Drunk pilot, "no occifer, Aye nevah sawr the wee man in red soot and those dearz."The pilot who didn't know 6ft of wing was gone
By A Correspondent
A PILOT flew his five-seater aircraft for two hours before he realised that nearly 6ft of the wing and a fuel tank were missing.
The pilot told investigators that he thought his Cessna 210 had been “struck by a little bird” on take-off from an airport near Shannon last Friday.
In fact a large section of wing and an auxiliary tank had been ripped off. The aircraft, which was setting out on a 961-mile flight to Lisbon, was forced to make an emergency landing at Jersey International Airport two hours and 379 miles later.
Neither the Irish pilot nor three flight engineers on the plane, who were on their way to repair a grounded Boeing 747, had noticed that 5ft 6in of the wing was missing. It was only when the pilot, who works for Pacific Network Air and has not been named, noticed that the fuel gauge for the missing tank was on empty that the damage was spotted. The fuel tank was found on the ground back in Ireland.
A spokesman for the Jersey airport said: “We were amazed it had managed to fly as long as it had, it was in a real state when it came in.
“The pilot was the most shocked of us all as he had not realised the extent of the damage while he was flying. It could have ended up being more serious than it was. They were very lucky.”
Peter Hearne, an aviation crash expert, said: “Losing that amount of wing you should wonder why you are having to compensate with the controls. It is quite something and you would have thought that the pilot would have noticed sooner rather than later.”
The Irish Air Accident Investigations Unit is looking at whether the pilot “misjudged” the runway and took off too low. A spokesman said: “After the pilot heard a bang he thought he had been hit by a bird, but he decided to proceed.Usually, if an aircraft is hit by anything, a pilot will decide to land immediately.”
He added: “It is a possibility that he misjudged the take-off, causing him to collide with trees.”
Pacific Network Air were unavailable for comment.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1741385,00.html
Here's another pic...
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005380500,00.html
Very easily could have been 4 fatalities here. What we have here is a horrible pilot. I would never fly with him again.
Drunk pilot, "no occifer, Aye nevah sawr the wee man in red soot and those dearz."
"That's not damaged. This is damaged!"
The B-17 "All American" (414th Squadron, 97BG) flown by Lieutenant Kenneth R. Bragg, its tail section almost severed by a collision with an enemy fighter, flew 90 minutes back to its home base, landed safely and broke in two after landing.
1st Lt. Lawrence DeLancey managed to get his B-17 back to England after a direct hit by flak killed two of his crew over Cologne, Germany.
My first thought: Someone used a NAVCOMP to figure out how long it would take to get the alcohol out of their system.
"Dozy" or "Dopey"?
He didn't notice it was handling a little funny?
Does not look like quite half. Looks like about an 1/8th...
Looks like a Cessna............good plane! I flew one before I lost my license to high blood pressure.
amazing what a few beers will do......
Nevermind. . Post 30.
;-)
Now this is a tough Airframe....A-10 baby!
210s used to be favored dope planes for small work.
So like ... inquiring minds want to know ... how far did this blind dude fly his handicapped plane ???
Eireann go Brach,
Was that your plane? :-)
Reminds me of a flight from Houston to LA I was on years ago. They kept circling downtown LA and giving out champagne, and a fire truck was there when we landed. Turns out five major flaps had fallen off the plane, landing in people's backyards, etc. We felt no difference in the landing!