Reported now as being a Twin Commanche.

Manx.net with IOM Department of Transport Press Release

-j34-

It's cold in that sea in summer let alone this time of year..
How great to see a speedy recovery with no loss of life.:D

Great job, cool:D airmanship.
Not that it is important but since it was "Alpha November" and Manx registered, putting one and one together, the airplane that qualifies mostly is M-ALAN, a PA.30 Twin Comanche....

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9259/malan.jpg

I was banned for a week for doing that:ok:

Yeah, I think you were banned for doing it when someone died Phill..........

A good ending!
 

Same aircraft and driver came into Blackpool a few years back on one motor!:}

I think there's only one Twin Com on the M register, but can't be sure so there's no guarantee the aircraft in the image above is the incident aircraft, though the registration does almost fit with an earlier post.

It will be interesting to find out if the pilot had an immersion suit or raft - I would have thought an immersion suit to be less likely with a twin than a single, in which case proximity to the standby vessel would be a very significant factor.

It does make one wonder what the common cause of failure was. There is, of course, an obvious explanation, which would not compute with the heroine status of the pilot, so it must have been something more subtle. Fuel icing maybe?

It's a mystery, but give it time and the mystery will solve itself!

Well done pilot :)
 

A job well done to everyone involved!!!

Not trying to be the AAIB on this but it has been reported to the public as a double engine failure, the first thing that sprung to my mind was maybe a fuel selector issue with it having tip tanks (Please excuse i am not 100% sure on the fuel system of a PA30 ). Fuel icing may have been the issue but would it not of shown earlier in the flight. A friend of mine down south who has a PA30 (with out tip-tanks) who i contacted to make sure they werent involved came out with when i mentioned it was reportedly a double engine failure that it may of had ice blocking the tank vents which he said can be common on this type.

At least the pilot lives to fly another day and tell the tale.

Once again thumbs up to all that assisted the speedy recovery!!!!:ok:

Karl

karl, you said it yourself. Don't be AAIB. Don't speculate. You have NO idea what happened, and if you don't even know the systems of the aircraft don't try to be clever and quote what some bloke down the pub said that someone had said to him in the queue at the bookies...

A quote from an owner of a similar aircraft who may have significant experience of the type hardly falls into that category!

Whatever the cause, the ditching sounds to me like a hugely impressive bit of airmanship and piloting skills. Has the aircraft been recovered? I suspect perhaps not!!

Aircraft Recovery
 

I don't expect recovery to be a major problem. With those empty tanks I'm sure the aircraft will float for quite some time :oh:

JAR.....naughty, naughty...!!! One huge bit of luck in her favour was the weather conditions at the time, with the big high over the UK little wind and therfore flat sea for the past few days.........a differant out come in 30kt wind and 3 metre sea!!!!

I suspect she was wearing an immersion suit - if so, very good planning.

When I did my HUET course, I was told that unprotected survival time in UK latitudes in summer was about 2 hours, in winter about 20 minutes (if you're lucky).

Rumour on another forum says no survival gear being worn

I hope she reads PPRUNE and will care to tell her full story here.

One hell of a woman!

Lets wait for the AAIB to produce some findings. I suspect they might not find too much wrong with the aircraft, or too much 100LL remaining in it.

Dunno if theyll find anything wrong with the aircraft or not - it rather depends whether they've got scuba gear or not... :rolleyes:

And that's the second time you've made a scurrilous, baseless accusation. Would you want people to gloat and cast aspersions over any incident in which you are involved in the same way?

Just watched a report on the local news here, sorry I can't remember the ladies name but her hubby Alan Burrows should be known to a lot of you. Alan was interviewed with her. I met him a few years ago at OBA in Florida while I was hour building pre-RAF discharge. She was wearing a dry suit and got into the dinghy before rescue and seemed very calm about the whole thing. Whatever the cause, she was well prepared for disaster and obviously ditched well and got out safely/well kitted. :ok: