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Was the captain of the Cessna Citation at Farnbourgh a hero?

  • 31-03-2008 11:28am
    #1
    Run_to_da_hills
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,009 ✭✭✭✭


    Reading the press today, apparently the captain of the Cessna Citation tried to abort a landing at a local football pitch to avoid kids playing football and ended up clipping trees and into a housing estate. Apoparently he was seen waving frantically at the kids to get out of the way. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3649187.ece


Comments

  • #2
    vulcan57
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,348 ✭✭✭vulcan57


    Run_to_da_hills wrote: »
    Reading the press today, apparently the captain of the Cessna Citation tried to abort a landing at a local football pitch to avoid kids playing football and ended up clipping trees and into a housing estate. Apoparently he was seen waving frantically at the kids to get out of the way. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3649187.ece

    I think that he did everything that he could, in the circumstances, to avoid any casualties on the ground. I would think that almost any pilot in a situation like that would probably do the same. In this case the area around there is very much a built up area with very few green areas of any size, so that would have made his decision making all the more difficult, so, in that case he probably could be called a hero. If he had crashed 50 meters earlier, then there could have been considerable loss of life. I think that the family that lived in the house that it hit will be thanking their lucky stars that they booked their holiday when they did. A very sad loss, but thankfully the death toll wasn't higher than it was, due greatly, at least, to the skill of the pilot.


  • #3
    Latchy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    Yes, and it's a blessing there were no people in the houses he crashed into .


  • #4
    Oriel
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,154 ✭✭✭Oriel


    If he knew the final outcome of the crash, I'm sure he would have made that field landing after all...


  • #5
    Latchy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    It's quite possible they might also have died if he had crashed into the field instead of the house .We have no way of known .


  • #6
    Run_to_da_hills
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,009 ✭✭✭✭Run_to_da_hills


    latchyco wrote: »
    It's quite possible they might also have died if he had crashed into the field instead of the house .We have no way of known .
    It would depend on the angle of descent.


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  • #7
    pclancy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,941 ✭✭✭pclancy


    Thats very sad...I'm sure he did the best he thought he could do considering he had little time to mull it over.


  • #8
    therecklessone
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,213 ✭✭✭✭therecklessone


    I'll wait for the report before drawing conclusions.


  • #9
    Oilrig
    Closed Accounts Posts: 727 ✭✭✭Oilrig


    pclancy wrote: »
    Thats very sad...I'm sure he did the best he thought he could do considering he had little time to mull it over.

    Agree, who wouldn't?

    As to the cause, "I'll wait for the report before drawing conclusions"

    Agree.

    Sad.


  • #10
    cp251
    Closed Accounts Posts: 476 ✭✭cp251


    I think we can discount the stories of the pilot 'waving frantically' at children on the pitch. We also had stories of people seeing the passengers panicking in the cabin. Probably the vivid imaginations of local teenagers.

    Looking at Google Earth you can see he was trying to get back to Runway 21 at Biggin Hill. But he was overtaken by events and seems to have stalled into the house. There are no skidmarks on the ground near the house. There are a couple of fields nearby and a wood. Any of them were preferable to hitting a house square on. So it really looks like he ran out of airspeed, altitude and options simulataneously. If he had been carrying any speed at all. The jet would have been scattered all over the housing estate. He was very unfortunate. As you can see from Google Earth if he had managed to cross the houses the approach to Biggin is mostly fields and Golf courses. While surviving a forced landing in a Citation would be possible, it's not like doing it in a Cessna 150. But they had a chance.

    As for being a hero, well speaking as a pilot. If I was in a powerless aeroplane with a choice of hitting the local creche or an open field. I would choose the field every time. Hitting the building would kill me for sure with a field I have some chance.


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