Dramatic video/ airplane into car

[ussyorktown]

http://www.wfaa.com/news/Caught-on-Tape ... 77461.htmlROANOKE — After Saturday's collision between a small plane landing at Northwest Regional Airport and a sport utility vehicle on a road at the north end of the runway, Frank and Heather Laudo told News 8 the impact came as a complete surprise.
"We couldn't see anything at all, and then... all of a sudden... equipment was falling into the car," Heather said.
The pilot, William Davis had asked his wife Kandy to shoot home video of his first solo round-trip. William said the video shows the couple driving into plane.
"I was shocked," he said. "Just from the video that I saw, it looks like they kept going... they didn't stop at the stop sign."
But here's what the video doesn't show: The word STOP is actually painted on the pavement, more than 50 feet from the north end of the runway. The angle of the recording does not show where the Laudos' SUV would have stopped.
src="" alt="Video Shows Small Plane Crashing into Moving SUV at Denton County Airport" width="620" height="360" /><p class="wp-caption-text">(Photo: WFAA)</p></div>
<div id="attachment_460441" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 630px"><img class="size-large wp-image-460441" title="Plane Hits a Car" src="" alt="Video Shows Small Plane Crashing into Moving SUV at Denton County Airport" width="620" height="360" /><p class="wp-caption-text">(Photo: WFAA)</p></div>
<div id="attachment_460442" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 630px"><i" alt="Video Shows Small Plane Crashing into Moving SUV at Denton County Airport" width="620" height="360" /><p class="wp-caption-text">(Photo: WFAA)</p></div>
<div id="attachment_460443" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 630px"><img class="size-large wp-image-460443" title="Plane Hits a Car" src="" alt="Video Shows Small Plane Crashing into Moving SUV at Denton County Airport" width="620" height="360" /><p class="wp-caption-text">(Photo: WFAA)</p></div>
<p>&#8220;We couldn&#8217;t see anything at all, and then&#8230; all of a sudden&#8230; equipment was falling into the car,&#8221; Heather Laudo, one of the two people in the car at the time, remarked:</p>

Airport management said drivers are supposed to stop when the runway is active. But moments before the Laudos' vehicle crossed the path of Davis' plane, his wife's recording shows a white vehicle taking the same path.
The Laudos said they never saw the plane, even though it was feet away, preparing to land at 65 mph.
In the aftermath of the crash, airport manager Glen Hyde can be heard on Kandy Davis' recording yelling, "Is anybody hurt?"
Hyde grabbed his first aid kit and ran to the Laudos' vehicle. He immediately asked them whether they saw the stop sign... or the approaching plane.
"Whatever that is, it fell. Whatever that it is it hit our car," they said.
"That is the landing gear," Hyde responded. "You got hit by a plane."
"I know that!" Heather Laudo said in the recording.
"Why did you pull out if front of an airplane, is what I wanna know?" Hyde asked.
"We didn't see it," Frank Laudo said.
"We didn't pull out in front of an airplane," Heather Laudo added.
"Yes, you did!" Kandy Davis said.
William Davis said he is grateful everyone survived, but after the incident, he has decided to give up flying, saying it was all too traumatic — even though he was just four weeks away from receiving his pilot's license.
"Things like that make you reconsider what is important and what could have happened," Davis said. "I have a young daughter and a wife, and they need me to be there to take care of them."
Northwest Regional Airport has tried to purchase the property where the private roadway exists to enforce safety measures, but said the owner has declined the offer.
"I will be talking with the FAA tomorrow in an effort to explore options to make the private road not owned by the airport safer," airport manager Glen Hyde said.

[FastEddieB]

Accidents rarely have a single cause.

Look at this airport on Google Earth. Note the displaced threshold for RWY 17. It's partially shown I ussyorktown's first image.

It's displaced a LOT.

Had the aircraft been on a proper glidepath for the displaced threshold, it would have been nowhere near the SUV, whether it stopped or not.

Just sayin'.

Edited to add:

[ussyorktown]

WOW, so the pilot should have landed at or after the numbers but actually was aiming for the edge.
Kandy (left) was filming Mr. Big Shot landing so is that why he violated the rules to get a good shot for her?

By the way, do you see the wind sock? The runway was calm.

[Torque]

They always blame the pilot.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/video/Plane- ... TopVideos/

Tony

[drseti]

Consolidated two parallel threads, and moved into Safety Corner.

[dstclair]

I know that airport quite well and there were (at least) two judgement errors in play.

1) There are warning signs that a driver cannot miss stating that they must yield right-of-way to aircraft. Given the flight path, it would've been very difficult to not see the 172. The driver and his wife also frequented the airport cafe to watch the planes take-off and land so should/were familiar with the rules. Mostly likely, he forgot to check the flight path.

2) The pilot was WAY too low to naturally touch down at the 400' displaced threshold. He hit an SUV at about 5' AGL 40' from the end of the runway or 440' to the earliest touch-down point. I'd bet the FAA will cite pilot error on the appoach.

It'll be the insurance companies that end up deciding who was more at fault.

[FastEddieB]

They always blame the pilot.

I don't know who "they" is, but I blame the pilot.

Some blame surely goes to the driver, but don't we hold pilots to a higher standard?

And speculating here, but I sure hope the flight instructor can document that his student was instructed on the significance of displaced thresholds. If the student was NOT so instructed, some blame should go to the instructor as well.

[ct4me]

I blame the driver of the car. The stop/yield signs are there because there is a chance of conflict between cars and airplanes, regardless of the displaced threshold. Maybe someone was coming in deadstick, maybe they were coming in to fly the runway at 3 feet? It isn't the car driver's job to decide if the signage applies to them. The sign says stop/yield. That means you stop, look for traffic, and yield - not matter what. It doesn't mean, kinda stop, maybe yield, if you think the displaced threshold means the aircraft will be high enough to avoid you.
'just saying...

edit: on another forum, someone said there is no longer a displaced threshold at that airport... google earth pics are out of date... which only makes is the drivers fault even more.

[dstclair]

edit: on another forum, someone said there is no longer a displaced threshold at that airport... google earth pics are out of date... which only makes is the drivers fault even more.

I believe this is wrong. Current AFD clearly states a 400' displaced threshold.

Tim - would your opinion still hold if the runway itself started 400' farther south so that the pilot was flying 5' AGL over a road more than 440' from the runway? If he did this at my airport he'd be hitting golfers on the nearby golf course (then running into traffic on a 4 lane city street). No question his altitude was reckless. And the car proceeded into a busy intersection.

I do believe both will be found at fault, though.

[ussyorktown]

Negligence per se by the driver.
That means that he violated the law and therefore the only issue is HOW MUCH DOES HE PAY THE PILOT.
He obviously was going to fly over the fence. So, there is no law against flying low and then flying over the runway till he got over the threshold and then set her down.

Negligence per se is the legal doctrine whereby an act is considered negligent because it violates a statute (or regulation). In order to prove negligence per se, the plaintiff must show that
the defendant violated the statute,
the statute provides for a criminal penalty (i.e., fines or imprisonment) but not by civil penalties,[1]
the act caused the kind of harm the statute was designed to prevent, and
the plaintiff was a member of the statute's protected class.
In some jurisdictions, negligence per se creates merely a presumption of negligence.
A typical example is one in which a contractor violates a building code when constructing a house. The house then collapses, injuring somebody. The violation of the building code establishes negligence per se and the contractor will be found liable, so long as the contractor's breach of the code was the cause (proximate cause and actual cause) of the injury.
[edit]

So you owe me $300. Please pay the receptionist on the way out.

[dstclair]

Counselor,

You're forgetting about far 91.13a:

(a) Aircraft operations for the purpose of air navigation. No person may operate an aircraft in a careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another

Flying nape of the earth over the road certainly endangered both life and property. This would hold true even if there was no accident.

I'd like $0.02, please

[ussyorktown]

Won't work.
You go to the specific law STOP HERE (AND LOOK FOR TRAFFIC)
YIELD TO AIRPORT TRAFFIC.

Just sayng that the pilot may have done something that in your opinion is improper isn't the law. It is negligence per se. The driver broke the law, the law was designed to protect the pilot, the pilot suffered damages, the insco for the driver pays and the cops should cite the driver for violating the law.

He wasn't flying over the nape of the ground. He cleared the fense and could sexpect that the driver would follow the law and stop for him. Just like the "Yield" signs that you see all over the place. Driver didn't yield and there was a collission and therefore driver is in violation. (You've taken up an additional 5 minutes of my life and as I charge by the quarter hour, your bill is now $375.)

[Torque]

I agree with USSYorktown..Stop means stop. Not I think I will yield. What if that was a deadstick. I believe the driver of the car is at fault. Pull that in your airplane at a hold short marker.

We call this dragging it in, I myself do not fly like this. If I have an engine out its no biggie for me on landing for I am in a glide anyway. I come in high and a bit fast. In my draggy bird she settles right down in short time. Now if needed I could drag it in and land short but if its not needed why do it.

I agree with a lot of the posts, the pilot was low, but still does not excuse the driver of the car from making a mistake by not stopping at the hold short mark.

As for the comment about who "they" is......They would be the media..look at what they call the title of that video.....Not the driver of the car failed to stop at the hold short mark. No it's, pilot flies into car or some crap.

Tony

[Torque]

Good subject.....

We have an RC club at our field. they use the taxi way as thier road, or is it we use the road as our taxi way, depends if you ask a pilot or driver. Pilot says its a taxi way, driver says its a road. Anyway I say all planes have the right-a-way.

Now this RC membership has doubled over just a few years, with almost 100 members there will be an accident. its not if but when. I wonder who will be blamed and I hope I am not in my bird when it happens.

A friend almost was in one of these accidents. The car kept going and he had to avoid the wreck. It could have been really bad. He was taxing in his bird.

I told the owner of the airpark to put signage up saying planes have all right-a-way.

Tony

[CharlieTango]

Right of way is the easy part, technically the SUVs driver is at fault.

Two issues stand out to me, 1) the pilot was making his initial solo flight and therefore a low approach with little margin to clear the fence was not his intention. 2) the lesson for all of us has to do with ground vehicles in the runway environment.

1). I see a student pilot approaching that is failing to advance the throttle as needed resulting in an unwanted short / low approach.

2) Given that this was his initial solo flight the pilot was probably focused on his performance and expecting ground vehicles to not be an issue in his landing. Ground vehicles in the runway environment is not uncommon and it is easy to not give them a 2nd thought. Cars, trucks, birds, animals, people, potholes and airplanes can all be problems when landing or taking off. The ability to see and avoid these threats can make all the difference.