Emergency Landing | Baggage Door Blow Off Mid Flight | Model K

[RedSkyFlyer]

22nm after take off, mid point between Charlton Park(Private) & Fairoaks (London) the baggage hatch blow off which then could caught & wrapped it’s self firmly around the right hand tail elevator. We immediately lost lift and declared an emergency with ATC who had us on a basic service, lucky we were within distance of a 770m grass / gravel strip between some solar panel farms. Other than the damage to the elevator and hatch looks like we were extremely lucky to walk away unharmed.
 

(3:52) in the video

 

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by RedSkyFlyer
770m*

[Flash]

Wow. Great job getting yourselves and your plane safely on the ground.

[EricJ]

Glad you're safe!   Good job getting it on the ground.

 

[epsalant]

Did you have any elevator control? How hard was the landing? Was directional controling issue?

Nice job!!!

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[epsalant]

Sorry that should be was directional control an issue?

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[ragedracer1977]

Wow!  Good job getting it down safe

[MB65E]

Nice airmanship! Was any amount of trim helpful? Was the door locked? 
-Matt

[Hector]

Wow! I’ve heard of the luggage door opening inflight on several occasions, but I have not seen/heard of one hitting the stabilator and actually getting lodged in the stab. Good job getting down safely. Would like to hear more about the controllability of the aircraft from the time the incident begins.


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[RedSkyFlyer]

Door was latched not locked outside. Gave everything a good tap & tug in preflight and checked over my shoulder at the inside latch on power checks , all ops normal. The AC only came back from annual ARC yesterday which is playing on my mind. 

With the debris on the wing and the new hole in the fuselage I could feel the extra drag (you can see me fighting the yoke with two hands in the video) the AC wanted to roll right and pitch nose down, it was a challenge to keep her level, the trim definitely helped. I tried to keep the air speed above 100kts all the way round until final putting out the gear and last notch of flaps at the last second 10ft above the ground.

[LANCECASPER]

Wow! Good job getting on the ground safely and remembering to put the gear down after all of that.

[Seth]

Good job. Amazing job. you kept your cool and dealt with a drastic situation.

-Seth

[prflyer]

Great job getting the airplane down. So glad you are safe. Incredibly scary situation.

Fernando

 

[kmyfm20s]

That has to be a first! I have heard of the baggage door popping open many times, coming off maybe a few Times but wrapping around the horizontal stabilizer, never! 
Glad you got it to the ground safely! You had me worried with the gear!!
I used to always lock the baggage door before flight until recently since I have been flying with the kids in the back seats. I felt like the benefits of being unlocked out weighed the risk of the door coming open with back seat passengers. With only the front seats full I always lock baggage door.

[kortopates]

A first is right! Doors popping open in flight from being unlocked is not that uncommon, but getting caught on the elevator has to be a new first! So glad you got it down okay and had such a nice field to roll out on without incurring any more damage. That horizontal stab and door are replaceable but not you! Good job managing a terrible situation all the way through it!

Edited May 31, 2020 by kortopates

[ArtVandelay]

Glad you’re OK...looked like was a bumpy flight, I’m guessing the bumps shook the door open.

Did you hear the gear horn and waited to put the gear down or did the wind make it hard to hear?

[gsxrpilot]

Holy Shit Batman! Nice airmanship there!

[ArtVandelay]

Just now, kortopates said:

A first is right! Doors popping open in flight from being unlocked is not that uncommon, but getting caught on the elevator has to be a new first! So glad you got it down okay and had such a nice field to roll out on without incurring any more damage. That elevator and door are replaceable but not you! Good job managing a terrible situation all the way through it!

Actually his elevator looks ok, the horizontal stabilizer is toast.

[MooneyMitch]

WOW!  Excellent airmanship.............you performed perfectly under an extremely stressful situation. 

[ArtVandelay]

WOW!  Excellent airmanship.............you performed perfectly under an extremely stressful situation. 

Not according to the first comment on YouTube.

[Rwsavory]

Hat’s off also to your co-pilot.  Well done! 

[shawnd]

Followed "Keep Calm, Carry on" Assessed the situation, determined safe landing field, made the radio call and landed w/ gear down. Perfect airmanship!

[PT20J]

5 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

Not according to the first comment on YouTube.

Which just goes to show that one should never post on Youtube! Noise coupled with controllability issues will challenge your airmanship. I had an aileron control issue in an C-150 Aerobat coming out of a hammerhead years ago and I still recall that not knowing what had broken or if the airplane would suddenly become uncontrollable was very mentally challenging to deal with.

Nice job getting it down safely. And, kudos to your copilot for staying cool.

I wonder what happened? If the latch comes loose, the door should fly open and get bent but stay attached by the hinge. From the video it doesn't appear that the door came unlatched and then beat around a lot before departing -- it seems to have departed abruptly. I notice in the pictures that the piano hinge pin is missing and it looks like part of the hinge on the door is missing or bent.

Skip

[cferr59]

That is some pretty tough gear. Not exactly what I have heard about Mooney gear!

[Joe Larussa]

Holy Crap!!!

[0TreeLemur]

That was one rough landing.   They walked away!  Hurray!

Notice that he remembered to put the gear down right before he lands...   Good on ya!