A not successful freeway landing

HT_plane_crash_jt_160402_31x13_992.jpg


http://abcnews.go.com/US/small-plane-crashes-car-california-freeway/story?id=38106200
 
One died in the car, probably in the backseat, that little economy car only has like foot between backseat and the back bumper.
 
Looks like a Lancair or Columbia. Here comes the discussion on experimentals and where they can fly...
 
jkgoblue said:
Looks like a Lancair or Columbia. Here comes the discussion on experimentals and where they can fly...
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Why?

Recently I seem to recall more certified planes being put down on roads.
 
There are some places that don't like experimentals. Just saying.

Not me. I fly one.
 
Exactly... Because EABs aren't certified to land on roads, which is what makes them so dangerous ;)
 
you are absolutely correct, i was just going over the part 23 certification requirements for crashing on a road......

bob
 
For the amount of damage to the car, the plane looks to have held up extremely well. Also noted the car was parked on the side of the freeway when it was hit.
 
Unit74 said:
For the amount of damage to the car, the plane looks to have held up extremely well. Also noted the car was parked on the side of the freeway when it was hit.
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Eh maybe not. Perhaps they ended up there after motion stopped? :confused:
 
Hate to 2nd guess, but looks like there are viable spots next to that road to have put it down rather than on the road itself
 
That happened a few years ago on the 680 near Fremont. An Arrow departing RHV set down on the freeway and ran in to a car. Nobody died but a little girl in the rear seat of the car lost her leg.
 
JHW said:
Hate to 2nd guess, but looks like there are viable spots next to that road to have put it down rather than on the road itself
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Mountain or a golf course. Neither are really viable in a Lancair
 
jkgoblue said:
Looks like a Lancair or Columbia. Here comes the discussion on experimentals and where they can fly...
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And, while this accident is sad and tragic, roughly 90 other people died that day in car crashes that didn't involve an aircraft. But, some will still scream for bans on experimental aircraft, general aviation, etc.
 
I wonder at what speed the airplane collided with the car? If it truly was a Lancair IV then yeah I'd imagine that thing was hauling the mail on glide.
 
This is one of my biggest pet peeves, stopping 1 'away from 70mph traffic, putting your life at risk from something that should be done at an exit ramp. The signs say "emergency parking only"for a reason. All it takes is one driver looking at his radio or phone for a split second and swerving onto the shoulder to make it end in a bad way.


"The Nissan 4-door sedan was parked on the shoulder of the freeway so the driver could sync his Bluetooth with the car, Buchanan said. The plane skidded along the slow lane of the freeway for about 250 feet before crashing into the rear of the car, crushing Isbelle in the back seat."
 
teejayevans said:
One died in the car, probably in the backseat, that little economy car only has like foot between backseat and the back bumper.
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Umm, it was a Nissan Altima, which is not a tiny econobox. It's actually a reasonably large car by todays standards.

JHW said:
Hate to 2nd guess, but looks like there are viable spots next to that road to have put it down rather than on the road itself
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I fly this route very often. I'm based at CRQ and fly up the 15 to F70 any time I wanna fill up. Depending on your altitude, and your glide ratio, no there really isn't a better spot to land. It's quite hilly rugged terrain kinda in between 2 population centers. Also just up the road from my house.

Let'sgoflying! said:
second time, same freeway?
made headlines when it landed safely on a Southern California freeway years ago crashed on the same stretch of road Saturday,
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That is an odd coincidence, but it's also a very busy corridor. If the plane is based locally it probably flies through there a lot. Just like car crashes usually happening near home, I'd think the same would be true for planes crashing on their most commonly flown routes. Also notice that this stretch of freeway has been used by others multiple times. Kinda furthers the notion that there isn't really a better spot to put down nearby.
 
Sac Arrow said:
That's the one. Interesting to hear the spin placed on the end of the story about previous crashes.
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Citing similar but wholly unrelated stories is all the rage in media these days.

Marky_24 said:
This is one of my biggest pet peeves, stopping 1 'away from 70mph traffic, putting your life at risk from something that should be done at an exit ramp.
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Back in prehistoric times when I took driver's ed, they had us watch a police video of a local traffic accident that went down under similar circumstances. A big rig had parked in the shoulder and was just a few inches over the line. A passing motorist and his wife were trying to soak in the ocean view from the highway and weren't paying attention as their car drifted just a few inches into the shoulder. When the two vehicles collided, it threw the man and his wife forward as the wife's side of the roof curled downward like a cutting hook, opened her head, and scooped her brains right out. She just look asleep from the front. :(

I used to see cars broken down in the shoulder, the families sitting up the embankment out of harm's way, and wonder if it was really a worthwhile precaution or if they were pretty safe staying in the 4-wheeled spam-can. Now I think they might have called for help and been advised to climb up the embankment and wait it out in the noise and the hot sun, as getting rear-ended at 70MPH is gonna be worse than a little whiplash. My perception of the fragility of life has changed a lot in the last decade...
 
One of the main local channels, KUSI, had Bob Griscom on the evening news to answer questions of the typically sensationalist news "reporters." He was with FSDO here for years and went into private legal practice after retiring and is a local legend among those who know him. With his gravitas he did a magnificent job of keeping things sane during the little attempts at drama by the reporters during the interview.

KUSI in fact did a rather nice job of pointing out, with news footage taken at the time, that there have been five successful freeway landings just in recent history. The Lancair IV is hangared just behind me. He hasn't been flying it a lot lately. Was doing a run-up down at the end of the hangar row yesterday and I was told the engine sounded fine.

I sure like keeping an airport within gliding distance when around urban areas (and non-urban areas as well, by flying quite high). That's not hard to do around SoCal, however he had just taken off a few minutes earlier . . . but he could have swung over towards Ramona on his climb out instead of following the freeway. That's what I do, but each to his own.

In any case, had it not been for that car parked on the side of the road while the guy fiddled with his cellphone, it would have been a non-event. Just horrible bad luck.
 
ollopa said:
I used to see cars broken down in the shoulder, the families sitting up the embankment out of harm's way, and wonder if it was really a worthwhile precaution or if they were pretty safe staying in the 4-wheeled spam-can. Now I think they might have called for help and been advised to climb up the embankment and wait it out in the noise and the hot sun, as getting rear-ended at 70MPH is gonna be worse than a little whiplash. My perception of the fragility of life has changed a lot in the last decade...
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When I was younger I wouldn't think twice of stopping to help change a flat, but recently there have been several incidents where the good Samaritan gave their life when someone clipped them while assisting. I'll leave it to the AAA guys and assist trucks that can properly close the shoulder.
 
MikeS said:
One of the main local channels, KUSI, had Bob Griscom on the evening news to answer questions of the typically sensationalist news "reporters." He was with FSDO here for years and went into private legal practice after retiring and is a local legend among those who know him. With his gravitas he did a magnificent job of keeping things sane during the little attempts at drama by the reporters during the interview.

KUSI in fact did a rather nice job of pointing out, with news footage taken at the time, that there have been five successful freeway landings just in recent history. The Lancair IV is hangared just behind me. He hasn't been flying it a lot lately. Was doing a run-up down at the end of the hangar row yesterday and I was told the engine sounded fine.

I sure like keeping an airport within gliding distance when around urban areas (and non-urban areas as well, by flying quite high). That's not hard to do around SoCal, however he had just taken off a few minutes earlier . . . but he could have swung over towards Ramona on his climb out instead of following the freeway. That's what I do, but each to his own.

In any case, had it not been for that car parked on the side of the road while the guy fiddled with his cellphone, it would have been a non-event. Just horrible bad luck.
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Which airport are you/he based at? I didn't see mention of where he departed from in the news stories.
 
I don't get pulling over on a freeway to connect your phone. I wouldn't do that. Whenever I see a car pulled over on the side of the highway for no real reason (non emergency) I think to myself how unsafe that is. There are plenty of accidents that happen where cars smash into a car parked on the side. What rotten luck. If it hadn't been for a car being there this would have been a non event, just a case of a successful off airport emergency landing.
 
bikert said:
I don't get pulling over on a freeway to connect your phone. I wouldn't do that. Whenever I see a car pulled over on the side of the highway for no real reason (non emergency) I think to myself how unsafe that is. There are plenty of accidents that happen where cars smash into a car parked on the side. What rotten luck. If it hadn't been for a car being there this would have been a non event, just a case of a successful off airport emergency landing.
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How about the nitwits that miss an exit on a freeway, pull over and then try to back up to it. I'm sure more than a few here have seen that.
There's no way to legislate common sense...
 
bikert said:
I don't get pulling over on a freeway to connect your phone. I wouldn't do that. Whenever I see a car pulled over on the side of the highway for no real reason (non emergency) I think to myself how unsafe that is. There are plenty of accidents that happen where cars smash into a car parked on the side. What rotten luck. If it hadn't been for a car being there this would have been a non event, just a case of a successful off airport emergency landing.
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Unfortunately people don't think, we are so used to good outcomes that we tend to get complacent and don't think about things like this. The shoulder of a limited access highway is a bad place to be stopped.
 
> "Which airport are you/he based at? I didn't see mention of where he departed from in the news stories."

KSEE, Gillespie Field

> "How about the nitwits that miss an exit on a freeway, pull over and then try to back up to it."

What's wrong with that? o_O
 
Nobody in the airplane died...could be called a successful outcome, depending on how you calibrate your success-o-meter.
 
bullwinkle said:
Nobody in the airplane died...could be called a successful outcome, depending on how you calibrate your success-o-meter.
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The aeroplane came through the collision remarkably intact...considering it's a homebuilt experimental and the car is highly engineered and has to meet federally regulated safety standards and tests.
 
GRG55 said:
The aeroplane came through the collision remarkably intact...considering it's a homebuilt experimental and the car is highly engineered and has to meet federally regulated safety standards and tests.
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Unfortunately, except for the cockpit itself, "intact" is not something you generally want in a collision. You want the vehicle to absorb as much of the energy it can over a long distance to reduce the G forces caused by impact. Of course the cabin/cockpit must be strong and stiff in order to keep the occupants from being crushed, but you want the rest of the vehicle to look as crumpled as possible in order to dissipate the energy as slowly as possible.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
Unfortunately, except for the cockpit itself, "intact" is not something you generally want in a collision. You want the vehicle to absorb as much of the energy it can over a long distance to reduce the G forces caused by impact. Of course the cabin/cockpit must be strong and stiff in order to keep the occupants from being crushed, but you want the rest of the vehicle to look as crumpled as possible in order to dissipate the energy as slowly as possible.
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In this case, the plane used the car as it's crumple zone.
 
bullwinkle said:
Nobody in the airplane died...could be called a successful outcome, depending on how you calibrate your success-o-meter.
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Not sure if serious...but 1 person on the ground died. I wouldn't call that a "successful outcome".

Following that logic if a car smacks into a bus of 20 people and 20 people on the bus die but the car occupants live, was that a successful outcome too?
 
Caramon13 said:
Not sure if serious...but 1 person on the ground died. I wouldn't call that a "successful outcome".

Following that logic if a car smacks into a bus of 20 people and 20 people on the bus die but the car occupants live, was that a successful outcome too?
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For the car? Yes. It's still a "success" per the design intent. You can't always predict the actions of others or quality of another product, but you can try to make YOUR product or outcome safe.
 
Marky_24 said:
This is one of my biggest pet peeves, stopping 1 'away from 70mph traffic, putting your life at risk from something that should be done at an exit ramp. The signs say "emergency parking only"for a reason. All it takes is one driver looking at his radio or phone for a split second and swerving onto the shoulder to make it end in a bad way.


"The Nissan 4-door sedan was parked on the shoulder of the freeway so the driver could sync his Bluetooth with the car, Buchanan said. The plane skidded along the slow lane of the freeway for about 250 feet before crashing into the rear of the car, crushing Isbelle in the back seat."
Click to expand...


I thought the same thing, that is a dangerous place to stop your car for an unnecessary reason.. like doodling on your phone. Not saying the driver should have been expecting a plane, but that is an easy place to get hit by a bus or a semi.
 
Pilawt said:
Here's the stretch of freeway where this happened. Not a whole lot of options for an airplane that lands at high speed.
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I see plenty of choices that are preferable to the road.
 
RyanShort1 said:
For the car? Yes. It's still a "success" per the design intent. You can't always predict the actions of others or quality of another product, but you can try to make YOUR product or outcome safe.
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Right I see your point :). Still, I would not consider this a "success" for anyone involved. Plane totalled, person dead, etc. Now if you want a success, look at that guy who put the arrow down on a highway, hurt no one and walked away and that plane will fly again. That was a successful outcome all around.
 
I can't even handle the stupidity in the comment section of that article... And these people vote and operate cars around me.
 
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