lucky escape after collision and beach landing in Holland
 

De Telegraaf 10 September 2012 by Eric the Brouwer, WASSENAAR, Monday (translation from Dutch).

Hans van der Linden, “Apparently it was not my time.”

"I have at least one angel on my shoulder and probably more than a dozen. What has happened here was too bizarre for words. An accident like this is nine times out of ten fatal. I'm happy to have enough remaining control to make a landing. Apparently it was not my time ...”
So says the 56-year-old professional pilot Hans van der Linden from Goes after the accident near Wassenaar. In the incident, Saturday, three aircraft were involved. Van der Linden, with 35 years of flying experience, made a scary emergency landing on the beach at Meijendel, near Wassenaar.
Hans had departed early afternoon from airport Middenzeeland with his Husky for a banner towing flight to advertise the CDA (Dutch political party). His route was northwards along the beach to Amsterdam. On the way, he saw that there were two other aircraft, which had departed Rotterdam. A Piper Cub with a banner of the SP and a Cessna 172 that was filming the SP advertising.

Near Wassenaar the 'film set’ Cessna was in collision with the Husky of Van der Linden.

"the exhaust of the Cessna burned two holes in my Left wing, in addition his right wheel hit the ailerons on my wing” said Hans.
“My Husky was for 40-50 percent uncontrollable and I went into a nosedive. Due to my experience and luck, I was able to land on a quiet stretch of beach.”

correction: damage was to top of left wing and left flap caused by Cessna right wheel and exhaust.

What on earth were they doing so close together.

I presume once a banner is on the back your classed as reduced mobility so then any other powered aircraft has to give way and stay clear.

Video of the event:

NOS Nieuws - Beeld van de vliegtuigbotsing Wassenaar

Another angle:

RTL Nieuws - Beelden vanuit cockpit botsend vliegtuigje (video)

Must have been all that crazy Class A airspace above where nobody can get a VFR clearance to enter controlled airspace.

The result is that all that VFR traffic is compressed below.

Unless the ATC attitude problems change, this will be a sad fact of life.

Good call putting it straight down on the beach.....very lucky escape for all....

Banner towing is mostly done at low altitudes anyway, you know.

Another good reason not to wear `hi-vis` jackets whilst flying...

Watching the NOS video, it does seem that both aircraft are travelling in the same direction. The Cessna catches the Hysky (Hysky pulling a banner) from the Hysky's above rear (Hysky blind spot) and then from a position already far too close, descends onto the Hysky left wing. Cessna had good visual on the Hysky for at least a couple of minutes and was aware of its presence (Cessna actually filming the Hysky).

by the grace of God.

And by the grace of Mr. Frank Louis Christensen it is a Husky and not a Hysky.

Also, I understand that the C172 was there to film the third plane - chartered by the same customer, a political party, and not the Husky, which started from another aerodrome and had been chartered by another political party.

If I got that right. Politics are so complicated these days. Almost as bad as low altitude flying.

I Cannot imagine any acceptable reason for the Cessna being flown that close to the Husky, particularly from that direction. Poor judgement flying like that puts people and aircraft at unjustifiable risk, and gives aviation a bad name.:=

If the Husky pilot managed to land with one flap extended, and the other retracted, that was an amazing demonstration of piloting skill.

Argument* among locals has it that the C172 and Husky might well have been unaware of each other's presence, having started from separate fields and hired by different customers.
It also seems that only two of the three planes carried an active transponder, so that no radar operator could have warned them, either.


* see: Vliegtuig maakt noodlanding op strand bij Wassenaar - Airwork - in local Dutch language, mind you.

yes indeed, the news opportunity of having the banners promoting competing political parties CDA and SP has not been lost on the Dutch media (no significance to the accident).

Normally for close formation flights the parties are obliged to enter into prior agreement.

While this was the case of the Cessna and Piper Cub. The Husky was an independent flight and had no such agreement.

The Cessna should maintain normal minimum separation 500ft.

Wasn`t everyone on the same frequency,operating in the same area...?

I've not seen the ultimate answer to that, but AFAIU it all happened in non-controlled (class G) airspace, thus no mandatory radio operations. Even if they had all been listening to the local FIS (Dutch Mil.? Amsterdam Info?), none might have reported their presence or position, there was no legal requirement.

Jan O,

I would like to believe that an aircraft pulling a banner in VMC would be readily visible.

If not, then next time I take to the skies, a series of flares will be discharged.

I would have my doubts if transponders under ground controllers would help in this situation. An airline type TCAS warning - designed for a different situation - would have long ago gone to RA status. As we know from long dialogues the Dutch controllers request transponders off near Schiphol airspace - just when we most need their protection.

And what if they were? Unless you broadcast your position and flight vector with GPS accuracy every 10 seconds or so that's definitely not going to help you in any way. The real question is: what was the 172 pilot looking at all the time? He obviously wasn't looking straight ahead or he would have had plenty of time to spot the other plane.

Ciao,

Dg800

Couldn't agree more. Unless the controller is actually providing a separation service to both aircraft ATC will have neither reason nor the available manpower to constantly scan random targets for potential conflicts.

I do believe that is no longer true. It was the case for some time as the systems were overwhelmed with the sheer amount of targets, but the issue has been dealt with a long time ago. Regardless of transponder status this would not have helped them in any way as neither aircraft will have been fitted with TCAS. Only looking where you're bloody going will keep you (reasonably) safe in a purely VFR environment.

Ciao,

Dg800

"See, and be seen"

A Husky towing a banner along the shore in VMC meets the obligation of being able to "be seen".

The Cessna was obviously carrying at least a passenger who "saw", why did the pilot not see?

I think that radar, transponders and radio advisories are a much less important aspect than simply watch where you are going, and avoid other traffic! And, by the way aircraft which are overtaking, shall give way the the aircraft being overtaken!

The NOS video unfortunately starts a bit too late to know what the Cessna was doing earlier on. It was shot (by a fixed/mounted camera?) from the right hand side. Given the relative position of the two a/c, the Cessna pilot probably wouldn't see the Husky from his seat.

That said, it all begs the question - where were the guys in the Cessna looking earlier? Why did the right seat occupant not warn the pilot? Was he looking backwards at/for his 'target' (the way I understand it he was there to photograph the *other* banner tower)?

Anyway, glad to hear it ended well, great flying on the behalf of the Husky pilot, perhaps not so by the Cessna guy.

PS: I cannot open the other video, so no idea if that gives a clearer picture of events.