C337 Lands in Lagoon next to HNL

RamRise said:
Why would they ? They have four runways to choose from that are basically parallel. Plenty of capacity. It's probably the least busy of all class B I'd imagine.
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It's actually a ridiculously busy class B airport at certain times of the day.

Also, I *think* 4L was closed at the time this happened so they would have been down to just 8L for arrivals and 8R for departures if he'd put it down on 4R. Not the end of the world, but it would have slowed stuff down. That said, still not a reason to go swimming in my book.
 
It said he flew around a few hours to burn fuel, and looked like he shut the front engine down before ditching.

Couldn't they prepped the Barber's Point airport for him to land at?

Insurance will have to pay to recover the plane and what Eco issues will it cause in the lagoon?
 
This story raises a couple questions since I don't have any SkyMaster experience, although I do have experience with the other 337 out there.

What's the story with the single engine performance on the SkyMaster ? Is it poor on one engine, or was this a ferry flight that was tanked and heavy, thus the single engine performance?
 
BobDDuck said:
Also, I *think* 4L was closed at the time this happened so they would have been down to just 8L for arrivals and 8R for departures if he'd put it down on 4R. Not the end of the world, but it would have slowed stuff down. That said, still not a reason to go swimming in my book.
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In that case, it would've been perfect had he landed on 4R and skidded to a stop in the middle of the intersection of 4R and 8L. :)
 
I can't believe a controller would instruct the pilot to ditch to save his runway. You could land that thing on a taxiway or closed runway and walk away. something fishy is going on and it's not the skymaster
 
DE727UPS said:
I can't believe a controller would instruct the pilot to ditch to save his runway. You could land that thing on a taxiway or closed runway and walk away. something fishy is going on and it's not the skymaster
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Heck, even the dirt/grass between the runways/taxiways also.
 
UAL747400 said:
10/10, would rather evacuate a plane that's on fire than try to get out of a non-sea plane in the, uh, sea. :)
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That's what I was thinking. I'd rather take my chances with fire than with trying to get the door opened against the pressure of the ocean.
 
UAL747400 said:
10/10, would rather evacuate a plane that's on fire than try to get out of a non-sea plane in the, uh, sea. :)
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mshunter said:
That's what I was thinking. I'd rather take my chances with fire than with trying to get the door opened against the pressure of the ocean.
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You're supposed to crack the door open prior to water touchdown, to counter any pressure possibility and/or negate any airframe deformation that may jam the door closed and prevent it from opening.

But consider more importantly that high wing aircraft such as the 337, when ditched, the cockpit/cabin is pretty instantly under water, with the floation point being the wings. Whereas a low-wing aircraft will float with the cabin above the water for a period of time, giving the people onboard time to get out without having to fight water issues.
 
MikeD said:
You're supposed to crack the door open prior to water touchdown, to counter any pressure possibility and/or negate any airframe deformation that may jam the door closed and prevent it from opening.

But consider more importantly that high wing aircraft such as the 337, when ditched, the cockpit/cabin is pretty instantly under water, with the floation point being the wings. Whereas a low-wing aircraft will float with the cabin above the water for a period of time, giving the people onboard time to get out without having to fight water issues.
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Oh I know, but I'd still rather deal with a fire over being in anything not designed to be in the water. Not just airplanes.

Honestly, I might rather land in a forest going 35mph (what you could probably get something up to a Baron down to at point of impact) than land in a lake next to said forest. Water seems like a sure thing that you're going to have an odd situation. A forest (in daylight at least), busted plane, probably not going to die.

I'd think I'd probably rather put anything that absolutely stalls out of control over 60 knots in the water though*. Something like that burns Jet A most likely and will keep you afloat a lot longer than 100LL too. Unless I'm mistaken on the density of 100LL...

*arbitrary opinion not backed by any kind of statistics.
 
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MikeD said:
You're supposed to crack the door open prior to water touchdown, to counter any pressure possibility and/or negate any airframe deformation that may jam the door closed and prevent it from opening.

But consider more importantly that high wing aircraft such as the 337, when ditched, the cockpit/cabin is pretty instantly under water, with the floation point being the wings. Whereas a low-wing aircraft will float with the cabin above the water for a period of time, giving the people onboard time to get out without having to fight water issues.
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Yeah, I remember that. But the force of the water will still be pretty hard to overcome. I remember a Mythbusters episode about this, vaguely.
 
mshunter said:
Yeah, I remember that. But the force of the water will still be pretty hard to overcome. I remember a Mythbusters episode about this, vaguely.
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Agreed. Still won't be easy, even after the pressure has equalized and those aboard are under water in a panic to get out..
 
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