Young pilot lands airplane on highway

[flight17]

Extremely happy that he made it down in one piece, great landing and looking back at it - it's impossible to critique as he made it down without killing or hurting anyone. Looked as though there were a few fields he could have chosen from. By landing on that highway, he put even more lives in danger and was most likely thinking about saving the plane. It worked this time, and hopefully won't need to be tested again.


I hope I never have to put my money where my mouth is, but I hope I do the right thing and put myself before the plane, if I ever need to make that decision.

I dont really think he did... its pretty standard to land on a road rather than a field in that case. Departing rwy 10 out of BVI, if we are below 300ft agl, we are to land on route 51. if we are below 1000ft agl, then we try to turn back and make the runway, if we are above 1000ft agl we go for Interstate 376.

Departing 28, we have a golf course and route 51 in the other direction. three or four years ago, there was a c172 that lost his engine and landed on the golf course.

[Tupac]

Out at boerne stage airfield we dont have any options. If you are departing runway 35 and you lose you engine you have two options.
1. Trees
2. IH10

Freeway is your best chance if youre not above 1000 AGL (Like flight17 said)

edit: departing 17 your only option is to turn back, otherwise you end up in the trees. If you dont make it to the runway after you do a 180, you will still end up in trees either way.

[MachFly]

First, he's a moron.

Could not have said it better myself.

[CAP1]

First, he's a moron.

I really want to talk to someone who is actually giving the advice to "declare an emergency" and crash a flyable airplane to find out their thought process because it's wrong.

If you're still flying with that club and that moron is still there the both of you should come over to our hangar.  Load him up in the baggage compartment so he won't touch anything and fly over to Coatesville.  I'll buy the both of you lunch and some popcorn to hear what his experience really is.

 he was "spoken" to about that. he no longer works there. i think it was within the week that he was gone.

 i unfortunately haven't been up in a couple of years, and now that i'm finally getting busy again, i'm catching up my bills before i can go up with a cfi again.

[CAP1]

Out at boerne stage airfield we dont have any options. If you are departing runway 35 and you lose you engine you have two options.
1. Trees
2. IH10

Freeway is your best chance if youre not above 1000 AGL (Like flight17 said)

edit: departing 17 your only option is to turn back, otherwise you end up in the trees. If you dont make it to the runway after you do a 180, you will still end up in trees either way.

hammonton nj. i forget the runay number, but basically north. engine failure on takeoff.......2 choices.....woods, or find a way to make it back to the runway.

[Golfer]

I hit you up for car advice and you've saved me a few hundred bucks so I could troubleshoot. I'll trade you services and I'm even reasonably confident that I won't let you kill us in a 172.

[Lepape2]

How come I havent heard of this before? These guys have the same accent as me (they speak French), They landed on a highway (10th) thats 5min away from me and I recognize these two mountains! That's right next to me lol!

[dedalos]

Extremely happy that he made it down in one piece, great landing and looking back at it - it's impossible to critique as he made it down without killing or hurting anyone.

Really?  I have confidence in you.  I think if you tried, you could do it 

Looked as though there were a few fields he could have chosen from. By landing on that highway, he put even more lives in danger and was most likely thinking about saving the plane. It worked this time, and hopefully won't need to be tested again.

Ahhh, see, all you had to do was try 

[fbEagle]

Extremely happy that he made it down in one piece, great landing and looking back at it - it's impossible to critique as he made it down without killing or hurting anyone. Looked as though there were a few fields he could have chosen from. By landing on that highway, he put even more lives in danger and was most likely thinking about saving the plane. It worked this time, and hopefully won't need to be tested again.


I hope I never have to put my money where my mouth is, but I hope I do the right thing and put myself before the plane, if I ever need to make that decision.

I thought u weren't critiquing? And he did do the absolute right thing if u notice all of those fields had trees and you don't know how firm or soft that field is. There were only a few cars it was the perfect spot for a emergency landing. the cars can stop/speed up. trees dont move.

[B4Buster]

There was enough room to land in those fields.

Like I said, that was my opinion. No situation is the same. He saved the plane and himself, so you can't say he chose wrong. I did not say he chose wrong, or he should have done it differently.

fbeagle - most drivers are oblivious to what is going on in front of them, let alone what's coming in behind them.

[colmbo]

Roads look very inviting, and in some cases may be your only option, but roads are very hazardous.

Traffic will be an issue.  My plan was to look for a gap in the traffic, keep enough speed to round out and float very low over the cars so they'll see me and land in front of them -- with a little luck they won't be talking on a cell, texting, eating lunch or putting on makeup and hit your from behind.

IMO the biggest threat from roads is wires.  Lots and lots of electrical and telephone lines co-located along roadways and crossing roadways.  You won't see the wire until you hit it -- look for the poles.  Try not to cross an interestion -- more likely to having wires crossing the road.

I've been lucky, in all my engine failures I've been over an airport -- although the 3 times on takeoff I was a bit low. 

[icepac]

Wires!!

Whenever I drive a highway, I still scan for wires and contemplate how an emergency landing would go.

Many of the US interstates have silly amounts of high tension wires strung pretty high over them.

My check ride instructor took over the plane early on an emergency drill and proceded to  "show me the wires we would have hit" only to have the "phone poles" turn into sprinklers that went under the plane about 1 second later.

He stopped squeaking and sat silent on the way back as I stifled the urge to ask him if he can see beyond the windscreen.

[CAP1]

i'm actually pretty lucky in the area of nj that i live. pretty much everywhere i've flown, there's fields big enough to land on should the need arise.

[colmbo]

i'm actually pretty lucky in the area of nj that i live. pretty much everywhere i've flown, there's fields big enough to land on should the need arise.

You can land on a patio...it's that "walking away" and "using the airplane again" that complicates things.   

[CAP1]

You can land on a patio...it's that "walking away" and "using the airplane again" that complicates things.   

 yea i know.....but for the "overbuilt" reputation nj has, we pretty much have a LOT of open space. when i was up a lot, i flew out of n14. heading south, there were a couple fields, and there is atco raceway, then a couple more fields, then hammonton airport, then more fields, then the antlantic city expressway.......there are lots of places here in nj.
 i'm always looking....it's how i was taught.