Lancair emergency landing on same highway in Cali, twice

[DanWEC]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/ ... -dead.html

Quite the story. Tragic ending the second time, had to land gear up for some reason, glad it wasn't worse.

[armchair]

Lancair IV... Quite the performance single.... A decent used Lancair IV can cost same or more than a ... MU2, and can come either with a turbocharge piston or a turbo prop, I believe. Bad day, wrong place wrong time, for this poor fellow and his passengers in the car. Reminds me of the Bell 206 in May 2008 which crashed on top of a pedestrian in Cranbrook BC - an international student from Kenya. Or that airshow jet in England last year, although driving on a highway near any active airshow increases the odds... slightly.

Landing on the belly likely prevented the Lancair pilot to steer the aircraft away from the car. Emergency highway landings are better for the crews, but certainly a significant risk for the highway traffic. I look forward to hear the preliminary findings on this one.

[ChrisEvans]

Sad outcome - apparently pilot was attempted to land in a field beside the freeway - as he got close - there were model airplane enthusiasts and power lines, he banked and landed on the side of the freeway.

The vehicle hit had 3 local roller derby women athletes - and a male driver - a 39 year old in the vehicle lost her life in the impact.

Tony Isibelle GoFundMe raised 15k in 1 day for the victims family.

The helicopter accident - I recall well AvCanada Thread - 4 fatal - including the 6' 9" student it fell on!

[DanWEC]

Sad. Engine failure and a belly landing? Pilot may even have forgotten the gear due to circumstances dealing with the emergency.
The gear is pretty standard electrically driven hydraulic. I don't know much about the plane, but from what I have read, a failure of the pump or loss of hydraulic pressure will cause the nose gear to extend and lock because of an air spring, but the mains will only partially free fall and not lock- they'll cave into the fuselage upon landing. Only way to lock them down is by using the manual pump handle. This is a solution to a pump failure but if there's a pressure or fluid loss it sounds like that wouldn't work. So the plane would still be mostly steerable but wouldn't have brakes.

[Redneck_pilot86]

Gear staying up would increase the glide, maybe it was a conscious decision.

[The Mole]

The Cranbrook crash was completely ignoring all low flying regs in Canada. BC hydro has radically change they way they operate helicopters.

[iflyforpie]

The Cranbrook flight would have been in compliance with CAR 702.22 and 722.22 had the operator submitted the required information to the municipality and TC five working days before the accident... and it wouldn't likely have had any difference in the outcome. As of today, you can still fly a single engine helicopter low level other than takeoff and landing over a built up area in full compliance with the CARs as long as you comply with those requirements--none of which specify a twin-engine helicopter. BC Hydro changed their inspections to be with twin engine helicopters over built up areas after this accident.

[Shiny Side Up]

As I recall the pedestrian in Cranbrook was wearing headphones at the time and joined the ranks of all the fatalities of people hit by vehicles choosing to be oblivious to the world around them. Helos make a lot of noise, so its hard to believe a person could be taken unawares by one, but then so do trains (which usually kill a few unaware pedestrians in Calgary every year, along with buses, trucks and cars.

Play heads up hockey people.

[CpnCrunch]

As I recall the pedestrian in Cranbrook was wearing headphones at the time and joined the ranks of all the fatalities of people hit by vehicles choosing to be oblivious to the world around them. Helos make a lot of noise, so its hard to believe a person could be taken unawares by one, but then so do trains (which usually kill a few unaware pedestrians in Calgary every year, along with buses, trucks and cars.

Play heads up hockey people.

You don't necessarily expect helicopters (or planes) to be falling out of the sky on top of your head though. Both of these accidents involved some really bad luck. Right now I'm talking to someone who is annoyed by planes flying over her house, and this recent accident was just mentioned by her. The problem is that people worry about this kind of thing, but they seem to forget about all the trucks that smash into houses, old geezers who forget which pedal is the brake and crash into shops in their cars, etc.