V probably) snagged the undercarriage and the aircraft came to a rather sudden halt on the ground, with pilot unhurt. One of the power poles (stobies we call them) was bent, the insulator was ripped from the other. Aircraft was (obviously) fixed and flies fine. I take great care to avoid a repeat: fate might not be so forgiving next time.