Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 6:19 amHey Guys
I just turned on the computer to find yet another air accident has occured.
This time a private Jet.
http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/Smallplanecrashe...ArticleID=50916
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7321589.stm
I just turned on the computer to find yet another air accident has occured.
This time a private Jet.
http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/Smallplanecrashe...ArticleID=50916
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7321589.stm
QUOTE
A small plane carrying five people crashed into a residential area south of London on Sunday, police and rescue officials said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The private plane crashed into a house in Broadwater Gardens in Farnborough, just south of London sometime after 2:30 pm (1330 GMT), officials said.
The neighbourhood is a couple of kilometres (miles) north of Biggin Hill Airport, about 12 miles (20 kilometres) from central London.
The small airport is often used by executive jets and helicopters.
Smoke could be seen rising from the smouldering brick house on the edge of a woodland in images shown on Britain's Sky News.
Sky footage showed that the crash area had been cordoned off.
Fire trucks surrounded the house, which appeared to have been half destroyed.
Emergency services were on the scene, a police spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with force policy.
The plane crashed in a neighbourhood called Broadwater Gardens, he said.
Farnborough airport is also used mostly by private planes, and it hosts the biannual Farnborough International Airshow, one of the aviation industry's biggest events.
Sky News television said the plane was a Cessna Citation Executive Jet and was headed to France.
It did not cite a source for the information.
A pilot, who gave his name only as John, told Sky he was about to land at Biggin Hill when a mayday call came over the radio from the plane that crashed.
John told Sky he believed the accident might have been caused by a bird which may have been sucked in the engine, or a mechanical failure.
"My suspicion, one of the most likely events, is on takeoff perhaps a bird has got sucked into the engine," he said.
"As the jets are taking off they've got their engines at full power. All jets do, it's not a healthy state for jet engines to be in and they only maintain that for a couple of minutes while they take off and it's possibly while at full power something may have gone wrong within the engine as well," he added.
But he didn't exclude other possible causes for the crash.
The pilot from the stricken plane said the aircraft was experiencing severe engine vibrations and alarms could be heard going off in the cockpit, John said.
The pilot said he had five people onboard and wanted to make an emergency landing, he added.[/quote]
Cheers
Daniel
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The private plane crashed into a house in Broadwater Gardens in Farnborough, just south of London sometime after 2:30 pm (1330 GMT), officials said.
The neighbourhood is a couple of kilometres (miles) north of Biggin Hill Airport, about 12 miles (20 kilometres) from central London.
The small airport is often used by executive jets and helicopters.
Smoke could be seen rising from the smouldering brick house on the edge of a woodland in images shown on Britain's Sky News.
Sky footage showed that the crash area had been cordoned off.
Fire trucks surrounded the house, which appeared to have been half destroyed.
Emergency services were on the scene, a police spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with force policy.
The plane crashed in a neighbourhood called Broadwater Gardens, he said.
Farnborough airport is also used mostly by private planes, and it hosts the biannual Farnborough International Airshow, one of the aviation industry's biggest events.
Sky News television said the plane was a Cessna Citation Executive Jet and was headed to France.
It did not cite a source for the information.
A pilot, who gave his name only as John, told Sky he was about to land at Biggin Hill when a mayday call came over the radio from the plane that crashed.
John told Sky he believed the accident might have been caused by a bird which may have been sucked in the engine, or a mechanical failure.
"My suspicion, one of the most likely events, is on takeoff perhaps a bird has got sucked into the engine," he said.
"As the jets are taking off they've got their engines at full power. All jets do, it's not a healthy state for jet engines to be in and they only maintain that for a couple of minutes while they take off and it's possibly while at full power something may have gone wrong within the engine as well," he added.
But he didn't exclude other possible causes for the crash.
The pilot from the stricken plane said the aircraft was experiencing severe engine vibrations and alarms could be heard going off in the cockpit, John said.
The pilot said he had five people onboard and wanted to make an emergency landing, he added.[/quote]
Cheers
Daniel
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:21 amApparently the former touring car race driver David Leslie was one of the passengers. Doesn't seem very likely anyone on board the aircraft survived unfortunately, but hopefully there were no ground casualties as well...
Edit - Didn't see the second article, looks like a real mess, seems lucky no one on the ground was killed.
Edit - Didn't see the second article, looks like a real mess, seems lucky no one on the ground was killed.
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:33 pmBugger 
Biggen Hill doesn't seem to be a hot-spot for safe aviating, when I was there at an airshow as a kid, a fighter jet crashed into the ground mid-display.
Biggen Hill doesn't seem to be a hot-spot for safe aviating, when I was there at an airshow as a kid, a fighter jet crashed into the ground mid-display.
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 6:14 pmSad really, I remember David Leslie when he was in BTCC. When I heard that it was someone in motorsport, I just had this feeling of dread.
Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:34 pmYes there have been a few prominent racing drivers involved in air accidents in recent years - Colin McRae of course last year, a whole NASCAR team in a King Air crash in the US a few years ago, and David Coulthard was lucky to survive a Learjet crash in France some years ago which killed the pilots. I suppose they do travel by air very regularly though.