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Small plane crash lands on freeway in LA area
PASADENA, California (AP) -- A small plane crashed onto a heavily traveled
freeway, clipping a vehicle and injuring two people aboard the plane, authorities said Saturday. The 1952 Beech Bonanza V35 had engine failure late Friday due to a fuel problem on its way from Sacramento to Fullerton and crashed onto the Ventura Freeway, fire Capt. Ed Cowan said. Its wing clipped a vehicle, but the driver was not injured. The plane's male pilot had cuts to his head and eye, and a female passenger had neck pain. Both were in stable condition at a hospital. The crash closed sections of the freeway for about five hours as crews removed the wreckage and cleaned up a small fuel leak, Cowan said. "The good fortune is at this time of night there's not a lot of freeway traffic," Cowan said. "It could have been worse than it was." Brian -- http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html Blog: http://www.skywise711.com/Blog Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? |
#2
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Skywise wrote:
The 1952 Beech Bonanza V35 They made V35 Bonanzas back in 1952? I figured that would have been more like the year of the A35 models. -- Peter ----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==---- http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups ----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =---- |
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Peter R. wrote:
They made V35 Bonanzas back in 1952? I figured that would have been more like the year of the A35 models. I found several references to 1952 C35s. No As or Vs. George Patterson Why do men's hearts beat faster, knees get weak, throats become dry, and they think irrationally when a woman wears leather clothing? Because she smells like a new truck. |
#4
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Skywise wrote:
"The good fortune is at this time of night there's not a lot of freeway traffic," Cowan said. "It could have been worse than it was." I saw this article last night, and noticed how it showed the usual sort of confusion about losing power in a small plane. The speaker, and presumably the reporter, seemed to think it was a random event that the plane ended up on a freeway. It doesn't seem to have occurred to them that the pilot likely chose that spot specifically because, at that time of night, there was not likely to be a lot of traffic and it was a place that was lit. -- David Rind |
#5
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The author of story below sure knew how to get the human interest angle. So while hysterical motorists get all the sympathy, the severely injured pilot gets barely a mention. So much for unbiased journalism. The story indicates that the California Highway Patrol estimated the Bonanza's speed at 90 mph. Wouldn't the pilot have attempted to touch down at about 50 knots? If not, why not. Perhaps he was tracking a traveling hole in the traffic? It looks like Mr. Baxter was well qualified: Airmen Database Search Result -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name : BAXTER, J BARRY Airman's Address : XXXXXXXX BREA, CA, 92823-6323 FAA Region : Western/Pacific Date of Medical : Nov, 2004 Class of Medical : 2 Expiration of Class 2 privileges : Nov, 2005 Airman Certificates : Commercial Pilot Airplane Single Engine Land Airplane Multiengine Land Rotorcraft Helicopter Instrument Airplane and Helicopter : Flight Instructor Airplane Single Engine Instrument Airplane Rotorcraft Helicopter : Mechanic Airframe Powerplant ------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,7573410.story June 19, 2005 story Drivers Spot Plane in Rearview Mirror Aircraft barely misses a vehicle and clips another as the pilot tries to land on the Ventura Freeway. By Wendy Thermos, Times Staff Writer Talk about something coming at you out of the blue. When David Sarraf of Beverly Hills saw a crippled small plane about to smack into the rear of his car on the Ventura Freeway in Pasadena, about all he could do was put himself on autopilot. "I can't believe it, that a plane almost hit me. I'm still in shock," he said Saturday as he described the crash-landing of a single-engine plane shortly before midnight Friday. "I was swerving right and left. It felt like a dream. Everything was in slow motion." The aircraft, a 1951 Beechcraft Bonanza en route from Oregon to Fullerton, clipped a Jeep Cherokee as the pilot tried to land in the westbound lanes near Orange Grove Avenue. It spun 360 degrees and landed upside down near the median. Paramedics extricated pilot Barry Baxter, 63, of Brea and passenger Dawn Hess, 48, of Downey from the crumpled fuselage. Baxter was hospitalized with major injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening; Hess received minor injuries. "There's not a whole lot you can do if a plane is about to land on the freeway," said California Highway Patrol Officer Francisco Villalobos. But he added that the late hour meant the normally busy freeway had only light traffic. All lanes in both directions were closed for five hours while the wreckage was removed. The CHP said the plane had "an unknown engine malfunction" and that both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating. The Jeep's owner, Charles Redmond, 18, of Glendale was unhurt. But he was "in complete shock" as he and Sarraf huddled on the shoulder of the freeway and dialed 911. Redmond, traveling west after dinner with his girlfriend in Monrovia, didn't see the plane coming up behind his bronze 1997 SUV and thought he'd been rear-ended by a car. Pulling over, he spotted the plane wreckage and realized how close he'd come to disaster. "I could have been squashed like a bug," said Redmond, a recent graduate of La Salle High School in Pasadena who will attend USC in the fall. For Sarraf, 31, who operates a snack-food business, the episode was doubly harrowing because he mistook Redmond's vehicle for one being driven by his wife, Michelle, 28, whom he'd been following home from a family outing in Arcadia. She had their baby daughter in the back seat. The couple had gone to a celebration marking their daughter Talia's first birthday and the college graduation of Sarraf's cousin. Struggling to stay awake, Sarraf had glanced out the passenger window and was stunned to see the left wing of an airplane overtaking him in the next lane. Sarraf and Redmond said the plane came up silently. The CHP estimated its speed at 90 mph. The cars were traveling about 65. After barely missing Sarraf's black 2004 sedan, the aircraft barreled toward Redmond's vehicle. "I was honking like crazy and flashing my brights to warn my wife, who I thought was in there," he said. When the wing hit the vehicle, "my heart sank and I started shaking," he said. "I thought about my baby. I had tucked her in nicely in the [child] seat and I hoped the seat belt would hold tight." |
#6
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Larry Dighera wrote:
The story indicates that the California Highway Patrol estimated the Bonanza's speed at 90 mph. Wouldn't the pilot have attempted to touch down at about 50 knots? If not, why not. The Bo won't fly that slow without power. |
#7
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Having done this twice now, once on a freeway and once on a dragstrip, I can
assure you that the last thing you want to do is get to your point of intended touchdown needing just another five knots or fifty feet -- ESPECIALLY in something as slippery as the Bo. In the freeway case, I saw my opening in the lineup of cars, came across each of them at about 80 knots at 50' agl or so and gave them a chance to slow up, which they did. I then slowed up to 50 to hit my opening, but didn't count on the clapped-out Datsun in the right lane going uphill with six kids in the back at (generously) 30 mpg. With another 5 knots to play with, I could have leapfrogged the Datsun. That wasn't an option once the committment was made. Gliders run out of potential and kinetic energy pretty much simultaneously. Jim "john smith" wrote in message ... Larry Dighera wrote: The story indicates that the California Highway Patrol estimated the Bonanza's speed at 90 mph. Wouldn't the pilot have attempted to touch down at about 50 knots? If not, why not. |
#8
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On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 20:56:34 GMT, john smith wrote in
:: Larry Dighera wrote: The story indicates that the California Highway Patrol estimated the Bonanza's speed at 90 mph. Wouldn't the pilot have attempted to touch down at about 50 knots? If not, why not. The Bo won't fly that slow without power. Vs is about 65 knots, isn't it? In ground effect it should be able to fly even slower. |
#9
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On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 21:39:04 GMT, Larry Dighera wrote:
Vs is about 65 knots, isn't it? In ground effect it should be able to fly even slower. Wouldn't ground effect be less effective without a turning prop? (assuming total engine failure) Allen |
#10
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On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 17:08:54 -0500, A Lieberman
wrote in :: On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 21:39:04 GMT, Larry Dighera wrote: Vs is about 65 knots, isn't it? In ground effect it should be able to fly even slower. Wouldn't ground effect be less effective without a turning prop? (assuming total engine failure) It is my understanding that ground effect occurs when the wing is within half a wingspan of the runway surface. It acts to diminish wingtip vortices which reduces induced drag, and permits the aircraft to continue flying at a speed slower than the speed at which the wing would normally stall at a higher altitude AGL. There is some technical discussion of ground effect he http://whitts.alioth.net/Pagec7landings.htm#GE_ http://www.whittsflying.com/page4.70...%20Landing.htm http://cafe.ou.edu/flightdeck/app5.html http://www.avweb.com/news/airman/185905-1.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect http://avstop.com/AC/FlightTraingHan...undEffect.html http://www.se-technology.com/wig/htm...en=aero&code=0 |
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