Accidents and Safetly Equiptment

[Bill Greenwood]

A recent lift accident jogged my memory of two aircraft accidents. Chairlifts often have a safety bar, and the best also have a foot rest. Its easy to use, just reach overhead and swing it down in front. Falling is rare so people dont always use the bar, some areas and instructors dont emphasize use, every time.Clothes can be slippery on the seat or the chair lurch when stopping. Unfortunately a lady and daughters fell, with hers being fatal, likely the bar was not used, sadly.
What does this have to do with flying and EAA in particular? Its really the same type of thing, a rare accident which may have been avoided using safety equiptment.

A skilled aerobatic pilot was in the habit of flying cross country with just the chest strap of his parachute buckled and the legs straps left off. After all, he competed in contests with all the stresses and risks of that and didnt expect to have trouble on a simple VMC cross country. But a problem forced him to bail out and although the chute opened in time, it pulled off his shoulders without the leg straps to hold it.Many of you would know his name if I gave it. Most of us dont wear a chute in normal airplanes, but the same thing applies to shoulder harness. Sometimes people wear seat belts but not bother with the shoulder harness. They dont expect to need them.

There was another case of parachute use, this time with best results. Two fighters, Skyraider and 51 were doing a pass at historic Duxford, Eng when the leads wing cut into the fuselage of the 51, completly severing the control cables that went from stick back to elevator. The pilot pulled the stick back but had no response,and the nose was dropping fast. This was low at pattern altitude., and he was not a young man, but he pulled the canopy jettison lever, released his seat belt, bailed out ,opened the chute and landed safely in the space of about a minute. Even when we wear chutes in fighters we dont expect to need them especially not that low.
Again the common item in these three events are a danger that happens so rarely one doesn't expect it, and safety equiptment that can be critical when used.
Ill write some more on this later, might help someone.

[martymayes]

An skilled aerobatic pilot was in the habit of flying cross country without the leg straps of his parachute buckled, just the chest strap. After all, he competed in contests with all the stresses and risks of that and didnt expect to have trouble on a simple VMC cross country. But a blown engine forced him to bail out and although the chute opened in time, it pulled off his shoulders without the leg straps to hold it.

I'm curious where the information about a "blown engine" came from? That's the first I have heard of it, even the NTSB final does not mention a "blown engine" all it says is:

DURING A DAYLIGHT FLIGHT OVER AN AIRPORT, THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED TO
DESCEND OUT OF CONTROL TO GROUND IMPACT. THE PILOT EXITED THE AIRPLANE
IN AN ATTEMPT TO PARACHUTE TO SAFETY; HOWEVER, THE PARACHUTE WAS NOT
ATTACHED TO THE PILOT AND THE PILOT FELL TO THE GROUND.

and

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:
THE LOSS OF CONTROL FOR UNKNOWN REASONS,

[Bill Greenwood]

Marty, I have changed my wording of the problem to fit your point. My info was from memory and discussion back then, that the engine may not have been running. dont want to emphasize that now. Its not clear if the plane had control as long as the pilot was flying it.Do you have your own opinion/info of why the pilot bailed out?
Whatever caused the bail out, the final problem was the chute coming off or as the accident report says in the last line:
"Procedures for emergency equipment not followed"
And that is the point that I am trying to make in my other 23 sentences.

[martymayes]

oh, ok. I thought there was some subsequent development. For sure safety gear is of not much value if not used or not used properly.

[WLIU]

The Frasca accident was many years ago. The aerobatic community emphasizes wearing the parachute gear properly but periodically our bad friends remind us of the consequences. Much more recently a Yak pilot in a waivered aerobatic box was run down by a civilian while in the vertical and used his parachute. Because he was wearing his harness too loosely, as the opening shock pushed him down in the harness, the chest strap met this throat and broke his wind pipe in a couple of places. Spent a month in the hospital and had maybe 3 surgeries. Was concerned he would not talk again. Great surgeon and he is now recovered. Moral of story - wear your rig to tighten the straps to place the chest strap as low as practical or wear a rig with the Strong/Softie style "aerobatic" harness.

Wes
N78PS
Parachute Rigger and Pitts Driver

[Mike M]

"...run down by a civilian..." ?? Was the Yak pilot in designated, dedicated military training airspace?

[WLIU]

The YAK pilot was in an FAA authorized, NOTAM-ed, and ATC coordinated aerobatic box next to an airport. The non-participant came out of the haze and sun at something like 190kts and drove right through the airspace, clipping off the tail of the Yak, losing his right wing and impacting just off the airport. All happened fast enough that the ground observers watching for non-participating traffic did not have time to call the YAK pilot on the radio. And the non-surviving pilot did not make any radio calls about his arrival at the airport.

There are lots of NOTAM-ed airspaces out there that should be approached with caution, not just MOA's. And there are other cautionary aspects of the accident narrative. Too many pilots don't use their radio when approaching an airport traffic area. And some of the pilots that do make "blind" calls and do not listen for responses from the unicom or other aircraft in the traffic area. If the non-surviving pilot had done anything to understand the current activity at the airport, or approached with less speed, etc., the collision would not have occurred. The YAK pilot was operating entirely within the specifications of the FAA authorization for the activity at that location. Not much you can do at near the top of a hammer, with almost zero airspeed, when someone who did not do their homework comes barging through.

Y'all be careful out there,

Wes
N78PS

[Mike M]

The YAK pilot was in an FAA authorized, NOTAM-ed, and ATC coordinated aerobatic box next to an airport. The non-participant came out of the haze and sun at something like 190kts and drove right through the airspace, clipping off the tail of the Yak, losing his right wing and impacting just off the airport. All happened fast enough that the ground observers watching for non-participating traffic did not have time to call the YAK pilot on the radio. And the non-surviving pilot did not make any radio calls about his arrival at the airport.

There are lots of NOTAM-ed airspaces out there that should be approached with caution, not just MOA's. And there are other cautionary aspects of the accident narrative. Too many pilots don't use their radio when approaching an airport traffic area. And some of the pilots that do make "blind" calls and do not listen for responses from the unicom or other aircraft in the traffic area. If the non-surviving pilot had done anything to understand the current activity at the airport, or approached with less speed, etc., the collision would not have occurred. The YAK pilot was operating entirely within the specifications of the FAA authorization for the activity at that location. Not much you can do at near the top of a hammer, with almost zero airspeed, when someone who did not do their homework comes barging through.

Y'all be careful out there,

Wes
N78PS

So, it wasn't at a military airfield, in military airspace, or with a military pilot?

[Bill Greenwood]

Parachute use or acro, aren't most pilots type of normal flying. But acro is potentially risky and the need to bail out is not beyond the odds. Chutes have saved many pilots.
One big safety factor in acro flight or any practice stall/spin type of flight is plenty of altitude to recover. perhaps 5000' min for a light plane, ie 172 or even 10.000 or more for a heavier higher performance one. The P-51 pilot manual says dont spin below 10,000 feet, talking AGL of course. A friend made a video of 51 spins and he went to 17,500 to start. I flew another plane in which I had a good idea of spin properties but not sure since it had some mods, so I went to 15,500.

Sqadly, witness today confirms that the safety bar was not down in place when the chair swung in the lift accident, and swung into a tower.
Only Vermont has a law requiring use of the bar, falls are so rare that its often not on peoples mind as vital.

[Mayhemxpc]

So, it wasn't at a military airfield, in military airspace, or with a military pilot?

Wes, I think that Mike's point here was that you described the non-participating pilot as a "civilian". I imagine that the YAK pilot was also a civilian, although I could be mistaken about that.