Oops, it sure looked like a runway to me...

:dunno: No excuse for this. If the weather was anything like the photo when he was flying I'm sure the boys from FSDO will have a little chat...and more than a few questions.
 
Threefingeredjack said:
:dunno: No excuse for this. If the weather was anything like the photo when he was flying I'm sure the boys from FSDO will have a little chat...and more than a few questions.
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Agreed.... This guy is in for some serious remedial training...
 
Runway stripes, pavement, 7/11 for beer, what's the problem?
 
DaytonaLynn said:
I am a fairly new certificated ppl. I really can't understand this error. :dunno:
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I managed to line up on a hiway on the south side of the Pontiac Mich airport that parallels the E-W runways in the haze once but I figured it out long before touching down.
 
Personally, I think he should have figured out an alternate "emergency" that required putting it down immediately...that loose screw on the cowl needed immediate attention.
 
We don't know exactly why he landed.
If we was not instrument rated (or was not proficient) and accidently flew into that weather it's possible that he flew to the nearest airport and landed on something that looked like a runway. If this was the case he did pretty good, sure better than all those CFITs you see on NTSB reports.
 
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Oh my... :eek: I hope that before his 709 ride and IPC he will take some time alone and realize just how badly this could have turned out for himself and his passenger(s). :( :hairraise:
 
"All of the lights were going off at airport. We knew something was going on. We saw (the plane) on the road," Schommer said.

Sounds like it was at night? And he keeps referring to the runway as a strip. I didn't look it up but there are plenty of runways about the same width as a 2 lane road.
 
These situations can be wickedly deceiving when the pilot is flying low in the murk, most commonly on a non-precision approach or scud running. After flying along without being able to see much of anything, the sudden appearance of visible lined concrete in the general location of the airport can influence a pilot to take quick action to escape the clouds, sometimes to their chagrin or worse. The G-III accident in Houston a few years ago included some of this same scenario.

``
 
This guy was very fortunate. Glad nobody was hurt.
 
At least he was close enough to just push it through the gates to the airport.:lol:
 
N801BH said:
Either those were WIDE gates... Or a VERY low fence around that airport.:dunno:
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I would guess WIDE gates...more specifically gate 13

Quote from the article:
"The plane, a Beechcraft Bonanza, was pushed onto the airport grounds through gate 13 by eight men, including the pilot and his passengers."
 
:dunno: Just checked AirNav, KSTC has a ton of approaches available. WTF?? Even if you were scud running the smart thing to do is to fess up, declare and use the available navaids to find the runway.
 
wabower said:
The G-III accident in Houston a few years ago included some of this same scenario.

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Sort of.....they were following the unreliable G/S signal while cleared for the LOC approach. That crash really bothered me. I knew one of the pilots and was based at the same airport. Different company though.
 
I knew them too, but had spent more time with Ford than the other guy and had considered hiring him for the G-V. They were tuned to the VOR freq, saw the entry road to the airport and hit a light pole. We re-created the scenario in the G-III sim.

Tarheelpilot said:
Sort of.....they were following the unreliable G/S signal while cleared for the LOC approach. That crash really bothered me. I knew one of the pilots and was based at the same airport. Different company though.
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wabower said:
I knew them too, but had spent more time with Ford than the other guy and had considered hiring him for the G-V. They were tuned to the VOR freq, saw the entry road to the airport and hit a light pole. We re-created the scenario in the G-III sim.
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Were these the guys who were headed to Hobby to pick up Bush Sr?
I remember that one and seem to recall it being a very foggy morning.
Didn't they hit lights on Beltway 8? That has to be maybe 3 miles from the airport.
 
Yep, same wreck.

Tex_Mike said:
Were these the guys who were headed to Hobby to pick up Bush Sr?
I remember that one and seem to recall it being a very foggy morning.
Didn't they hit lights on Beltway 8? That has to be maybe 3 miles from the airport.
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in his defense...

if he's MDA in soup conditions following a non-precision approach, he's looking hard for the runway. He might be used to smaller, back-country runways.

See the attached... that road is pointed basically the right way, and is right in front of the runway.

I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying I can see how it happened.

If he was so-equipped, the ILS would have been better, but it's easy for me to criticize from my chair.
 

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