Fly low. Low bridge. Uh-oh! Wire(s)! Sand bar landing.

[mikea]

Santa Rosa pilot and his son had a lucky escape after their tandem seat plane hit power lines, flew under a bridge and landed on a Russian River sandbar near Duncan Mills on Friday afternoon.

....

The plane flew under the Duncan Mills Bridge, which stands about 50 feet tall, Baxman said, before it landed on a sandbar around 4:30 p.m.

Joseph Perez, 57, a wireless technology consultant of Santa Rosa, and his son Adam Perez, 22, were standing outside the damaged twin engine experimental tandem-seat aircraft when the rescuers arrived, Baxman said today.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/16/BA1HV44TQ.DTL

• under bridge
• wires
• wireless
• twin-engine tandem experimental

I need ta go ta bed now.

 

[Shipoke]

CAN YOU SAY ...... STUPID......
Dave G

 

[Steve]

www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080216/NEWS/802160393/1033/NEWS01

The plane, an azure-colored 2002 Hardie Steven Aircam with tandem seats and dual engines, was left on the sandbar overnight, CHP Sgt. Robert Mota said.

"The impact was minor and the plane is off the road," Mota said. "My guess is they'll deal with removing the aircraft in the next day or two."

The plane trailed several hundred feet of copper electrical wiring behind it as made a hard landing. Mota said it was unclear why the plane was in trouble and if the pilot had landed because he had struck the wires or had hit them while coming down.

PG&E spokesman JD Guidi said power to 395 customers was cut by the accident. The lines were expected to be fixed around midnight.

Highway 116 was closed for about two hours while emergency and PG&E crews investigated and began work on the downed wires.

Perez is a private pilot rated for multi-engine and instrument aircraft, with five years' experience with the Air Force on air crew duty, according to his online resume.

 

[Richard]

What is with the knee jerk responses? Until more is known, you just don't know.

Honestly, I get the idea that many of you think anything outside of S&L, from paved rwy to paved rwy is to be considered foolish and reckless.

 

[Shipoke]

What is with the knee jerk responses? Until more is known, you just don't know.

Honestly, I get the idea that many of you think anything outside of S&L, from paved rwy to paved rwy is to be considered foolish and reckless.

What i'm calling STUPID is flying under a 50 Ft bridge Richard.
I like landing on Grass strips.
Dave G

 

[etsisk]

it sounds like he hit the wires first, then trying to get down ended up flying under the bridge - in other IOW, it sounds like he didn't have a choice in the matter.

 

[mikea]

it sounds like he hit the wires first, then trying to get down ended up flying under the bridge - in other IOW, it sounds like he didn't have a choice in the matter.

OK. So he wasn't low until he hit the wires? Wanna bet?

 

[Richard O]

Does anyone else find it ironic that a wireless technology consultant hit wires?

 

[mikea]

Does anyone else find it ironic that a wireless technology consultant hit wires?

I did. That's why I highlighted it twice.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

What's interesting is the comments folks left on this article...

Any guesses as to what "twin engine tandem experimental" this might be? I can't think of any.

 

[mikea]

What's interesting is the comments folks left on this article...

Any guesses as to what "twin engine tandem experimental" this might be? I can't think of any.

http://www.aircam.com

The one in question:

 

[TangoWhiskey]

http://www.aircam.com/

Thanks Mike! I just saw that in one of the comments on page 3, too.

 

[ScottM]

Typical "General Aviation" (Read: small plane) clowns playing around and risking your life and mine with their antics. These people have enough insurance money so that if anything happens their insurance will cover it Of course, if they hit a house or schoolyard, it's, "Oh, we're sorry..." Too bad they can't be banned, but only rich people fly these planes, and $$ talk more than common sense.

SIGH!!

 

[mikea]

Typical "General Aviation" (Read: small plane) clowns playing around and risking your life and mine with their antics. These people have enough insurance money so that if anything happens their insurance will cover it Of course, if they hit a house or schoolyard, it's, "Oh, we're sorry..." Too bad they can't be banned, but only rich people fly these planes, and $$ talk more than common sense.

SIGH!!

Oh, wow. Don't let the tree huggers know we're also burning fuel with 4+ times the LEAD on 1960s Ethyl and tossing that into the air... :yinyang:

They should ban these small airplanes. Then when Mr. "kill small planes" can't fly out of Oakland because there are no pilots he could learn another California unintended consequence, like banning nuke planets leading to brownouts.

 

[ScottM]

Mike: Oh! Please fix that quote. I would hate to have people think that I wrote that tripe

 

[Teller1900]

The plane trailed several hundred feet of copper electrical wiring behind it as made a hard landing. Mota said it was unclear why the plane was in trouble and if the pilot had landed because he had struck the wires or had hit them while coming down.

It's pretty clear to me...he was trying to steal the coper wire but just misjudged the altitude a bit. Kind of like a banner pickup gone wrong!