Pilot hits house, crashes plane then gets up and drives back home

by Scott Carmichael on

Here is a wacky story from the aviation world; a pilot was flying his Cessna towards an air strip at the private Brookeridge Airport near Chicago, when something went wrong.

During his approach, he clipped a house, crashed into some trees and flipped his plane upon impact.

Luck was clearly temporarily on his side, because he was able to walk away, get into a car and drive back home.

When the police visited him at his residence, he was charged with operating a plane while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. After a brief visit to the hospital, the local Sheriff placed him under arrest and he is currently being held on a $100,000 bond.

Of course, it will be interesting to see how the police plan to prove he was drunk when he crashed as I’m sure it is not impossible that he had a stiff drunk to relax after being in a nasty plane crash!

Barenaked Ladies frontman survives plane crash

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Ed Robertson, the lead singer of popular Canadian band Barenaked Ladies, survived a crash of his Cessna 206 yesterday, in an accident that involved Robertson and three others. The plane, piloted by Robertson, was traveling over a rural area of southeastern Ontario when its engine stalled unexpectedly.

Robertson managed to set the plane straight and land it among some trees. The four passengers were forced to exit through a window but were not injured.

Robertson hosts a show on the Outdoor Life Network called “Ed’s Up,” which documents Robertson’s plane trips.

This should make for an interesting episode, huh?

More here.

Sudan Airways Airbus bursts into flames in Khartoum

by Grant Martin on

A Sudanese aircraft inbound from Damascus and Amman burst into flames on the tarmac yesterday in Khartoum as it was taxiing towards the terminal. News reporters are still sifting out the details, but it appears that the problem was not related to the poor weather near the airfield or any pilot error but rather a technical problem with one of the engines. At this point, it seems that one of the engines had a problem, ignited and the resulting fire spread throughout the rest of the aircraft.

The flight crew were fortunately able to evacuate about 170 passengers out of the Airbus 310 before the fire took hold. Initial reports of over 100 casualties have since been revised to 30 with only 5 pulled out of the wreckage so far.

As for the aircraft, the entire airframe has been consumed by the blazing hot jet fuel fire. Some reports indicate that the craft may have split in two on the tarmac as well, but those rumors have yet to be confirmed.

Sudan has a dicey history with air safety, and many feared that the problem was poor air traffic management or even terrorist related. At this point, however, the problem still appears to be technical. We’ll know more when accident investigators are able to get on site and track down the cause of the crash.

Bedlam at Heathrow ensues, as British Airways 777 shorts landing

by Grant Martin on

London‘s Heathrow Airport was cast into disarray today when a British Airways (BA) 777 landed short of runway 27 and nosedived into the earth before the tarmac. Several landing gear were sheared off while the airframe sustained significant damage.

Amazingly, there were no casualties in the disaster, with only a couple dozen passengers being taken to the hospital for minor injuries and one concussion. The rest of the passengers deplaned from the emergency slides. It is perhaps a testament to the pilot’s aptitude and performance during the emergency that nothing worse happened.

According to the most recent reports, the aircraft appears to have lost power on approach, resulting in the plane gliding silently under only mechanical control onto its belly.

Operations at Heathrow shut down completely following the incident, with a graduated return to operations over the course of the day. Despite the resumption, dozens of flights were canceled, stranding passengers inside of the already cramped terminal and overtaking lounges. I can only imagine how pleasant that was.

Heathrow expects to resume operations tomorrow as the investigation continues.

Plane Crashes onto I-95, Pilot Found Sitting in Cockpit

by Iva Skoch on

This is pretty unbelievable. Bob Roberts (love the name) crashed his small plane yesterday shortly after take-off onto the shoulder of Interstate 95 near Fort Lauderdale, FL. The rescue team found him sitting upright in the cockpit, injured but OK, while the rest of the plane was totaled. I bet Bob started believing in God that instant, if he hadn’t already.

Nobody on the ground was hurt, although I am sure the highway was backed up for hours as a result of some world-class rubbernecking.