Aussie Westwind ditches at sea-at night, all survive . . .

[robbreid]

Nov 19/09 Australia.

A CareFlight medical evacuation flight operated by Pel-Air Aviation from Apia (Western Samoa) to Melbourne was scheduled to land at Norfolk Island for a planned fuel stop on Wednesday evening when it encountered deteriorating weather conditions.

After several unsuccessful approaches and with diminishing fuel, the pilot-in-command, Captain Dominic James, made the decision to carry out a controlled landing onto the water off the coast of Norfolk Island.

The aircraft, a specially-equipped medical retrieval Westwind jet carried out a successful landing on the water and the patient, accompanying spouse and two medical crew as well as the pilots evacuated safely. They were rescued by boat and brought to the local Norfolk Island hospital for observation. The Captain reported that all passengers and crew did not have any apparent injuries.

John Sharp, Chairman of Pel-Air Aviation said that he was very proud of the Captain and the First Officer. “They performed an intricate landing on water in darkness resulting in the evacuation of everyone safely and quickly. The training of both the Pel-Air and CareFlight crew came to the fore as everyone kept together and remained calm. Their professionalism stood out on the day and made a substantial difference to the outcome.”

“I also want to thank the rescue team and the local authorities for their prompt action and dedication which resulted in a speedy rescue and evacuation to the hospital.”

CareFlight Chief Executive Officer, Derek Colenbrander, said the successful outcome was testimony to the skill and training of the pilots, the prompt action of local authorities and the efforts of the medical team in continuing to care for their patient.

Arrangements are being made for the patient to be repatriated to Australia.

[robbreid]

News Story from Times On Line.


VH-NGA this is aircraft involved.
Pel-Air Aviation operate a large fleet including 9 Westwinds.

VH-NGA IAI Westwind 1124A of Pel-Air Aviaiton Pty. Ltd. Sydney Australia.

[Jastapilot]

2 things:
1) Great job successfully ditching!
2) WTSMF was their alternate??!?

[ogc]

2 things:
1) Great job successfully ditching!
2) WTSMF was their alternate??!?

Nearest alrernate would have been at least 400 miles away, New Zealand or something.

Norfolk Island is not really close to anything.

The island is pretty small, it would be under the flag in this pic.

As you can see, nothing is very close.

[Jastapilot]

So is it safe to assume someone pooched the forecast?

[robbreid]

from diamondpilot blog;




from Aussie TV


arriving safely on shore.

[boeingboy]

During an hour flying above the island Captain James had made three failed attempts to land on the fog-bound strip,

Again - I have to ask why he spent so much time circling in bad weather - an 1124 should have enough range to make an alternate.

Awsome job putting it down in rough seas - but was it really nessecary?

[bezerker]

The two checklists in the book that I wanted to do the least:

[jjj]

What kind of approaches were available - ILS or some some lousy non precision?

Does anyone know what the forecast was?

Does anyone know what the weather was at the time the aircraft left altitude for the first approach?

[robbreid]

Weather about the time of the accident (10:00 UTC / 21:30 local):
YSNF 181030Z AUTO 16009KT 3000NDV // OVC002 19/18 Q1013= [10:30 UTC: Wind 160 degrees, 9 knots; 200 feet overcast; temperature 19 degrees C.]

Pilot, co-pilot, and medical passenger were without life jackets. Medical passenger was a 'walk-on' with an infected cut of some sort?
Boat captain stated it was total darkness, however they spotted a light from one of the life vests.

[Benwa]

The Westwind is probably one of the best airplane to ditch with the mid-wing... Good job keeping everybody un-hurt... not sure about the planning though.

[Doc]

They don't call the Westwind the "J*W-CANOE" for no reason! Maybe that moniker will gain acceptance now?
Nice job everybody involved! I don't need to see the wx for the area at the time to know these guys made a very difficult, and terrifying decision. That would be one frightening situation. Good thing they had the airmanship, and intelligence to ditch while it was their choice, before the jet became a glider.

[On condition]

The Yom-Kippur Clipper!

Glad everyone is okay!

[ogc]

Here is a link to the Runways in question.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s ... 1&t=h&z=15

[Joe Blow Schmo]

There must be something missing from this story. I can't imagine electing to ditch in the ocean at night as opposed to busting minimums and flying it down to the ground. Even if it is a non-precision approach. This is a small island with benign terrain and overwater approaches to 2 of the runways. If they were able to get the water in sight to be able to ditch, why didn't they fly at 50' back to the runway?

As for the alternate, they probably didn't have one. For remote airports you have 'island reserve'. 90-120 minutes of holding fuel to wait out the weather.

[Finn47]

According to this database, there´s no ILS but a VOR-DME navaid right at the centerline of runway 04, some 100 meters before the threshold markings:

http://worldaerodata.com/wad.cgi?id=NF19741

You can easily see the round VOR antenna setup in Google Earth if you take a look. Of course it´s possible the navaid was u/s at the time, or the aircraft´s instruments weren´t working. Anyone care to try approaching lining up with the VOR at 040 degrees and counting down to zero on the DME? I suppose he´d have tried something like it.

[Elliot Moose]

I've flown into Norfolk, and I wouldn't want to try to fly up the side of that hill in the dark and in bad weather. Lots of Norfolk pines around and it's a fair elevation above the sea on both sides. We were in there in the daytime (not great weather).
Here's pictures from the approach. Judge for yourself!

[ptc]

the news coverage (I am in New Zealand) of this accident has been quite interesting. On one side is the normal "hey great job, no one died you are a top gun pilot" and the other side is focusing on how the pilot apparently failed out of a Qantas interview and why he continued to circle until his engines flamed out due to fuel starvation.

[Donald]

Anyone care to try approaching lining up with the VOR at 040 degrees and counting down to zero on the DME? I suppose he´d have tried something like it.

With many FMS/GPS setups it could be done with a fair amount of precision, definitely better than "counting down to zero DME". In fact with a nice UNS setup, one could have flown a stable 3 deg glidepath to touchdown to any runway. Not legal, but better than swimming at night, imho.

[MichaelP]

why he continued to circle until his engines flamed out due to fuel starvation.

I think this allegation if true would explain ditching rather than busting minimums.
Or perhaps they did bust minimums on their approaches and got a fright?

Only recovery of the aircraft will give proof of a controlled ditching through fuel being in the tanks.
Aero Commanders, even 'Jet Commanders' probably glide quite well.
A glide approach to the Ocean which is both wide and long is probably better than to a relatively narrow short runway.

During an hour flying above the island Captain James had made three failed attempts to land on the fog-bound strip

For remote airports you have 'island reserve'. 90-120 minutes of holding fuel to wait out the weather.

Something's not adding up here...
Does the Westwind jet carry sufficient fuel to be doing this sort of work?