Lighty down at Bankstown
 

Just saw on the SMH website that a light plane has clipped a fence on descent at Bankstown and lost a wing (one wonders about the angle they hit the fence on). Apparently pilot has been taken to hospital but no life threatening injuries.

Anyone got any better (more accurate) info?

from news.com
 

A PILOT escaped injury when his light plane overshot the runway and lost a wing in a crash landing at Sydney's Bankstown airport tooday.

The single-engined plane hit a security fence shortly after landing about 11.45am (AEST), an airport spokeswoman said.

"There was only one person on board the plane, the pilot, and he suffered no injuries," the spokeswoman said.

The airport declined to comment on the cause of the incident.

However, shortly after the incident, a police spokeswoman said it appeared there had been "undercarriage problems" with the plane during landing.

Police said the plane lost a wing during the incident.

The airport spokeswoman said the circumstances of the crash would be investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau

Would an undercarriage problem cause a plane to hit a fence?

Any more info?????

Aircraft type, Private or School aircraft etc.

TOJP.

Looked like a Warrior / Archer, blue & white in colour, allegedly a flying school aircraft.

Zap.

which fence did it hit? the one on the perimeter road? or the one around the soon to be built shopping centre?

Probably not!

But hitting a fence could cause an undercarriage problem!

Not sure which one it actually hit, but it came to rest 2/3rds of the way down 29L, off to the left side.

I have to admit I really don't like those lamp posts which run along the undershoot to the 29 runways. Yes they might be clear of the splay, but given their low visibility, students tend to get disturbingly close to them (when low) without taking any preventative action.

Yes it could.
If you are on short final and take your eyes off the approach to sort out an undercarriage problem.
Better to go round and sort it out at altitude and approach again......

Would an undercarriage problem cause a plane to hit a fence?

If the aircraft lost a wing as stated and the undercarriage is mounted to the wing, then it might be hard enough to fly that you hit a fence.

If the aircraft lost a wing you would drop from the sky like a stone. More likely the wing was lost as a result of the impact with the fence.

blowing a tyre on touchdown?

well thats fence 3, aircraft 0 since they built that stupid bloody thing.

Sooner or later its going to kill someone. Love the gear problem, in a warrior? I think it will come out later that he just lost the plot on approach and binned it. Least he's ok, was a solo student.

Good to hear that the Pilot is OK.

Bentleg
 

Bentleg, with powers of deduction like that you could almost get a job with the ATSB.
Almost that is, cause it wouldn't quite fall like a stone, more like a one winged plane spinning wildly outa control. :ugh:

I do agree with your more likely fence impact theory though.

But we shouldn't rule out other possibilities, maybe the wing (with U/carriage attached) was removed for maintenance, then lost in the system somewhere.

But in fairness that would be, lost the wing and U/carriage, as opposed to a U/carriage problem and then a lost wing.

Glad I don't work for the ATSB, tricky stuff this accident investigation stuff.

Do I detect a note of sarcasm in that last post?

(This must be a Friday afternoon!)

:suspect:

what I don't understand is, the wing was a good 20m from the fuselage and the fence. If the fence caused the separation of the wing, why is it over there?

Then again if the wing separated due contact with the ground (and one assumes its reasonably heavy contact, wings generally don't just come off when you ask them nicely) then why is the rest of the airframe so relatively undamaged?

This one has me scratching my head (like most do until I read the report written by professionals :) )

I've been told by a few people that the a/c was operated by schoefields but that is by no means verified fact.

I don't think VH-NRB is operated by Schofields. I think their only Archer is VH-SFR.

Would an undercarriage problem cause a plane to hit a fence?
 

Maybe Not but if the undercarriage hit the fence it would most certainly cause an undercarriage problem!!

I think???

Maybe it (the undercarriage) is still stuck in the fence with the wing still attached. I hope that the NTSB can find it!!