(2025-11-08) Drunk pilot crashes into traffic light [N14PM]

AV8R_87

AV8R_87

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You can't make this stuff up...

Law enforcement officers reported that they responded to the scene of an airplane accident that had taken place in an intersection about 2,500 ft northwest of the airport. Video captured by a vehicle dash camera showed the accident airplane impacted a traffic light before it came to rest in the roadway. As a result, the airplane sustained substantial damage to the wings, fuselage, and empennage, and both occupants received minor injuries.

According to a report provided by the law enforcement officers, the pilot showed several signs of alcoholic impairment immediately after the accident. The pilot was unable to complete field sobriety exercises, and two breath samples provided by the pilot returned results of .21 and .17 breath alcohol content. According to the pilot, he did not remember the accident flight but indicated there were no mechanical failures or defects that would have precluded normal operation prior to impact.

Probable Cause: The pilot’s operation of the airplane while intoxicated, resulting in its impact with obstacles while on approach.

 
"A plane just crashed right there."
 
In southern redneck vernacular, the breath sample of the pilot with results of .21 is what we call "hammered" ... :rofl:
 
Listened to the LiveATC recording the night it happened. The level of impairment in the transmissions was unreal. Pilot and passenger were both extremely lucky. But they almost made it! The circled intersection is where he hit the light and crashed. The other pic is the unlit grass strip they departed. So lucky...


crash - Copy.png07 - Copy.png
 
Know a guy who was smart enough to know he shouldn’t drive to Wally World to get more vodka… so he decided to take his para sailing rig.

The side of a barn prevented that….
 
Tools said:
Know a guy who was smart enough to know he shouldn’t drive to Wally World to get more vodka… so he decided to take his para sailing rig.

The side of a barn prevented that….
Click to expand...


There’s gotta be a “couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn” joke in there somewhere, but at the moment I can’t quite make it work.
 
Reminds me of Patrick Swayze. He was known to drink while he was flying. He had an accident in his Cessna 414. There were three witnesses to the crash and he jumped out of the plane and offered them all a beer and started drinking in front of them so they were witnesses to him drinking after the crash. Then they helped get rid of his half-empty 30-pack of beers and a near-empty bottle of wine before the drove him to the hotel. Then Patrick avoided the police for 12 hours, so there was no chance they could give him a sobriety test.

The funniest part is how even the NTSB treated him like a celebrity and came up with an interesting conclusion.

"The pilot reported to investigators that he smoked about three packs of cigarettes per day. The aircraft cabin had a strong tobacco odor. The door seal, outflow valve, and safety valve exhibited dark brown tar-like deposits.

The NTSB concluded that the pilot's physical impairment due to the cumulative effects of carbon monoxide from engine exhaust by-products, carbon monoxide from heavy tobacco use, and the loss of an undetermined amount of cabin pressurization. A factor in the loss of pressurization was a fractured clamp."
 
Half Fast said:
There’s gotta be a “couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn” joke in there somewhere, but at the moment I can’t quite make it work.
Click to expand...

Ya, because he could! And did!! No injuries. Really neat guy. Thinks WAAAAY out of the box, just a little to far once in a while.
 
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