At 2500 feet over Canada’s most populous city, a young pilot managed to put her Cherokee down in a soccer field before she and her two passengers walked away after the aircraft had an engine failure on Monday. The three were on a sightseeing flight that was about to include a “lap around the CN Tower” when it got quiet. “City Centre, I think I might have an engine failure,” the pilot reported to the tower controller at Toronto City Centre Airport. The plane ended up next to the soccer field after damaging a fence. The pilot made several calls to the controller, keeping him apprised of her situation, and then other pilots in the area, including a medevac helicopter, came in to help.
Names of those involved have not yet been released, but the aircraft is part of a fleet of privately owned aircraft managed by an organization called Flight Club that rents the aircraft on behalf of the owner. It lauded the pilot’s performance. “Upon initial review, the forced approach appears to have been executed with great proficiency and focus,” Flight Club said in a statement. “When aviation incidents occur, pilot competency is consistently the largest factor in determining the survivability of the event and the protection of life and property. At FC, our mission is to help pilots fly regularly, as increased flight hours and recurrent experience leads to safer and more competent pilots.”
Nice job to that Aviator!
Well done!
Wow, no real ADSB track to see, but Felstead and Greenwood intersection is listed in the news, 2 small parks or a double rail line set with overpasses look like the choices, a tight spot!
Bob Hoover approved- find the softest spot and fly it as far into the crash as possible!
That’s how that scenario is supposes to end up, well done!
Brava! And I’m not at all sure how she did it. There were no signs of disturbance on the soccer field, and she seems to have been lined up to its diagonal, so I wonder if she dragged it in over the railroad tracks, stalled it into the trees lining it, and pancaked right at the corner. If so, that demonstrates skill, courage, brilliant energy management, and no small amount of luck. She should get the Spot Landing of the Year award.
That’s one of the reasons I try to avoid overflying big cities: fewer options.
Very professional by everybody and Canadian. Her voice ran up in pitch on the initial failure but she got it back and was excellent at communications while flying to a crash landing. Brava Brava!
Wow! That’s a tight squeeze. But any port in a storm. Great job. I grew up flying in the Los Angeles basin years ago. All population and only streets and football fields for forced landings. Always wondered. Fortunately, never had to find out.
Neither did I. But often scouted areas around Torrance’s Zamperini field as I would drive from Hermosa Beach. It was more open back in the 60s. Kudos to the young pilot!
I was partners with three other young guys with a Champ at TOA. One of them going straight out from 29 had an engine failure just over the beach. Middle of summer but still managed to find a small spot to land right at waters edge. Carb ice. No damage and the various entities including lifeguards let him fly it out late afternoon. The gutless A65 and the soft sand, it looked like Lindberg’s takeoff out of the New York airport.
Well done! Stayed cool and focused on aviating first! She kept her passengers safe.