Grumman Avenger down in Cocoa Beach, Florida
 

Sad to see a Grumman Avenger ditch just off the beach today at the Cocoa Beach Air Show. Looked like an engine failure, followed by a text book ditching. Pilot seemed to be OK. Looks like it was from the Valiant Air Command group.

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/249862

Nicely done in the circumstances. Hope they can fish it out before any further damage is done...

Nearly hit a swimmer, popped over him. That is always the problem ditching in shallow water close to a busy beach. Pity the water there was also deep & the aeroplane sank. I suspect it will be a write off, but hopefully repairable. Luckily no one hurt.

Maj. Nelson should be able to sort that.

Video of the landing is now on BBC news
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-56792530

Pilot is ok, declined medical treatment. Water depth about 1 meter. At the very end of the ditch, it looks like an abrupt stop as the nose stuffs into the sand. Fwiw, same type of plane President Bush was shot down in during WW2, then rescued by submarine.

Salute!

Previous poster might explain the brief rise in the glide angle to avoid a swimmer. Then the final impact a little more of a mush.

Local TV has several videos, including one by a TV dude from the station. This is first airshow for the Thunderbirds 2021, and the Space Coast is BZ this week with another Crew Dragon going to the ISS on Thursday.

https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/wa...lands-in-ocean

I was surprised the TV dude did not show the crew getting out and the beach folks helping as they normally do here in Florida when a swimmer is in distress.

Gums sends...

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b7d536f687.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d530d0df1a.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....9ef87acde5.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d907518f23.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....fb14fb7e94.jpg

Pictures by Amber Ditmer posted on Facebook.

Think the climb might have been last lot of flaps down,and just avoiding the swimmer...
However,it was a good ditching,but..
Open the canopies before touchdown..
Wear a lifejacket operating over the sea...
Wear a `hard-hat`,as the canopy rail runs right across the top....
and if you don`t and it had turned over....would`ve been possibly a different outcome....but ,hey ..ya gotta look good climbing out....shame he`s not wearing Randolphs...

Oh ,yes ,I do have TBM display time,and over the `oggin....and Randolphs...

She’s out of the water.

https://spacecoastdaily.com/2021/04/...ed-from-ocean/

A restored Boeing 307 Stratoliner ditched in Elliot Bay off West Seattle back in 2002 when it ran out of fuel on the way to Boeing Field (I know one of the pilots involved - never dared to ask him about it though).
It was hauled out of the water, cleaned up, and was flight worth again about a year later. It was flown to Dulles where it's currently on display at the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy museum.

td, Stratoliner report here.

https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/Re...ctual&IType=FA

Nice to see all those folks on the beech socially distancing and wearing masks.... Nice landing, it was only flown last year after an 18 year rebuild.

Lucky to have escaped those swimmers only by a tight margin.But it might be the lens.
It looks like done in the smoothest way possible and everybody could walk away. This is what matters.

Nutloose, it's Florida. If Darwin had come here instead of the Galapagos, evolution would still be a wild theory...

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....9ee22312f4.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6a360ebed2.jpg

That's a lot of damage. Interesting how the paint peeled off the cowling...

That is poor. I’d be demanding the whole aircraft be redone if I didn’t have larger issues to deal with. I’ve had to deal with salt water immersion before and that is going to take time and deep pockets to sort.

I believe the restoration team took 18 years to restore it and it only flew again a few months ago. I feel for them, particularly the volunteers. They must be crying in their beers.

FWIW My immediate reaction on seeing the video was horror at the risks of hitting someone in the water. The length of the ditching run may be short, but the chances of not seeing and landing on a swimmer were high. I suspect many non-aviation people will think the same once they’ve finished marvelling at the video, which is widely distributed, getting as far as The Sun. Of course, the pilot may have had little choice or time for anything else - he had passed down the beach at low level earlier at the same event and the prop seems to be slowing - but it is an interesting counterpoint to the “the hero pilot bravely stayed at the controls to steer the crashing aircraft away from houses” that we often hear.

Surprised they never used spreader beams on the slings to prevent some of the damage from the lift. It needs a lot of fresh water putting through it followed by something like ACF 50.

May I ask a stoopid question?

When the aircraft stopped on the surface, would (in an Avenger) there have been a 'blow-down' facility on the gear? Obviously I get why it wasn't down before then. (It works on a Vulcan, I saw it in Thunderball!)

CG