M20C down near Longmont, Colorado

[Mooney in Oz]

Anyone know more about this one?

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/386654

Happened last Sunday.

[Shadrach]

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/single-engine-plane-emergency-landing-colorado-highway/
 

No metal bent.  Plane parked off to the side of the road awaiting possible repairs (or fuel). 

[0TreeLemur]

Most excellent outcome.   I've driven that stretch of highway many times.  At about 3:00 on a Sunday afternoon it should not be too crowded.  However, in the news video you can see an overhead power line across the road right where the airplane is parked.  As @whiskytango's experience has shown us, they can cause an easy emergency landing to become a difficult emergency landing.

There are lots of good fields to land in around there.  Many. 

[toto]

11 minutes ago, 0TreeLemur said:

Most excellent outcome.   I've driven that stretch of highway many times.  At about 3:00 on a Sunday afternoon it should not be too crowded.  However, in the news video you can see an overhead power line across the road right where the airplane is parked.  As @whiskytango's experience has shown us, they can cause an easy emergency landing to become a difficult emergency landing.

There are lots of good fields to land in around there.  Many. 

I would never want to second-guess a successful emergency landing with no injuries to person or plane, but I usually think of a highway as a last-resort landing option.  I wonder what factors led to the highway decision.

[0TreeLemur]

4 minutes ago, toto said:

I usually think of a highway as a last-resort landing option. 

A link to another thread discussing this very issue.  Highly recommend folks read what @whiskytango wrote.

 

[LANCECASPER]

14 minutes ago, 0TreeLemur said:

A link to another thread discussing this very issue.  Highly recommend folks read what @whiskytango wrote.

 

But yet @whiskytango walked away and there were no injuries. 

The pilot in the M20C on this post had no injuries and it doesn't look there's a scratch on the airplane.

Everyone in that situation makes a split-second decision that they feel is right at that moment. No way am I going to second-guess someone who walks away from that and say that I could have made a better choice.  I wasn't there.

 

 

In googling "highway landing airplane", these came up:

https://time.com/6564611/virginia-highway-plane-emergency-landing/

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/small-plane-lands-on-long-islands-southern-state-parkway/5153466/

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/single-engine-plane-emergency-landing-colorado-highway/

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/twin-engine-aircraft-makes-emergency-landing-on-u-s-80/3414552/

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=806377084222657

https://www.wtxl.com/traffic/airplane-lands-on-interstate-10-in-suwannee-county

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/small-plane-makes-emergency-landing-on-roadway-in-parkland/3225530/

https://www.wsaz.com/2023/07/15/video-shows-plane-taking-off-highway-after-pilot-forced-make-emergency-landing/

https://www.hurlburt.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3384104/highway-turned-runway-us-air-force-crews-land-on-wyoming-highways/

The only one that I found that had no chance was the Challenger in FL in February. The pilot and co-pilot died but the fight attendant and two passengers walked away and no one on the ground had serious injuries. The crew did a great job of avoiding a neighborhood.

 

 

And even this funny one: 

 

[toto]

1 minute ago, LANCECASPER said:

The only one that I found that had no chance was the Challenger in FL in February. The pilot and co-pilot died but the fight attendant and two passengers walked away and no one on the ground had serious injuries. The crew did a great job of avoiding a neighborhood.

I've wondered a hundred times whether the Challenger pilots would have walked away if they had left the gear up.  It's very similar to the recent Mooney accident where the pilot landed on a city street and slid into a storefront.  In both cases, it looked like a masterful emergency landing, but the rolling aircraft still had a lot of energy to dissipate, and the brakes weren't enough to prevent a collision on rollout.

[PeteMc]

52 minutes ago, toto said:

I usually think of a highway as a last-resort landing

I can't find it, but I think there were some studies that showed it was an old wives tale and there were excellent results with landing on a road.  Not talking about a stop'n go roads, but more open roads with less traffic.  So a rural area like where this plane landed is a perfect example. 

Wish I could find where I read or heard this...

 

[toto]

5 minutes ago, PeteMc said:

I can't find it, but I think there were some studies that showed it was an old wives tale and there were excellent results with landing on a road.  Not talking about a stop'n go roads, but more open roads with less traffic.  So a rural area like where this plane landed is a perfect example. 

Wish I could find where I read or heard this...

 

My fear is always about the power lines that you can't see until you're right on top of the road.

[PeteMc]

4 hours ago, toto said:

My fear is always about the power lines that you can't see

I was taught to look for the power POLES.  Yes there could be lines running across long distances, but usually they put poles along the road to give them a little more stability in that area.

And to be quite honest, you could be lining up for a real nice long field and get down to the "threshold" and find a power line running along the edge of the field right in front of you.

 

[Hank]

7 hours ago, PeteMc said:

I was taught to look for the power POLES.  Yes there could be lines running across long distances, but usually they put poles along the road to give them a little more stability in that area.

And to be quite honest, you could be lining up for a real nice long field and get down to the "threshold" and find a power line running along the edge of the field right in front of you.

You're more likely to find the field has a ditch or two across it, or even a fence in the middle of it. I remember a C model ran out of fuel near AVL a few years back, landed in an open field and was doing well until hitting the barbed wire fence separating the field in half . . . .

Just for fun, I sometimes count the wires crossing the rural roads around me. It can be 40+ on straight stretches less than a mile long. Aim for a divided highway, the more lanes the better. Not only do they have fewer crossing lines, but the signposts are only on one side, no mailboxes, etc.; on a standard two lane road, our wings will hit signs and mailboxes on both sides. Lanes are 12' wide, call it 2' from white line to speed limit sign, that's 14' from the center line, or 28' wide. Our wingspan is 36' . . . .