NC Airport mower loses to landing plane

mikea

mikea

Touchdown! Greaser!
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A small plane crash-landed right onto a man riding a lawn mower, chopping off his hand.
...

The airport doesn't have a traffic controller, so there was no one to warn Rufty about the incoming plane.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...mower-operator-severes-hand-article-1.1770221
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Yeah, 'cause a control tower would have been able to to yell at the guy mowing the runway.
 

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If the prop hit the guy's hand it had to hit the mower's engine deck, too.
 
Really a sad deal.
But what is it about something that big in the runway that doesn't even remotely catch your attention?
Now assume the gardner will sue the prop manufacturer, Lycoming, and Garmin, and.....
 
It's a problem because it's hard to hear approaching aircraft over the mower. It's one of the things it is incumbent on the pilot to watch for, I always fly a pattern (usually upwind-crosswind-downwnd-base-final) so I can be sure that one of my neighbors isn't out there mowing. Sometimes it takes a few passes to attract their attention so they can move off while I land.


Boy that's a tiny mower (looks like a small lawn tractor). It must take forever to mow with that. We have a large zero radius mower with an outboard auxiliary deck and it takes a few hours to do ours.
 
mikea said:
Yeah, 'cause a control tower would have been able to to yell at the guy mowing the runway.
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Geez. Maybe pilots should stop flying into things. Garmin needs to add lawnmowers to their synthetic vision, windshields obviously don't work.:rolleyes2:
 
I just landed at our grass strip 15mins ago. I broadcast "mower on the field" on advisory....
 
This is yet another reason airplanes should be equipped with horns. Loud air horns like they have on fire trucks. Would that be fun or what? You would not have to buzz so close to your friends houses anymore either.

-John
 
I don't get it.....

Judging by the pic and the ground scar.. The plane nosed over heading in the direction of the firetruck.. If he had not hit the mower,, he surely would have hit those BIG trees just beyond the firetruck ??:dunno::dunno:..
 
N801BH said:
I don't get it.....

Judging by the pic and the ground scar.. The plane nosed over heading in the direction of the firetruck.. If he had not hit the mower,, he surely would have hit those BIG trees just beyond the firetruck ??:dunno::dunno:..
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The firetruck is sitting off the side of the runway. If he was landing in that direction he's saying "Boy this runway really is short, but look how wide it is."

I have a feeling that the scar may have been the dragging of what was left of the right main after the wheel broke off and there was some rotational play there.

The impact area looks very close to the 26 threshold which would be backwards from the usual pattern there (land on 8, take off on 26), so either he touched down the wrong way or he was very far down the runway when he hit the mower.

It's only 20 miles away from here.
 
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An unfortunate accident. Could be both operators where a little to complacent about the runway.
 
flyingron said:
The firetruck is sitting off the side of the runway. If he was landing in that direction he's saying "Boy this runway really is short, but look how wide it is."

I have a feeling that the scar may have been the dragging of what was left of the right main after the wheel broke off and there was some rotational play there.

The impact area looks very close to the 26 threshold which would be backwards from the usual pattern there (land on 8, take off on 26), so either he touched down the wrong way or he was very far down the runway when he hit the mower.

It's only 20 miles away from here.
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You "might" be right... But... I am betting the ground scar is from the spinner...

And yeah... If he was landing.. He definately landed LONG...:yikes:
 
Helicopters do have horns.

But lawn mower guys need to have nose canceling headsets tuned to the CTAF.

Here the lawn mower guy has that and a huge checkered umbrella that is as large (almost) as the mower. Usually, they keep on mowing, but I'd like for them to stop if near the runway so I know they're not going to suddenly cut across the runway, but get clear of the approach and runover ends before stopping.
 
denverpilot said:
Orange mower would help. Maybe one of those cute bicycle flags. LOL
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Well, they make large orange flags, which would be a really good idea. Even an orange vest would work.

Green mower on grass, not so much.
 
My guess is they used a telephoto lens and that sorta compresses the foreground into the background.. And if that's not the case I too just don't get it.. It's obvious he nosed over for the mower to end up under the wing like that..
 
That runway has widely spaced cones (as in the picture) on the sides and two sets of three closely spaced cones for the thresholds. The place the mower is resting appears to be the curved access to the hangar at the far east side of the field.
 
flyingron said:
That runway has widely spaced cones (as in the picture) on the sides and two sets of three closely spaced cones for the thresholds. The place the mower is resting appears to be the curved access to the hangar at the far east side of the field.
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Yup.. I figured those " yellow cones" were the threshhold.. Two are clearly visable and one is hidden behind the tire on the plane.... I also assume the paved area is a taxiway ??
 
frfly172 said:
An unfortunate accident. Could be both operators where a little to complacent about the runway.
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This is how accidents happen.

The mower could have been mowing grass off of the designated runway, and cut back onto the runway after he was in the blind spot of the Citabria. Don't know if the pilot was in the front or back seat. Front seat vis is pretty good, back seat is not. Don't know if he held a slip down to the threshold or just went straight in.

I fly a cub in/out of a grass airpark. I hold a slip all the way down to just above the ground, so I can see the field the whole approach. Still, once I come out of the slip and land + rollout, I can't see where i'm going. There are frequently people, planes and cars off to the side of the designated runway. Just have to trust they are keeping safety in mind, and not walking or driving on an active runway without looking first.
 
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N801BH said:
And yeah... If he was landing.. He definately landed LONG...:yikes:
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I saw a 172 about go into a pond today at said airpark. Finally touched the grass over halfway down the runway, was holding some power in :mad2:
 
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The Google Earth view of the accident are, based on the two photos from the news article:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/T...ata=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x609de7fc08e4f272

Since the plane is to the east of the wheel that tore off - and is also inverted, I would guess the plane was traveling east at the time of collision. Since it is near the end of runway 8, the collision possibly happened at the end of the landing roll or while taxiing.
 
East is the preferred landing direction. My guess is that the asphalt you see is the end of the taxiway stub coming out the west side of the eastern most hangar.
 
Sad. Ultimately it's the pilot's responsibility to go around.

I am definitely using this as an excuse next time I am asked to mow the lawn, though. "Sorry honey, it's just too dangerous."
 
flyingron said:
East is the preferred landing direction. My guess is that the asphalt you see is the end of the taxiway stub coming out the west side of the eastern most hangar.
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Agreed on the location.... Still, that plane "should" have been going alot slower at that stage of the landing roll out....
 
Unless it was on the go of a touch and go, in which case he better get going because he's running out of runway in a hurry.
 
Maybe he had his eyes inside while taxiing to the end of the rwy, didn't realize how fast he was going, the guy on the mower was facing away and couldn't hear.
 
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