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Posted (edited)

http://www.wafb.com/story/35024002/no-injuries-after-small-plane-makes-emergency-landing-near-br-airport

Dr. Earl Douglas is a colleague of mine.   I was suppose to be at the meeting in Austin yesterday, but was home with the flu.  He did a great job of picking his spot instead of trying to stretch it to the runway.  Not a scratch on the plane.  It's a Mooney 231 BTW.  Earl your take offs still equal your landings!

Edited by Jimack
  • Like 8
Posted (edited)

And it was the smoothest landing you ever saw.

The trees were getting big in a hurry, but there was a clearing off to right, so I made a hard right turn and it handled like a Porsche and eventually came to a stop.  Just replaced cylinder #5.  The tempest fine wire spark plug broke and a piece of porcelain got between the piston and cylinder and messed all that up and broke a ring, so….

Tell your wife that a twin has twice the chance of an engine failure.  

Thx,

Earl  

Edited by Jimack
  • Like 11
Posted (edited)

Nice job and thanks for telling us about it. These planes do well in fields and even in trees and telling such stories saves lives. The stories you don't read about in the NTSB database are, in many ways, the more important ones to learn from. 

I lost both plugs in #4 on takeoff due to FOD and set down in a field once. 

Edited by Antares
  • Like 2
Posted (edited)

Nice Work Dr. D! :)

If you wait for important news to launch your first post... this is a good one.

Welcome out in the posting open jimack!

Best regards,

-a-

Edited by carusoam
Posted

It annoys me how the other video in that link was the "breaking news" tv segment, and they report he was low on fuel, so it would seem like pilot error. :rolleyes: I guess that gets more views than explaining how a spark plug failed. 

 

  • Like 2
Posted

I think you need to watch that video again.  The reporter clearly says that the fire department reported that the plane was running low on fuel.  Why would you blame the media for reporting the best information they had from what should have been a reliable source?  The text of the story gets the information right, as does the interview with the pilot.  This media outlet appears to have made every effort to provide an accurate report.

Posted

The pilot says the engine was making sounds and oil pressure went to zero.  Perhaps some kind of post-maintenance failure after cyl #5 was replaced (recently?) due to spark plug insulator breakup.

 

Posted
41 minutes ago, mooniac15u said:

I think you need to watch that video again.  The reporter clearly says that the fire department reported that the plane was running low on fuel.  Why would you blame the media for reporting the best information they had from what should have been a reliable source?  The text of the story gets the information right, as does the interview with the pilot.  This media outlet appears to have made every effort to provide an accurate report.

I noticed that also. Unfortunately the majority of the viewing public will believe the pilot ran out of fuel, another black eye to general aviation. In this case it probably won't matter much but when the media continues to get it wrong or deliberately reports inaccurate information, that is unacceptable. How many of you that run businesses can afford to get it wrong even 10 percent of the time? What about intentional deception? The media needs to set the bar a little higher.

 

Posted

Gotta differentiate between LA and Louisiana...I was expecting some sort of disastrous outcome in the middle of the densely populated metro area.

  • Like 5
Posted
6 minutes ago, jkhirsch said:

Gotta differentiate between LA and Louisiana...I was expecting some sort of disastrous outcome in the middle of the densely populated metro area.

...I was thinking Lower Alabama.

  • Like 2
Posted
8 minutes ago, Chupacabra said:

I noticed that also. Unfortunately the majority of the viewing public will believe the pilot ran out of fuel, another black eye to general aviation. In this case it probably won't matter much but when the media continues to get it wrong or deliberately reports inaccurate information, that is unacceptable. How many of you that run businesses can afford to get it wrong even 10 percent of the time? What about intentional deception? The media needs to set the bar a little higher.

 

There is absolutely no indication of intentional deception here. I would say that what they reported was accurate. They accurately reported what the fire department said. It seems like you should have an issue with the fire department as they are the ones who speculated incorrectly. 

The cause of this incident is clearly reported by this media outlet for anyone who cares to know. 

Posted
Just now, mooniac15u said:

There is absolutely no indication of intentional deception here. I would say that what they reported was accurate. They accurately reported what the fire department said. It seems like you should have an issue with the fire department as they are the ones who speculated incorrectly. 

The cause of this incident is clearly reported by this media outlet for anyone who cares to know. 

I agree, no intentional deception here. That's more of an issue with the national sources. Just saying that if your business is news, you should be as accurate as possible. The pilot stated what caused the emergency, the fire department speculated. The news people were lazy.

  • Like 1
Posted
Just now, Chupacabra said:

I agree, no intentional deception here. That's more of an issue with the national sources. Just saying that if your business is news, you should be as accurate as possible. The pilot stated what caused the emergency, the fire department speculated. The news people were lazy.

That was a live report less than an hour after the incident. They reported the information they had. Do you think they had access to the pilot or that even the pilot knew exactly what had happened at that point?  I seriously doubt it.

They made the effort to get the interview and provided an accurate write up once the information was available. I don't see anything lazy about this. Not following up would've been lazy. 

Posted
Just now, mooniac15u said:

That was a live report less than an hour after the incident. They reported the information they had. Do you think they had access to the pilot or that even the pilot knew exactly what had happened at that point?  I seriously doubt it.

They made the effort to get the interview and provided an accurate write up once the information was available. I don't see anything lazy about this. Not following up would've been lazy. 

I think you settled the debate in your third and fourth sentence.      You've now justified reporting immediately before cross checking sources is primary responsibility of the media...  Basically, it doesn't matter what is right or wrong as long as they are first to report to get exclusive viewership.      

If I were the pilot and could argue damages, I would explore legal action for defamation.  Unfortunately, law suits are the only thing that would make them think before reporting, because what is right or wrong obviously doesn't matter.

Posted
23 minutes ago, Browncbr1 said:

I think you settled the debate in your third and fourth sentence.      You've now justified reporting immediately before cross checking sources is primary responsibility of the media...  Basically, it doesn't matter what is right or wrong as long as they are first to report to get exclusive viewership.      

If I were the pilot and could argue damages, I would explore legal action for defamation.  Unfortunately, law suits are the only thing that would make them think before reporting, because what is right or wrong obviously doesn't matter.

So, nobody should report anything until two days after it happens.  Got it.

There is no defamation here by the media.  The media accurately reported what the fire department said and accurately cited their source.  If anyone was irresponsible it was the fire department for speculating.

Posted
I wonder if the spark plug was mistakenly dropped before installation...   I'm sure that is what tempest will allege

If true then it should have been noticed during runup, like to see the EM data for this one.
Posted
5 minutes ago, mooniac15u said:

So, nobody should report anything until two days after it happens.  Got it.

There is no defamation here by the media.  The media accurately reported what the fire department said and accurately cited their source.  If anyone was irresponsible it was the fire department for speculating.

So reporting an opinion of a completely unqualified source in addition to factual information provides some value to society?

Posted (edited)

WSJ regularly provides headlines on their website:

"Developing story: It is being reported x"

'We have no further information at this time, but when we do we'll provide updates here.'

No speculation, no bullshit.

And I've lost a lot of respect for the Journal through this election cycle.

Edited by jkhirsch
  • Like 3

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