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Small Plane Crashes on Emergency Landing (VIDEO)

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When this French pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in a field, he was unable to land perfectly and crash-landed instead, rolling over multiple times. Luckily, no one was injured in the accident. (www.liveleak.com) More...

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TonyFletcher
Tony Fletcher 12
Here come all the ICNTSB* investigators. (Internet Comment National Transportation Safety Board)
THRUSTT
THRUSTT 5
He screwed up by flying at an aerodrome with trees and furrows. There were probably bunnies in the furrows too...
BurntOut
BurntOut 4
I take comments as an opportunity to learn. I ask myself 'what would I have done in that situation?' I live in a big city and do all my flying at an airport with 10,000 feet of concrete runway and that seems just as wide. So an engine failure in a C152 at takeoff is plain vanilla compared to what his bloke had to contend with. I didn't know about the 'land parallel to the furrows' (see below).

This is not to say that all comments are created equal, "some are more equal than others."
SmokedChops
SmokedChops 9
appears the engine locked up (catastrophic internal failure) fuel starvation would be a gradual stop. The pilot's situational assessment of 'merde' was spot on.
pilot62
I know straight out on engine fail, but the road on his left was just a slight bank and he would have been fine. Alas, I'm arm chair coaching :)
Celiamorais
Célia Sousa 2
I was happy for the pilot...UFF!
joelwiley
joel wiley 2
A good landing is one you can crawl away from?
Bernie20910
Bernie20910 11
No, a good landing has been redefined as one you get your luggage back from.
bentleg
Good outcome, but far too fast on approach. Should have swapped air speed for altitude, (basic training?) then looked for the best spot and landed at slow speed. Might have saved the plane as well if he had done that.
JimHeslop
Jim Heslop 1
I think I probably would have done the same, what with it being generally flat terain. Get down to a safe altitude with speed, hold just above the field and let it bleed off speed until approaching the stall. It could really ruin ones day if it stalled at 50' AGL.!
flygirl620se
It's easy to armchair quarterback when it's not your butt in the drivers seat with a dead fan up front. He got it on the ground without killing himself or anyone else. I was taught "to Hell with the plane, do what you have to do to survive". Lives are always more important than the machine. I give kudos to the guy for walking away. The GoPro in the cockpit and posting on social media is another story.
dtarm1
He FORGOT to turn the fuel selector switch to ON it's that simple and it happens to a lot of pilots who shouldn't fly.
donjohnston
donjohnston 2
How did he start the engine, taxi and take off if the fuel selector was off?
n3502w
Brad Benson -5
There's generally just enough fuel for that in the fuel lines.
donjohnston
donjohnston 4
I shut the fuel selector off on my Cessna and it was about 30 seconds before the engine stopped. Granted different planes have different fuel systems but being able to do the startup, taxi, runup, takeoff roll and still have enough fuel would require some pretty long fuel lines.

Besides, when the engine stops from lack of fuel, the prop will tend to windmill. This one stopped completely which would be the case of a major internal failure.
bentwing60
bentwing60 2
Actually many low wing homebuilts and otherwise have a small feeder tank that is plumbed directly to the boost pump then engine driven pump. Usually a pint to a quart capacity, so just about right. And go out sometime in a Rotax powered or any other small high compression, small prop, geared engine and shut off the fuel selector and see how long the engine motors. I think you'll be surprised.
jimmax23
Jim Maxwell 1
I'd think the prop would windmill if it were just fuel starvation.
am60s
Tim Baker 1
Private pilot training is almost the bare minimums needed to get into the air.
Is "Trading airspeed for altitude" taught in basic training? Was pilot training known for this fellow?

Gaining altitude to create more time to scope out the situation is true, then a new thing called a stall is the next thing to stay away from.

Maybe this airplane is a problem, extremely clean airframe and what looked like lots of wing area. Lowering the nose too much and speed rises fast. Too fast and you overfly the chosen landing spot, too slow adds stall/spin to the equation.
gonzo680
G. Kent 1
So, like, what does this Merde! Merde! Merde! mean anyway? Is that French for Mayday Mayday Mayday or what?
harmgb
harm buning 2
Well.....sh it comes close ;)
BurntOut
BurntOut 1
He took off from the grass strip. You can hear the engine sound change a few seconds before it stopped. When he sees that he's going into the trees on the first bounce he shouts "shit shit shit" (merde in French). He then goes over the trees and you can hear the trees hit the plane. Then he turns to the left and I believe his left wing tip dug into the dirt and this is what flipped the plane. The caption at the end says the pilot is well and didn't get a scratch.
bentwing60
bentwing60 4
What flipped the plane was touching down at an angle to the plowed field and little bitty gear. In a tail dragger, if you drag a wing on a smooth surface the result is usually a ground loop. And what Wallace and joel said! Like to have seen what position the fuel selector valve was in. About the right time for a small sump tank. Whether he got a scratch or not, everybody that insures an airplane did.
BurntOut
BurntOut 3
So in a forced landing situation fly parallel to the waves and furrows - good to know.
n3502w
Brad Benson 1
Of course.
ravanviman
hal pushpak 1
Merde. Must be French for "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" eh? (Sorry, I just couldn't resist!")
dabeed
Dave Fisher 1
actually, 'mayday' comes from the french: m'aidez (help me)
ravanviman
hal pushpak 1
Sorry, it was my feeble attempt at levity! Merde=Oh-shit=Mayday..
shootandfly
Hey thats exactly what happened in the the video!! Glad you told us cause I couldn't see.
sentinel91101
Heinz Loewen 1
Very LUCKY man...
ddeckner
pre flight check OK? Oil pressure?
knutvm
Knut Meyer 1
OK, so the engine failed, but he forgot the basics: 1) From what appeared to be level flight at high power and high speed he did not attempt to gain altitude with the surplus speed, and 2) He appeared not to establish best glide speed for the approach to land. I speak from practical experience and thousands of hours of flight training.
ColinSeftel
Colin Seftel -1
It's time commercial aircraft had a video camera positioned on the flight deck, as on this GA plane.
avihais
Martin Haisman -2
Looks to be a well executed force landing just the field gets rough.
n3502w
Brad Benson 3
And he's wayyy to fast.
shoepuke
shoepuke 2
Not exactly, unless the only criteria are getting down and surviving. Hard to measure how lucky he was to survive at that speed.
theworm
Robert Austen 2
I would agree. Too fast. Consider that he completely overshoots the first field, and is forced to pull up to clear the trees.

As others have pointed out: convert excess speed to altitude, trim for best glide, pick and commit to a field, on "final" trim for your landing speed (pick a speed that give control but also minimizes kinetic energy, e.g. 10% less speed = 20% less energy in the impact), don't stall, don't loose control, and keep it straight.

Bob Hoover said something like "fly the airplane as far into the crash as possible".
bentwing60
bentwing60 2
Not exactly.
WALLACE24
WALLACE24 10
Looks a WEE bit fast.

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