Lee's Summit Municipal (KLXT) has two runways (four, technically). Runway 11-29 runs east-west, and runway 18-36 runs north-south.

"Another pass" may have been impossible, for the reasons already explained. Attempting to do so has frequently proven fatal.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda...

In the end the plane landed safely, with minimal damage and no loss of life...

It's hard to argue with those results...

^^^

Exactly that.

quote:

Originally posted by walker77:
I live near where this happened.

Where he landed is about 3 miles south of the airport. The runway runs north - south. That spot on the highway runs east - west. I would think another pass would have been less effort on the pilots part.

With one engine, that probably wasn't an option. If he could pull that off, he would have been able to make it back to a runway.

My oldest brother has had his pilot license since 1970, so 50 years now.

What I hear is, If you have a problem, and you see a great place to land, land now. If you don't see a great place to land, do the best you can and land now. Don't screw around. Just get it on the ground.

In most cases, it's best if you can avoid landing off field. Most pilots have zero experience with an off field landing. There are a lot of unseen obstacles such as powerlines, poles, even road signs, that don't appear until it's too late to change one's mind, and changing the landing surface in the final stages has all too often proven fatal.

I used to make a point of taking students below powerline height during simulated engine failures, to emphasize that what they thought they saw at altitude, was very different in reality. We spent a lot of time talking about forced landing sites and decision making.

If you have a problem in flight, you handle the problem in flight. If you have no other choice than to make a forced landing, then you can do that, recognizing that in many cases, the aircraft is going to get torn up and so may the occupants. Tearing up airplanes frequently results in fires and other problems. Aircraft are weak, aluminum structures full of fuel and other flammables, and a number of ignition sources.

Initial pilot training is about flying the airplane, but most everything that comes after that is about handling abnormalities and emergencies. If we put airplanes on the ground every time we had a problem, we'd have aircraft littering the landscape, and pilots would have very short careers.

Generally when someone makes a forced landing, it's either because they had no choice, or because of poor decision making (bad maintenance, no fuel, etc). Sometimes the two are one and the same. Sometimes not.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:

If you have a problem, and you see a great place to land, land now. If you don't see a great place to land, do the best you can and land now. Don't screw around. Just get it on the ground.

1964, my first flight instructor advised, if you have to hit something, pick the biggest, softest, CHEAPEST, thing you can find.

I have passed that advice on to my students.

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
In most cases, it's best if you can avoid landing off field. Most pilots have zero experience with an off field landing. There are a lot of unseen obstacles such as powerlines, poles, even road signs, that don't appear until it's too late to change one's mind, and changing the landing surface in the final stages has all too often proven fatal.

Indeed. We’ve seen a number of these successful road landings but it’s only a matter of time when one is being filmed as it hits a high tension wire or overpass.

This pilot obviously managed the situation to live another day. Not to say there weren’t other options but they were likely few at best.

When I was a kid, I took an airplane one afternoon to an airfield about 50 miles away to try a simulator. I'd never seen one, and was invited to see what it was like. On the way back, a large section of the south end of a wide valley was dark; no lights. It was clear from the way the lights stopped that something had impacted a large section of power grid.

When I landed at the flying club, I was told "call your mother. She thinks you're dead."

A pilot from the club had made a flight earlier in the day to an international airport, where he and his instructor met another isntructor who was ferrying a Piper aircraft back to the home airport. The student had never been in a piper, and was invited to ride along. Part way home, the engine failed, a unique failure in that model engine that disables both magnetos (which normally provide redundant ignition). The instructor set up the correct glide speed and aimed for the interstate highway, directly beneath them.

There's one place that a high tension line crosses that highway; the only aerial obstacle for miles in either direction. Unlit, they hit it in the dark, and impacted in the median, upside down, and badly injured. The instructor died on site, and the student, several days later in intensive care.

The evening news had reported the event, and apparently listed my name as the dead pilot. We didn't have a television, but neighbors heard it and contacted my mother, who thought I'd been killed in the wreck.

That was my first exposure to highway landings.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Indeed. We’ve seen a number of these successful road landings but it’s only a matter of time when one is being filmed as it hits a high tension wire or overpass...

From May 12, video only:

https://abcn.ws/2zE97BR

Article with video:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/pers...es/story?id=70646884