Almost two months ago I reported on an Aerospatiale/Eurocopter AS350BA (registration N87EW) that was destroyed during a forced landing 1.3 miles northeast of Hana Airport (HNM) in Maui, Hawaii. The December 16th accident left the …
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If they fly and they take your money, then this is the place for you to read about them. And hey… we don’t charge any of those new fees.
Everything that goes up, must come down. Sometimes, though, it happens in ways we don’t want it to. Aviation accidents, incidents, and sometimes just dented planes. Its all here.
Here you’ll find stuff like “look both ways before you cross that runway young man”. You know… things like that.
The wacky and weird happen everywhere and aviation is no exception. Nope, Velozia doesn’t have anything on Big Foot flying an alien spaceship through the Bermuda Triangle, but some other post may rouse your curiosity.
Airplanes, helicopters, blimps… you know. If it flies, this is your category. Disclaimer: Frisbees not included.
A Piper Pawnee similar to one of the accident planes tows a glider during an aerobatics display. (Photo by Adrian Pingstone via Wikipedia. Released to public domain.)
Two aircraft collided two miles northwest of Boulder Municipal Airport (BDU) in Boulder, Colorado, while a third aircraft involved managed to land safely. A few minutes before 1:30 PM MST on February 6, 2010, a Piper PA-25 Pawnee (registration N8718L) towing a Schweizer SGS-2-32 (N2472W) glider collided with a Cirrus SR20 G2 (N825BC). Both aircraft departed BDU, although at different times. Three people died in the crash, while the three people aboard the glider survived.
Cirrus SR20 similar to one of the accident aircraft. (Photo by José Reynaldo da Fonseca)
The glider, piloted by Ruben Bakker, managed to release the tow-line just before the SR-20 and Pawnee collided. According to the pilot, the glider still flew through the fire from the collision, but managed to land safely with its two passengers. The Piper Pawnee, which, like the glider belonged to Mile High Gliding Inc., plummeted to the ground killing pilot Alexander Howard Gilmer. The Cirrus SR20 made its way gently to the ground because its ballistic recovery parachute deployed (see video above), but was on fire the entire way down. The ballistic recovery system (BRS) parachute is designed to deploy when a pilot activates it during an emergency, but it tends to deploy on its own after strong impacts. Aboard the SR-20 were pilots Robert L. Matthews and Mark Matthews. They had departed BDU at 12:45 PM, but had been out of radar contact for about 10 minutes.
A Schweizer 2-32 that is similar, but not the same exact model, as accident glider. (Photo by AHunt via Wikipedia. Released to public domain.)
It is unclear why the pilots failed to see each other when the accident occurred, especially since there were two planes for the Cirrus SR-20 to see. The glider had just departed the airport.
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