Highway or Field?

SkyChaser

SkyChaser

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You are flying a standard trainer, solo, and for whatever reason, you need to make an emergency landing. Your options are a busy highway or a sloping/bumpy field. Which one would you land on, and why?

It seems to me that landing on a highway would be dangerous for the people driving, but possibly safer/less damaging to the airplane, unless someone runs into the airplane with their car or the wing clips a sign or an overpass. I would probably take my chances on the field, as it seems like it might have a little more margin for error (unless I hit a big bump and flip the plane, or collapse the gear, or something) and less likely to be dangerous to others. Bad thought process?
 
Two lane country highway - likely going to hit something (based on my experience moving an airplane a couple miles to a better field).
Field, could be good, could be bad.
In most cases, I would go for the field.
But, don't ask us, ask someone who has done it 169 times.
http://www.utahsoaring.org/Documents/KaiOffAirportLandings.pdf

Note: Yes, this guy is a glider pilot. But if you are looking at an off airport landing, you are a glider pilot too.
 
Landing on a highway is a bit like the impossible turn. If you pull it off successfully, you are the hero, but success is far from guaranteed. Landing on a highway with traffic means your outcome hinges on a dozen or so individuals maintain a steady speed, individuals who may or may not see you. Possible outcomes cover the full range from not a scratch to the airplane to people die, including people on the ground. The odds for either outcome depend greatly on how busy the traffic on the highway is and the pilot's flying skills. The rest is luck - and keep in mind it's not something we can practice.

Compare that to landing in a field. Back when I was learning to fly gliders, our instructors would say "anything a tractor can drive on, you can land on in a glider". Maybe that's a bit oversimplified, but I would argue that in an airplane, most reasonably flat fields a tractor can operate on provide a suitable surface for a landing which is likely survivable. Given the choice, I would land gear up. And I would do what I can to stay away from tall corn.

I am not ruling out landing on a highway. If all other options are mountain or heavily built-up areas, a highway may well be the only choice.

- Martin
 
Depends...busy highway, probably not. Country highway, most likely. Gravel road, sure.

I’ve landed in enough fields that I wouldn’t be bothered by that. And I’d leave the gear down...it hasn’t been a problem so far. ;)

Corn would be noisy. Soybeans would probably flip you.
 
Local area I'm going road without question, because hey, it's local and I know what's happening.

En-route probably field, to take out the ambiguity

Destination (non-local) I would have some idea of roads around it.

So, Case by Case. or in consultant speak, "It depends"

If the traffic is moving and your descending at 60kts, you don't think they'll notice you and stop before they rear end you?
 
If I landed on the road, I’d likely get run over while stepping out of the plane. I trust knolls, rocks, and livestock more than drivers.
 
There seems to be a couple videos making the social media rounds lately about successful highway landings. One in Canada a few weeks back and another I saw recently (doesn't mean the actual landings were recent, of course). I wonder if this may influence folks to perhaps look for the highway landing and I wonder if that's a good or bad thing. I'm sure it all depends on the situation, as always.

Ravioli said:
If the traffic is moving and your descending at 60kts, you don't think they'll notice you and stop before they rear end you?
Click to expand...

I would think that on a standard highway, say an interstate, with multiple lanes of traffic moving the same direction as you at close to the same speed, the traffic behind you will see you and hopefully start slowing down. The traffic below you will have no clue. So I think they key here is to try and get low enough at a higher speed so that the people behind can slow down while you bleed off speed and that by the time you and the plane are ready to land the traffic is clear below you.

Lots of assumptions and hopes and perfect situations there, but I would think that's how highway landings that end well do it.
 
AU_James said:
Lots of assumptions and hopes and perfect situations there, but I would think that's how highway landings that end well do it.
Click to expand...

If you land on road, with or without impact with a vehicle, emergency services will be there faster than a rabbit gets ****ed. Fields? Not so much.
 
Many small country highways and roads have powerlines running quite close and parallel to them which may not be readily apparent from altitude, so keep that in mind if you choose this option.
 
If the field is muddy from the recent rains like right now everything in the midwest is if it is not underwater, road. Otherwise, field except if I have a choice, no soybeans.

Cheers
 
Looks like tall corn and soy beans are out... there goes my grand plan of choosing the fields
 
We have few roads and no fields here. Your choice in SE AK would most likely be
-rocky shore/beach or water close to the shoreline
-200+ foot trees/forest

for the OP's post most likely field
 
As always, it depends on a few factors, but generally speaking, I’d probably elect to put down in the field.
 
Human safety is MUCH more important than plane safety. Order of importance... the safety of other people you may endanger including your passengers and those on the ground below you, followed by your own safety, with the safety of the plane being a distant third. In general, seems like a field is the answer to me in most cases.
 
Landing on a busy highway is an opportunity to participate in an airplane crash and an automobile crash at the same time. Also an opportunity to collide with power lines, traffic signals, road signs, mailboxes, utility poles, etc.

If there's a large open field nearby, that's probably safer.
 
My instructor always told me that a highway is a trap, because other things (power lines and street lights) often go with highways. You also have overhead signs and traffic to contend with. He always told me go for a nice, soft field, preferably planted. If not planted, but plowed, then land with the plow rows and try to land tail low. But the "LoL" in my screen name stands for "Land of Lincoln," and not at the Chicago end of it. So you can imagine my training environment.
 
My brain, sitting safely on the ground right now, says "field". The airplane is owned by an insurance company.
Not sure what I'd pick if I were actually in danger in the air; I bet the road would be tempting to my lizard brain, and I'd have to really exercise self-discipline.
 
Palmpilot said:
The report said an engine failed. I wonder why he wasn't able to reach the airport on the remaining engine. The elevation appears to be only about 1000 MSL there.

Of course, the reporter could have been mistaken.
Click to expand...

I read the same thing. As a twin driver around here, OEI would be perfectly executable, especially in the vicinity of his intended airport LXT. But there could have been other factors - gross weight, experience, proficiency, etc. - that played a role in the decision to put it down on the highway. A rather busy one at that.

At least he’s down safe.
 
Palmpilot said:
The report said an engine failed. I wonder why he wasn't able to reach the airport on the remaining engine. The elevation appears to be only about 1000 MSL there.

Of course, the reporter could have been mistaken.
Click to expand...
Someone on Beechtalk said the prop wouldn’t feather
 
Field unless the highway was not busy at all... one advantage of the old 47 tailwheel was she was meant for pastures...

Corn is a great option- who cares about the plane it’s your hide... I’ve been told by a couple people that have landed in corn the corn slows you down like death of a thousand cuts- it’s death of momentum by 1000 little impacts... not a bad option when the insurance company owns the airplane anyway...
 
throw in night flight in the mix.. and all of these are out of whack
 
I made it to 320' and it couldn't climb no more.....

When I had my engine **** the bed I could have maybe done the roadway but its beach season and it was a friday morning, a little too busy. What the key factor is for the situation; you don't have time to think about it, make a decision and move forward to the next decision. taking time to second guess will get you killed. Hopefully you had a plan before you started the take off roll. If you didn't it will be a crap shoot.

So, I passed on the road and went for plan C, golf course fairway. We had so much rain the previous days I left the gear up and bellied in. I did this for two reasons, help stop before the trees, and I didn't want to stick a gear and flip with 80 gallons of fuel on board and turn us into burnt toast.

crash 1.jpg
 
Sorry about the plane! Glad you guys were safe!

Reading this has been very informative. I never would have thought about what was growing in the field as a factor to which field to pick. What if the fields are either tall corn or soybeans? Unless it's early summer, the fields are one of the two in my area. Or say the road is pretty deserted, but has deep ditches and electrical wires/telephone poles on the one side? Would you want to land to one side to avoid the wires, even if you could possibly go off the road into the ditch? Or just pick the field of corn/soybeans?

Or, in the city, has anyone ever tried landing in an empty parking lot or on top of a parking garage? I can't imagine trying to land on the interstate in the city - driving on one is bad enough!
 
I've heard discussion that beans (soybeans) will really grab the gear and flip you. Having relatives that farm soybeans, I would suspect that's true.
Never having landed in said beans, I really don't know.
 
In my mind order of preference would be:

Wheat or hay or pasture if not filled w cows etc
Corn
Bean
Muck field
 
I had to make that decision a couple of years ago. A mile long hayfield right next to the New York Thruway. I considered the highway, traffic was light and I knew there were no power lines, but the field was long, flat, and unobstructed... and turned out to be a swampy field with five foot high clump grass, so the plane cartwheeled upon touchdown. The plane was wrecked but I walked away. If I'd picked the highway who knows what would have happened?
 
I've know of a few planes that have landed on highways/interstate no problem. I think a Cirrus hit a truck in AR, but it was coming down by chute. Last field landing I am familiar with was an RV in a bean field that flipped. It would depend on the field and time of year. Right now any plane going into a field around here is going to be a mud submarine or flip, I'll take my chances on the road, land with traffic, most cars will be going close to your speed and will let you merge. Roads do have signs and power lines, I have also seen quite a few fields around here with lines running across them and usually the poles blend into the fields.
 
I deal with a few forced landings a year (insurance claims). Usually an open field is the better option in terms of overall risk. Roads have powerlines, cars,light poles etc.. I have seen perfect landings in both fields and highways where there was absolutely no airframe damage. Infact i've had a low wing flown out of the plowed field it landed in because there was no other practical way to do it. Usually landing on the highway totals the airplane and a couple cars but not always.

So I'd pick the field. Insurance can take the salvage and I'm not risking innocents minding their own business on the highway.
 
Geosync said:
I deal with a few forced landings a year (insurance claims). Usually an open field is the better option in terms of overall risk. Roads have powerlines, cars,light poles etc.. I have seen perfect landings in both fields and highways where there was absolutely no airframe damage. Infact i've had a low wing flown out of the plowed field it landed in because there was no other practical way to do it. Usually landing on the highway totals the airplane and a couple cars but not always.

So I'd pick the field. Insurance can take the salvage and I'm not risking innocents minding their own business on the highway.
Click to expand...

May also weigh in favor of fields if automated autos become more prevalent. Thinking they aren’t designing in any “heads up” software for planes coming in on the highway.
 
SkyChaser said:
You are flying a standard trainer, solo, and for whatever reason, you need to make an emergency landing. Your options are a busy highway or a sloping/bumpy field. Which one would you land on, and why?

It seems to me that landing on a highway would be dangerous for the people driving, but possibly safer/less damaging to the airplane, unless someone runs into the airplane with their car or the wing clips a sign or an overpass. I would probably take my chances on the field, as it seems like it might have a little more margin for error (unless I hit a big bump and flip the plane, or collapse the gear, or something) and less likely to be dangerous to others. Bad thought process?
Click to expand...
Too many variables. Different parts of the country = different terrain. Amount of traffic, poles, trees, wires. Did it rain in the last two days? How fast of a plane are you landing? Conventional VS tricycle gear? All kinds of things will inform that decision when it's your time to make that decision. Make sure you've been staying up with the variables and practicing "what if" in your mind.
 
Interesting question.

To answer, I’d like to know the percentage of successful landings from the totals of each choice. It “seems” like there are more ugly scenes with green than with asphalt/concrete, but that may be because more for folks opt for farm rather than road...but that’s why the percentage might be useful. While I have time to think about from my couch. But I live in West Central Indiana so there are more wide open spaces than wide roads.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
I’d like to know the percentage of successful landings from the totals of each choice.
Click to expand...
Don't know where you would find that kind of data. No wreck, no report.
The old man's airplanes - two put into fields, two flown out.
One he sold (one of the ones flown out of a field) - rail road tracks, destroyed.
Another previously owned - ditched, destroyed.
The airplane I did my retread in had previously been destroyed (per NTSB) when a student pilot put it in a field instead of on a runway. (First solo panic. Really.)
 
Back when I was training for my license, one of the flight school planes went into the soybeans. Landed no problem, they replaced the blown jug, paid the farmer to plow a 'runway' and flew it out. So soybeans can be landed in without flipping, in at least one case.

Learning to fly in the midwest, the CFIs said go for the soybeans over corn, and land with the rows. Across the rows is a bumpy ride.
 
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