Posted on 12/15/2004 12:09:38 PM PST by billorites
ROSELAND -- Not too many people know Craig Miers, of Windham, N.H., but he became an instant hero here Tuesday afternoon.
Miers, 25, did what most pilots hope they never have to do: make an emergency landing in a bustling commercial area at lunchtime.
"He told me he got it over an intersection and dove it under some power lines," Miers' father, Stephen Miers, of New Hampshire, said in a telephone interview.
The "intersection" turned out to be the northbound lane of Indiana 933, just a few feet from a Howard Johnson Inn's entrance and directly across the street from the Heaven & Earth shop, where a sign out front urges visitors to "come in be inspired."
On Tuesday firefighters, police officers, witnesses and the three businessmen aboard the small turbo-prop plane Miers and his co-pilot glided to a safe landing, were more than inspired.
"We're happy to be alive," said Robert F. Greenhill Jr., an executive with a New York-based investment banking company.
Greenhill, William M. Cockrum IV and Nicholas Chermayeff were passengers on the plane. The co-pilot has not yet been identified.
The trio were in South Bend Tuesday where they met with officials from the University of Notre Dame on an undisclosed business deal.
The group's single-engine plane left South Bend Regional Airport for New York a little after 1 p.m.
Just minutes after takeoff for Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., Miers reported engine problems to air traffic controllers in South Bend and asked for permission to return to the airport.
According to Federal Aviation Administration officials, the plane had reached 7,000 feet and was about seven miles southeast of the airport when it turned around.
Officials said Miers received permission to land on Indiana 933, a route lined with restaurants, hotels and other businesses, and, usually, crawling with cars.
"We had to find a place to land but we had no options," said Greenhill. "It's hard to find the best alternative. There are no good options when you're over South Bend."
According to witnesses, the plane touched down on 933 north of Douglas Road and came to a jolting but safe stop about a quarter mile later.
"We lost our engine, came down and landed on a busy road," said Chermayeff. "It is very lucky that we didn't hit another car or have a vehicle hit us. We're just incredibly lucky."
The plane's wing clipped a power line during the landing, causing jet fuel to spill into the street.
Clay Township Fire Marshall Dave Cherrone estimated the plane was loaded with 400 gallons of fuel.
"We handled it like it was a tanker truck," he said.
Greenhill said Miers and the plane's co-pilot are extraordinary pilots.
Some witnesses agree.
Aaron Bolin saw the plane land from a nearby gas station.
"I want to shake that guy's hand," Bolin said about Miers. "I saw it going down. I couldn't believe there were no cars there.
"It was skidding and jumping and then it hit a pole. I heard the brakes skid."
Craig Miers' father said his son has been flying planes since high school.
"He is a great pilot," Stephen Miers said. "Anybody he has flown for say he's excellent."
Tuesday, however, was a first.
"He's never lost an engine before," Stephen Miers said. "That's pretty scary with a single engine, you just need to put it down."
Craig Miers politely declined to speak with reporters. He and the co-pilot were taken back to the airport and stayed overnight in the area, according to Marci Greenberger, the director of operations for the South Bend Regional Airport.
Stephen Miers said his son told him he went through a "checklist" of possibilities when he knew his plane was in trouble, but decided he had no choice but to land it.
Bolin, the manager at a Marathon station, was outside lowering the price of gas on a sign from $1.69 to $1.68 a gallon when he saw the plane coming toward him.
He was relieved that the turbo-prop plane didn't hit a gas tank.
With fuel leaking from the wing, an explosion was a serious concern to those on the plane and around it.
Bea Tomkiewicz said she was driving south on 933 when she saw the plane sputtering in the air, just a few hundred feet above rooftops.
"I saw fuel pouring from it," she said.
Once the plane stopped, a hatch door opened and the five people inside dashed from the plane.
"I saw the door open and they were just running," Tomkiewicz said. "I heard someone yell, 'It could blow.' "
Within seconds firefighters and police arrived, cordoning off a half-mile section of 933.
Cherrone said about 30 people from nearby businesses were evacuated because of the fuel spill.
As for the plane, FAA records show the aircraft was built in 2001 by Pilatus and owned by Riversville Aircraft Corp. of Greenwich, Conn. The company could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
"The pilot reported an engine problem to air traffic control, and he attempted to return to the airport," said NTSB air safety investigator Tim Sorensen, who will be handling the post-crash investigation. "We have no other information. We're waiting to hear from the FAA."
FAA officials and the pilot walked through the landing route on 933 shortly after the crash. "Our investigation will look at what happened and why, and that takes several weeks before it's completed," said Elizabeth Isham Cory, an FAA spokeswoman in Chicago.
NTSB records show the same type of plane that landed on 933 Tuesday -- a Pilatus PC-12/45 -- has been involved in at least six accidents since 2001. Two people were killed when a Pilatus crashed Sept. 14, 2002, near Westphalia, Mo.
Officials at South Bend Regional Airport said they didn't know if the plane was part of the airport's Corporate Wings program.
Because fuel was spilled during the landing, staff from the St. Joseph County Health Department and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management checked the drainage areas surrounding the road for any fuel contamination.
A county official said there was no evidence of problems, and the fuel was contained properly.
Traffic was tied up for several hours. Indiana 933 was closed at Cleveland Road to the north and Angela Boulevard to the south. Douglas Road was also closed at Ironwood Drive.
About 600 homes and businesses north and west of the University of Notre Dame campus lost power during the accident because the plane damaged a high voltage transmission line, said David Mayne, a spokesman for Indiana Michigan Power.
By 5:30 p.m., 300 customers were still without power, but Mayne said they could expect to be back on line by the late evening.
The plane was eventually moved to a parking lot near the Howard Johnson Inn. Authorities expect to move it back to the airport today.
The pilot's in the middle.
 See related story and photo:Roger, 933 is clear for landing 933 landing |
ROSELAND -- Bea Tomkiewicz's afternoon took a divergent path Tuesday when an outbound plane made an emergency landing on Indiana 933, right next to her Lincoln Town Car.
"I noticed the plane was very low. I was headed south and thought it was going way too low," she said, hands clutched around a plastic Diet Coke bottle and still shaking from her close encounter hours earlier. "I saw it teeter to the right and then I knew it was going to crash."
Tomkiewicz had planned on attending a 1:40 p.m. doctor's appointment downtown, but instead spent the afternoon speaking with officials in Room 311 of the Howard Johnson Inn in Roseland about what she witnessed.
Firsthand accounts from motorists, hotel guests and restaurant patrons told how the plane miraculously found a clear path on the busy five-lane road.
Greg Frankhauser, who was driving south, watched the plane land about a half-block ahead of him.
"It's not every day when the traffic coming at you is a plane," said Frankhauser, the operations manager for Ampco System Parking.
About 10 to 15 other vehicles were going south, and six to eight others were going north. The vehicles in front of him "stopped and scattered," he said.
The plane landed with its nose pointing north with just a little bit of an angle west, he said. It wasn't in the middle of the road, but against the curb on the east side.
Frankhauser talked to the pilot and co-pilot afterward and congratulated them. The plane apparently only clipped a power line pole, which resulted in wing damage.
"He dropped it down in an area that was just full of light poles, electric poles and business," Frankhauser added.
A traffic light near the landing scene must have just changed, he guessed, "because there was a gap between the vehicles. There was an open spot," he said.
That's where the pilot landed the plane.
"They call that a good landing," said Bob McDowell, who had just pulled into Pizza King, where he had planned to eat lunch with his son, Reid. "The timing had to be just about perfect."
The plane stopped just short of Pizza King's sign, with the marquee greeting: "Welcome to Snyderville" -- a reference to the town of Roseland's two married council members.
"You don't land on an active highway and expect not to hit something," McDowell said. "Those guys should be dead."
Nancy Younkin said she saw the plane "taxi" down 933 as she watched from inside Wendy's through its large windows.
"It was amazing," she said. The pilot "did a good job."
Afterward, the passengers were calm and cool in departing the aircraft.
"It was kind of strange, because they dropped the stepladder and disembarked just like that," Frankhauser said.
Staff writer Matthew Galbraith contributed to this report.
Oh my GOD...
Probably still cleaning out his shorts.
WHEW!
This landing comes somewhere between excellent and a miracle.
The first article said they ran for their lives screaming she's gonna blow.
Equipment is re-usable.
Engine was out, landing did not occur on a runway.
EXCELLENT landing.
That is exactly who helped them, I am sure.
Luck pilot, lucky passengers, lucky for those on the ground.
Actually EXCELLENT doesn't quite do it ...
That's for sure!
Without a doubt, those pictures brought it home for me.
A PC-12 is not a small airplane...think of it as sort of a cut-rate corporate jet, it's in the same general class as a Beech King Air or a similar executive turboprop. It can probably carry about 4-8 passengers depending on the seating configuration, plus pilot and co-pilot. The PC-12 is somewhat unique in that it's powered by a single Pratt & Whitney turboprop, most planes of that size and class are twin-engined pistons or turboprops.
}:-)4
Your right these pilots/passengers are lucky.
However, 7,000 feet of altitude and this is the BEST place he could find to conduct an E.L.? What's the engine-out glide distance at that altitude, 6-7 miles?
Still, great job by the pilots.
http://www.405themovie.com/
Check this out.........
sorry..I suck at links
And there I was, at FL250, when......
Check this out.........
Funny clip, well worth the time to watch it.
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