Pilot's miracle crash escape detailed
Air accident investigators today recounted how a pilot whose plane crashed onto a road after hitting power lines walked away from the wreckage uninjured.
Eye witnesses reported hearing an enormous bang as the light aircraft hit high-voltage power lines before crashing onto the N78 road between Athy and Kilcullen in Co Kildare.
A report released today by the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) said that while the Luton Minor plane was seriously damaged, the 30-year-old pilot escaped major injury, while no-one else was involved in the accident.
The pilot was attempting to land at Kilrush airfield when his single-seat plane bounced on the runway forcing him to attempt a fresh landing.
The report records that: “He applied full throttle... but could not gain sufficient airspeed to climb over the power lines.
“The pilot thought he had cleared these lines but the tail wheel caught them and the aircraft spun down onto the main Athy road.”
Witnesses, including other pilots at the airfield, told how they watched as the plane flew towards the power lines at the southern end of the airfield’s boundary.
“The tail wheel appeared to have snagged the power lines,” said one of the witnesses.
“There was an enormous bang as the power lines shorted out and the aircraft spun violently to the left descending out of sight behind the trees.”
The AAIU report added: “This witness, and others, immediately called the emergency services and ran to the scene of the accident to render assistance.
“When they arrived the pilot had already evacuated the wrecked aircraft and appeared unhurt but in shock.”
The witness approached the aircraft to turn the fuel off but found that this had already been done.
Gardai later preserved the scene until the arrival of an AAIU Inspector.
Investigators said the Luton Minor plane is a home-built, single seat, tail-wheel aircraft which the pilot had recently bought and which he had previously flown for 1.4 hours.
The AAIU report found that a slight cross-wind and the failure of the aircraft to achieve a safe climbing speed caused it to drift to the left and hit the power lines.
It added: “The strong afternoon sunlight would have been in the pilot’s eyes and possibly obscured the pilot’s vision of the power lines as he drifted in their direction.
“This, and the pilot’s manifest inexperience [in the type of plane] probably contributed to the accident.”
