As the pilot was in charge Horrifying loss of engine power during flight over Ajax on Monday eveningwitnesses described how the plane suddenly stopped on the main road.
“I couldn’t sleep last night because I thought things could go the way I expected,” Debbie Gilker said Tuesday, a few steps away from where she and her husband, John Griker, encountered the damaged Cessna 150M. Because I realized that,” he told City News.
The couple, who played for Ajax for many years, said they were returning home from Whitby after visiting their grandchildren.
They were on Bailey Street East, just off Audre Road South, around 8pm when John said he saw navigation lights in the sky. The area is a collection of agricultural, industrial, and residential areas southwest of the intersection of Highways 412 and 401.
“I could see the whole plane, but it was a small plane flying very low over our heads heading east. So I immediately turned my truck around and started following it. I was wondering if it was landing. “We suspected there was going to be a collision and wanted to start a pursuit.”Be there if the pilot needs help,” he said.
“My first reaction was that we were going to crash. I couldn’t understand why my husband would turn and crash. My thoughts were to keep going and get away from the crash scene. ” added Debbie.
They said the plane came to a stop within a minute after hitting the traffic light at Audre Road South and Bailey Street East. I almost disconnected a few wires.
“We arrived at the intersection…and the plane had already landed and was facing the opposite direction in the eastbound lane,” John said, adding that a woman who was near the intersection at the time approached the pilot. I mentioned that.
“He became trapped because the plane’s frame was damaged and the door could no longer be opened. Eventually, he was able to escape.”
Debbie recalled how the pilot tried to avoid injury.
“I talked to him and then he ended up calling me and he kept saying, ‘Okay,'” she said.
The plane was moved to a dead end on Audre Road South, not far from the crash site, and remained unsafe as of Tuesday evening. The wing tips, the top of the plane above the cockpit, and the left door appeared to have sustained the most damage, but the entire plane was intact.
Air traffic control records posted LiveATC.net He detailed the troubles the pilots faced.
“Mayday, mayday, mayday,” an unidentified pilot can be heard saying as he departs Oshawa Executive Airport.
“Please help me. I’m at 2,000 feet.”
The pilot is heard saying the engine needs to be restarted. The air traffic controller asked the pilot to determine his location. The transmission briefly cut out at several points, but the pilot said he could see the highway.
The controller said, “Please pay attention to traffic conditions, land in a safe place, and contact me when you are safely off the plane.”
City News contacted the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), the federal agency that investigates aircraft-related incidents, to obtain an update on what happened in Ajax on Monday night.
A spokeswoman said a more complex investigation was unlikely based on the classification system, which said there were no deaths or serious injuries and the damage was minor. The statement said the Ajax incident “will be recorded to the extent appropriate for future safety analysis, statistical reporting and archival purposes.”
The public TSB incident report provided to CityNews by the agency listed it as a “crash landing.”
“An Island Air Flight School and Charters Cessna 150M experienced an engine failure during a visual flight rules flight,” the statement said.
“During the landing roll, the aircraft collided with a street pole, causing some damage to the left wing of the aircraft. [Aviation authorities] The operator then reported the incident to the TSB. TSB was not deployed. ”
City News contacted Air Flight School and Charters multiple times Tuesday for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Mason Frazier, assistant chief flight instructor for Seneca College’s aviation program, praised the pilot based on reports of the Ajax accident, although he was not familiar with the details or the immediate circumstances that led to the engine failure.
“The pilots had to make quick decisions about where to land. In the end they chose to land on the road and were able to walk away, but this meant that at the end of the day “It was a very good scenario. It appears that no one was seriously injured, so it’s an optimal outcome,” he told City News in an interview Tuesday afternoon.
“This pilot had to deal with a very stressful situation and a very difficult scenario.”
Fraser said pilots must undergo “forced entry” training, noting that tests will be conducted on the ground and in the air. He emphasized that training is important because pilots need to make decisions quickly.
“So for every 1,000 feet of altitude, you get about two minutes to do the steps and everything,” he said.
“So pilots are usually trained to first identify what the problem is, fix it right away, and see if they can restart the engine.
“If we can’t do that, the next important thing is where to land. My understanding is that this incident occurred at night, because it will be more difficult to determine where to land. , which actually increases the risk considerably.”
When asked what it was like to operate a Cessna 150, Fraser said that the Cessna 150 was one of the most popular educational models of the 20th century, and that the Cessna 150 was “very safe. ”
“It has an excellent track record in terms of safety and training. It’s a very stable aircraft to fly and is very suitable for teaching people how to fly an airplane. It’s also a great way for flight schools to teach and It is also an economical platform for students to learn and learn,” Fraser said.
He said given the mixed-use area of Ajax where the plane landed, there were various challenges that had to be addressed, especially at night.
“If you don’t cross there in your vehicle — unless it’s a four-wheel-drive truck — if a plane the size of a Cessna 150 lands on the road, you’re definitely going to have problems in that terrain. Tires “They’re very small. They can easily burrow into the snow or into the ground and cause a lot of problems,” Fraser said when asked if a nearby field would have been a better alternative.
“Roads are a bit like airstrips, but there are a lot of other things around them.
“It was all a series of compromises and the pilots had to make that decision very quickly, but in this case they were ultimately able to walk away.”
With files from Kyle Hocking
