Air Ngukurr Chieftain Down
 

Just saw on the midday news a Air Ngukurr cheiftain forced landing on the sand dunes in Darwin. Anyone know what happened ??? Dont tell me Shonkey was flying

PURELY SPECULATION HERE
 

WARNING......WARNING......This is purely speculation on my part. It might well be some time till we hear the facts of the case.

Wonder if it might have been an inboard / outboard fuel starvation problem. The only knowledge I have about the accident is the picture I saw on the midday news also.

If I am correct, any new PA-31 drivers beware; most operators expect you to leave approximately 10-20 L per side in the outboard fuel tanks to keep the rubber cells intact. If for some reason the outboards should be selected and the pilot fail to return to inboards before take off, double engine failure will be nicely timed to coincide with a taxi from somewhere like the Darwin Northern GA to approximately 300' (perhaps a little too high if you were smart enough to do an intersection departure.........again I do not claim to know if this is what happened in this case........ At that point, the apparently simple solution of selecting the opposite tanks (should be inboard) can be wrought with peril as the tank selectors are down on the floor.

I hope everyone is OK, in fact I also hope my speculation is off the mark.........:(

news.com.au

Plane crash lands on beach
August 10, 2004

A PILOT walked away unharmed after crash landing his plane on a Darwin beach today, police said.

The pilot made a forced landing at a deserted beach in the Nightcliff area about 9am AEST today, a Northern Territory Police spokeswoman said.

The pilot of the Air Ngukurr plane had flown from Bathurst Islands and was en route to Darwin airport when he issued a mayday call.

"The pilot did a really good job in avoiding possible injury," the spokeswoman said.

The Navajo Chieftain plane suffered slight damage to a propeller and was airlifted to nearby Coconut Bay for repairs.





wheres Coconut bay?:}

Air Ngukkur Chieftan Lands on Darwin Beach
 

On news.com.au right now is a story of an Air Ngukurr Piper Chieftan which has made an emergency landing on Nightcliff beach, Darwin. The pilot (named as Hone) was unhurt and walked away.

No further details on the immediate cause at the moment but but no doubt reports will start flooding in from the Darwin crew.

Aux Starvation
 

True it could have been AUX starvation.

It is for this reason that the company I fly with currently that we change to inboards at Top Of Descent and plan the fuel burn from the outboards as the number of minutes prior to TOD. If it was fuel starvation then there is simply no excuse.

Leaving 20lts in the AUXs is a standrad practise by a lot of operators I have seen but still there is no excuse in running them dry. Someones head should roll. :) :)

Ang ;)

There by the grace of god go I....

:rolleyes:

Bevan..

Report from news.com.au

Plane crash lands on beach
August 10, 2004

A PILOT walked away unharmed after crash landing his plane on a Darwin beach today, police said.

The pilot made a forced landing at a deserted beach in the Nightcliff area about 9am AEST today, a Northern Territory Police spokeswoman said.

The pilot of the Air Ngukurr plane had flown from Bathurst Islands and was en route to Darwin airport when he issued a mayday call.

"The pilot did a really good job in avoiding possible injury," the spokeswoman said.

The Navajo Chieftain plane suffered slight damage to a propeller and was airlifted to nearby Coconut Bay for repairs.

Is it fair to say that due to the individual alledgedly involved in this incident, the authorities will be investigating very thoroughly?

Is it also fair to say that the investigation itself will be scrutinised closely by other parties, again as a result of parties alledgedly involved?

You're the one telling the story lackov!

Nice working on getting it down safely...

Why do the media always have to be so dramatic?
Aren't crashing and landing two very different things? Especially when the only damage is to the props.

http://ntnews.news.com.au/
 

http://ntnews.news.com.au/

The pilot was praised. Lets hope this is true. What casues massive engine failure after flying 38nm? 1) Double crank failure, 2) Double too much air, 3) Double catastaphic of some sort.

What
 

Surely you jest.

"Aren't crashing and landing two very different things? Especially when the only damage is to the props."

So by your definition it was not a crash landing. GET REAL. There will be more than prop damage. Especially after the way the chopper set her down. Maybe internal engine damage? Maybe some underside damage.

Well done to safely walk away . The wierd thing is these things happen in threes in the N.T. 1 Tanami, 2 Coconut Grove, 3 ???????


Sheep

So much for multi-engine reliability! A machine is only as safe as it's operator.

What will casa do after this occurrence?

Will we see new regulations, no regulatory action (apart from enforcement) or maybe new management systems?

You know with CASA's new focus on scientific/statistics based approach to safety regulation (problem based regulation rather than theoretically based) one would think that there could be a "new" approach to stopping fuel exhaution/starvation, because it happens so often. I'm not suggesting that this is the cause in this case. However, it is one of the deadly five factors in common crashes.

As an industry we need to come up with "new" idea's on how to prevent fuel starvation/exhaustion for all levels of industry, regardless of compliance standards.

Hasen't some engineer ever invented an emergency fuel system or something?

Actually, I remember seeing an "extra" mixture cable in a M.A.F C206 some months ago. The pilot said the cable; when pulled will allow fuel to flow freely from the tank direct to the injectors. Therefore bypassing fuel selectors, pumps, auxillary pumps etc. I bet M.A.F also has lower insurance premiums on their C206.

What a great idea?

U2

Glad to hear he wasn't hurt....................physically:ugh:

There will be more than prop damage boys. Try to bulk stips for starters ($100 to 140 thousand).

Anyways, he'll be more valuable now to the company having been through this unfortunate ordeal.......................if he learns by his mistakes .....................had it been his fault??

cheb

Cherubgrinder

Shonky learn from his mistakes. I would like to see that.
It'll be interesting to hear the report from the investigation. CASA will be licking their lips.
:suspect:

Chieftain
 

Who was flying again???????

Oh.

NEWS
 

Just got sent a copy of last nights news.
Interesting.
Anymore informed information from anyone?
CASA investigating?
Company still operating?

Hmmmm....Gravity fed fuel injection on a C206....I'd like to see that..:suspect:

Still doesn't resolve the problem of too much air in the tanks though, does it.:ouch:

Only solution that comes to mind is better planning, which is usually a result of better training and more experience. Can't legislate dumbness out of the human equation.....of course, all this in relation to this event is presumptive of the pilot running the engines out of fuel - fuel starvation or fuel exhaustion - and there has been no word on the event from ATSB so perhaps we should not presume?

Whatever the cause I would suggest that based on the recent history of the engines fitted to Piper twins and the still ongoing dispute between relatives of those killed and Lycoming over the cause of the fatal double engine failure accident in the Spencer gulf, the investigation will be ultra thorough and will get down to microscopic detail. Legal parties all over the globe could be hanging their hopes on findings from this accident, should the results turn up something other than the obvious suspected cause.
I couldn't give a crap about all that anyway. I don't know the pilot or company history, don't care but I reckon that he did an amazing job of parking the thing and walking away. One cool pilot under pressure.