After flying his fuel-strapped plane mere inches above the Pacific Ocean for an hour and a half, this pilot finally ditched his plane in the ocean without incident, emerged without injury, and was immediately rescued by the Coast Guard. Easy!
The whole incident has shades of “Sully” Sullenberger, minus all those passengers, with the as-of-yet unnamed 65-year-old pilot gently scuttling his plane on the open ocean with barely a splash.
Apparently he was working for a ferry service and was flying the plane from California to Hawaii for a client when the fuel gauge started to read “you’re screwed”.
US Coast Guard video of the incident is below:
jc
Monday, October 10, 2011 at 8:54 AMumm. that video link was really interesting.
Damion
Monday, October 10, 2011 at 9:08 AMtry the fourth down.
EckyThump
Monday, October 10, 2011 at 10:24 AMIs there a reason the actual video couldn’t be linked to directly?
Will
Monday, October 10, 2011 at 1:20 PMNewsreporter “…the pilot walked away not seriously injured…”
Really? Walked away on water….
Sally
Monday, October 10, 2011 at 6:19 PMFuel starvation is always the pilots fault.
One of the first things I learnt getting my licence was that the fuel you left in the bowser is no good to you when you are in the air.
I always fly with a bare minimum of 45 minutes reserve plus sufficient fuel for the flight, or if I am flying away from my home airport, I will leave with as much fuel as the plane can carry without going over weight or putting the balance of the plane out, therefore if I can take a full tank, I do.
I guess it was lucky to survive his own mistake.
Dylan
Wednesday, October 12, 2011 at 12:12 AMSally you arn’t completely correct. I’m pretty sure the guy would have filled the plane up since that’s what you learn while training (I am at the moment). I could have been that the guy forgot to switch tanks as has happened to a guy at Bankstown. He crashed and then realized he still had the right wing full. I pretty sure he would knowtice if he was running over his reserve.
henry99
Monday, October 10, 2011 at 7:33 PMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDhkiTo_73c
Much better video of the incident, skips all the crap.
SaintSkeeta
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at 2:30 PM“There’s a point where you have to make a decision that ‘Am I going to make it?’ … and it’s typically at the half way point.”
Ummm… isn’t this a line from a blonde joke…
If you make it half way, you may as well keep going because it’s just as long to go back!