eriknorth
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2002
- Posts
- 148
Tonight was a pretty sobering experience for me. I borrowed my friend's digital camera to go to the airport to get some pictures of the flight line and such for my flying club, when a lady pulled up right beside me and asked if "that plane" was crashing, pointing to the edge of the airfield. Sure enough, there was a Beech Sierra nosed over in the grass. It looked like from where I was standing the wing was off, but it was just the right main that had collapsed. My flight instructor, another student, and I ran out to the site while I was on the phone with 911. That is truly a scary feeling not knowing the condition of the pilot and passengers, if any. The pilot turned out to be unhurt, which was a huge relief. He had lost his engine on takeoff and was at only 400AGL when it went out. He did a great job putting it down though, considering his low airspeed and altitude. He clipped a powerline as well. Bent the prop up and messed up the gear and wing. The crazy thing is that after hearing what was his engine failing, my flight instructor mentioned that that was the sound of an engine going out, but he couldn't see the plane at that point. Ironic. I'll tell you, though, that cured me of any "couldn'thappentome" syndrome that I might have had.
