Ditching must be Catching
 

Ditching on a smaller scale :O

Light plane makes emergency landing in Darwin Harbour | The Australian

Rusty

Interesting that it was a light aircraft with 7 people on board? There are not many that legally carry seven.

Was this a twin piston or turbine single? If a twin wonder why he lost both engines or couldnt maintain altitude on the one.

Regardless a landing well done and in the pics the three walking from the sea looked very relaxed.

Pace

Well done Steve :ok:

I think in Australia quite a few C207s (piston single, the 8 seat stretched version of the C206) are used for air taxi and sightseeing. There's also the piston Gippsland Airvan, made in Australia IIRC, a modern replacement for the C207.

brgds
421C

A 207 pilot in Queensland told me that the reason she bought it was that she could get three couples in it and that made it the most profitable aircraft for her flightseeing business.

Hi All

The aircraft in question was a PA31-350 (Piper Chieftain)

According to the news reports (not that you take them as gospel truth)the pilot had engine trouble shortly after t/o out of Darwin.

It would appear that the best option available was to put the aircraft down in the shallows/mud flats.

The PA31 is not a fun aircraft to fly on one engine, especially when you have a load on board. Sometimes you barely maintain altitude let alone climb.

A great job by the pilot involved!!!

NWF

Nosewheelfirst

Agreed the Navajo/Chiefton do not have the best single engine climb ability.
It is usually better at Grosse to go for an off airport landing than an attempted climb after an engine failure.

In the cruise they should be ok. I only have a few hours on the Navajo/ Chiefton so would be interested in its cruise behaviour engine out at Grosse?

The pilot did a good job of bringing her in to a successful landing and maybe another reason to consider a body of water rather than hard ground objects to land on.

Pace