Daring Pilot Makes Emergency Landing After Propeller Falls Off At 2,500 Ft
The plane (not pictured) was an Aeronca C3
A daring pilot was forced to make an emergency landing after the propeller fell off his 80 year old plane at 2,500 ft, it has emerged.
The pilot made a distress call to Newquay Airport before he eventually managed to successfully land the plane on a landing strip next to a golf course in Polzeath, Cornwall.
A report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch stated that the pilot, aged 46, performed a successful landing of the Aeronca C3, a plane first produced in 1936.
The report also detailed how there was a ‘loud bang’ shortly before the pilot saw the plane’s wing falling away.
Further investigation of the propeller, which was recovered in a building site, found that it had been subjected to a fatigue crack - a fault with the plane that was first detected in 1939.
The AAIB has since issued advice all owners of the plane model, advising them to thoroughly check their engines before future flights.
