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Pilot Saves Airplane and Passengers After Propeller Falls Off In Flight
A Cessna 172B pilot in Mexico had to save his plane after his airplane propeller detached in flight. Yes, detached. Plonk. You can see the action from the cockpit in this video, including the exhilaration and relief of the passengers at the end. "I've never felt death so near," says one of the women who was travelling in the back. "Our propeller fell," repeats the copilot after getting out of the plane, which landed successfully on a road. Skip to the end to see the… (gizmodo.com) Mais...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
I lost a prop when flying a Rutan Long Eze in the UK. In my case I was at 1800 ft and noticed a vibration on the instrument panel I reached forward to touch the gyro hoizon and there was a mighty bang followed by a horrible tearing sound. The engine rpm went crazy and I shut down. At this point I did not know what had happened because in the Rutan the engine is at the back. I called a Mayday and was vectored to a gliding strip. The only way I could make it was to cross directly over a town and land straight ahead. The landing was uneventful but after persuading the crash rescue guys not to foam the a/c, I examined the back of the plane and found that the prop had chewed its way forward thru the trailing edge of the wing RIGHT UP TO THE REAR SPAR. A couple of inches more and it would have been minus a wing. The subsequent investigation showed that the crankshaft had failed ( thru internal corrosion) and the prop, starter ring and a portion of the crankcase went walkabouts. It was later found in a farmers driveway. I had trouble sleeping for a while.
Not your time. Bet you did have trouble sleeping and also bet everything around you looked brighter, smelled better. Thank you for sharing the story.
VERY GOOD JOB!
TWO COOL DUDES THAT IS WHAT I LIKE
Calm pilot - did what he had to do to get it on the ground safely - however I wonder what happened on the preflight? I can't believe that all the bolts magically backed out to the point that the prop fell off without some tell tale evidence prior to take off.
"magically backed out" happens in anything that turns anti clockwise..not magic just Newtonian mechanics..bolts/nuts should be wired to the studs, then wired all together. If you had them with left hand threads they would over tighten and stress up the fixings. Would be interesting to know what method they used.
Magically was tongue in cheek ... Maintenance would be suspect here.