If you've ever asked a pilot about his or her landing, or had the nerve to actually judge it yourself, you were probably given this response: "A good landing is one that you can walk away from." Well, one Connecticut pilot is now fortunate enough to have survived two such "good landings."
48 year-old roofing company owner Danny Hall made headlines last week when he crash-landed his Cessna 182 Skylane on a newly-built but unopened bus-only road, while flying from Plainville, Connecticut to Hartford Brainard Airport, only 14 miles away. The Skylane lost power, and Hall radioed air traffic control, saying, "Tell my kids I love them if I don't make it." Hall was able to find a road on which to bring the plane down. He told the Associated Press that he thought it was odd there were no cars on the road, not knowing it wasn't open to traffic. Witnesses said the plane nearly hit some houses and businesses as it went down. One of the plane's wings broke off and Hall smelled smoke, so he got out of the cockpit, thankful to walk away.
Coincidentally, Hall survived another emergency in 2008, when he crash-landed a plane in a river. In that incident, also in a Cessna, the plane lost power two miles short of Westerly Airport in Rhode Island. The cause of that crash was determined to be a nest of mice that had been sucked into the carburetor when Hall engaged an anti-icing system.
Hall told the AP, "I did what I had to do" but also said he is now considering giving up flying.
Top image via Associated Press