Update on March 24th Moore, SC forced landing.
A Cessna 152 similar to the accident aircraft. (Photo by Adrian Pingstone)
On March 24, 2010, a Cessna 152 (registration N93441) flipped over while performing an emergency forced landing in a Moore, South Carolina field near Highway 290. You can see Velozia Air’s original post on the accident HERE. On March 27, 2010, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released their preliminary findings in the investigation.
According to the report, the plane departed Spartanburg Downtown Memorial Airport (SPA) at 10:45 AM EDT for a local instructional flight. Student pilot Christy Henderson and flight instructor Lee Orr were performing maneuvers at 3,000 feet and began a descent when the engine began running rough. The NTSB notes that the carburetor heat was on during the descent. The carburetor heat system simply runs hot air from a shroud in the engine’s exhaust system over the carburetor’s air intake to keep water vapor in the air from cooling and forming ice in the carburetor. Usually, when carburetor heat is applied, there is a drop in RPM of about 75-150 RPM, but this is normal. I was flying a Piper Cadet back in the 90s and I had a rough running engine situation with carburetor heat. The problem would go away with the carb heat in the off position, though. I wonder if the engine continued running rough with the carb heat off in this plane.
The flight instructor in the accident plane informed SPA that she would be trying to land the plane in a field as she was unsure if the plane would make it back to the airport. As the plane was nearing touchdown, the pilot shut off the fuel valve in the plane as per emergency landing procedures, but did not shut off the engine (Cessna emergency procedures call for ignition switch to be turned to the off position). She preferred to leave it on if she needed extra power on landing. The plane landed Ok, but a wheel dug into the soft soil and the plane flipped over. Unfortunately, most of these agricultural fields that are preferred locations for emergency landings have very soft soil from tilling and aircraft tires often dig in. The plane suffered substantial damage, but both occupants were OK.
This is one of those situations where they could have attempted to continue to SPA and maybe the engine would have made it, but the flight instructor definitely made the right call by taking the better safe than sorry approach. Who knows what could have happened if the engine quit altogether elsewhere…
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