MOVIE star Harrison Ford is described as a hero after ‘crash landing’ his private plane onto a golf course in California, thus avoiding a densely populated area of Los Angeles.
While it is gratifying to hear that Ford, a leading film action hero, behaved gallantly in real life, a small reality check is required.
Forced landings (never ‘crash landings’) in built-up areas are never in the interests of the pilot, or of people on the ground.
When Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger of US Airways landed his stricken Airbus 320 in New York’s Hudson River in 2009, saving all 155 occupants, he, too, was described as a hero. But the Hudson River was his safest option.
The long fairways of the golf course in California, with its firm turf, were a far less dangerous prospect for Ford than trying to avoid buildings, vehicles and pedestrians in built-up areas.
As a PUT (pilot under training) at Enstone Flying Club, Oxfordshire, I have been taught never to fly low over built-up areas during training exercises. I must always be high enough so that — in an emergency — I can glide towards open country.
Forced landing training is usually at about 3 000ft over open country. The plane’s power is shut down by the instructor. You must then control the rate of descent while searching for a suitable landing site.
Ploughed fields are unsuitable. The plane might bury itself — killing or injuring its occupants — instead of rolling to a stop. So are ones containing farm buildings, equipment and animals.
Those with electricity pylons or telephone wires are best avoided, too. So once I’ve made my selection — and quickly tested the engine power of the Piper PA-28, so I can recover height — we glide down to about 500ft to see if the field I’ve chosen looks good enough to support the plane.
Thus far — after about a dozen such exercises — the decision has always been Yes. Or, as my terse, Scots instructor, Gill, puts it: ‘OK, I think we’d walk away all right.’ I restore power and we climb away.
Sometimes the engine has been shut down as we climb away from Enstone. You might think the solution here is simple: return to the airfield. That’s not advisable at low altitude. I’d lose too much height during the turn.
Fatal accidents have been caused by pilots who lost power in the climb-out thinking they could return safely to the airfield, which, with its near-looking runways, can seem temptingly close.
Near the airfield, at an appropriate altitude — ideally above 2,000ft — it’s possible to return without power. As part of my training, I’ve had to practise powerless landings, gliding the plane home.
This is done by controlling the speed during descent so that the plane still flies.
On the PA-28 it’s around 75 knots (about 86 miles an hour). Let the speed drop too far below that and it’ll stall, and drop like a stone. Let the speed increase too much and you’ll have to put the plane down on the runway at far above the recommended speed, which could wreck the undercarriage, with disastrous results.
Landing in or near the village near my airfield is obviously too dangerous to myself and to villagers.
As it happens, a local golf course offers an attractive alternative — a long, wide fairway, sloping upwards, which would help slow the plane.
What if there are golfers on it? Then I’d opt for an adjoining field with firm, open ground, and no obstacles.
Harrison Ford is a hero in one respect, though. This is his third forced landing. He has continued with flying as his hobby despite the concern of family and friends. As I know from my own brief-by-comparison experience, families, friends and work colleagues are often baffled, and sometimes annoyed, by risks taken by amateur fliers.
Especially those like Ford and myself who are deemed old enough to know better.
Daily Mail