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Arctic ordeal

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Old 9th Dec 2008, 22:31
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Arctic ordeal

After plane crashed and sank, two men worked hard to keep warm before rescue by shrimping vessel
Globe and Mail

December 9, 2008 at 4:54 AM EST

The Cessna Skymaster plane was flying through the cold night sky over the Arctic when first one engine failed, and moments later, the other.engine as well.

The pilot issued a mayday call and began scouring the Hudson Strait for a safe place to land. He was able to glide the crippled plane to a controlled crash landing on an ice floe seven kilometres off the southern coast of Baffin Island.

He touched down safely, but the 10-centimetre-thick ice gave way almost immediately under the weight of the plane. The pilot and the other man on board were just able to scramble out the window before the plane vanished into the freezing waters, taking their life raft with it.

The men were wearing insulated survival suits, but had nothing with which to make a fire. With the temperature dropping as night fell Sunday, they knew they had to stay warm to survive, so they started walking. They were still pacing the ice floe nearly 18 hours later when a shrimping vessel hove into view yesterday morning and rescued them.

"They were very healthy," said Bo Mortensen, captain of the Atlantic Enterprise, which had been about 180 nautical miles away when it received the mayday call Sunday night. "One of them was frostbitten on his feet. They were smiling and crying."

The men, identified as Australian Oliver Edwards and Dane Troels Hansen, both now living in Sweden, were later picked up by a Canadian Forces Cormorant helicopter and flown to Iqaluit, 150 kilometres to the north. They spent the night at Qikiqtani General Hospital, where spokeswoman Yasmina Pepa said they were "alive and in good condition."
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Old 9th Dec 2008, 23:50
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Do think I could get them to pick my lottery numbers for me?

BBC Report on the same incident

How good it is to hear a positive outcome in these seemingly 'bad news' days.
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Old 10th Dec 2008, 20:56
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It IS good news.
Does anyone know what they were doing up there?
Pleasure flight, Business flight, Government flight, Scientific flight? Wouldn't a flight south be a better option this time of year? Florida? California? The Caribbean? Might be a friendlier environment for a Skymaster.
The article and TV coverage haven't shed much light on any of it.
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Old 10th Dec 2008, 23:53
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Does anyone know what they were doing up there?


According to the BBC article attached in post #2

Australian Oliver Edwards-Neil, 25, and his Swedish flying partner Troels Hansen, 45, had been flying a Cessna Skymaster from the US to Sweden.
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Old 11th Dec 2008, 01:06
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It was apparently a ferry flight according to one report I read. Not the best route at this time of the year. Intense cold is hard on piston engines. I never fly my Beech below -15C. Of course I have to pay my own engine overhauls. A nice whiskey near the wood stove is my activity of choice in the deep cold...

Might be ice in the fuel as well, we'll never know, the plane is at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.

Beech
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Old 11th Dec 2008, 10:21
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Troels Hansen is a Captain on A320 and before DC10. He flies for Danish charter carrier - Thomas Cook. He bought the Skymaster for him self.
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Old 11th Dec 2008, 14:17
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Piston engines are flown all over Canada at temps below -30. You just need to care for them after shutdown (engine covers and heaters etc).
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Old 11th Dec 2008, 15:34
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wise guys

Troels is a dane living in Sweden...these guys was not only lucky...they knew what they were doing and was prepaired... had the time to put on survivial suit before they hid the ice. And that the ship saw them. The captain of the trawler told in a phone interview yersteday, that if he had been half an hour earlier, he would't have spotted them due to the darkness. All of the survival gear (ecxept the suits of course) went down with the plane. Latest is that they are fine and that some minor frost bite, won't cost them any toes/fingers. What a christmas presant for their next of kin!
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Old 11th Dec 2008, 20:43
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Biggles44

If those two were wearing Immersion suits while flying - well done them. If they were not, then they were very foolish and very fortunate to have managed to scramble into them while gliding toward that cold ocean.
I wonder what these two were thinking as they watched their survival gear sink with the aircraft?
I have seen many crews/pax flying the North Atlantic dressed in their street clothes with their liferaft & survival gear (if any at all) buried underneath their luggage. I guess these folk rely on luck and their cellphone.....
The Arctic and its ocean is a very unforgiving environment, to treat it in a cavalier fashion will work most of the time because of increasingly reliable aircraft, satphones, gps and so on but when it does decide to bite you in the arse you will surely die unless you are undeservedly fortunate or have prepared for it properly.
I would love to know what the circumstances were surrounding this accident. Were they wearing immersion suits? Which suits were they (without feet and gloves and hoods? ) Did they have a liferaft, which? Survival gear, what? How/where had they stowed their raft and survival gear in the cabin? How much time did they have following their engine failures? Etc etc.
I suppose I should be curious about the cause of the engine failures but I am really much more concerned about the level of preparedness of people flying in the Arctic.
If the Canadians who go and look for these folks manage to find them alive that is the best ending possible. If it is determined that they did not adequately prepare then the Canadians should send them a bill. Or leave them for the bears.
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Old 12th Dec 2008, 03:02
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Piston engines are flown all over Canada at temps below -30. You just need to care for them after shutdown (engine covers and heaters etc).
Yep, otherwise shutdown for the winter. Doesn't work if you are in it as a viable business. I have lots of hours in SE at -40. You do need some local knowledge and a properly modified aircraft. Beyond that it is fun; there is nothing like the raucous snap of a C-180 or 206 two blade prop on takeoff at -40! And the increased performance is a real thrill.
First guess is their engine breathers froze and blew out the oil.
Second is fuel blockage from water in fuel. There are some preventative measures for that which I won't discuss.

Last edited by Tree; 12th Dec 2008 at 03:16.
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