Single Engine Plane Makes Emergency Landing

A plane nearly landed on I-95 yesterday, when a pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in a residential area near Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. He had called the tower to report he was having problems, his power was out and the airport was still two or three miles away. The single engine 1966 Cessna 172 fell short of the runway and took a nose-dive in to a vacant field, avoiding a row of homes. The pilot and his passenger were taken to Broward General Medical Center with minor injuries.

During your flight training, you will learn to make emergency landings. When an engine goes out, a skilled pilot must understand how to control the situation immediately.

There are several types of emergency landings, some include: precautionary, forced, and ditching.

Precautionary

This type of landing may happen due to unanticipated changes during the flight, or abnormal or emergency situations. The landing location will have limited information. The pilot must locate and inspect a potential landing site as soon as possible to in order to lessen the chance of worsening aircraft conditions.

Forced

A forced landing is a landing made under inhibiting factors outside the pilot’s control, such as the failure of engines, systems, components, medical problems or weather conditions. The priority of this type of landing is to land as soon as possible, regardless of location. It may necessary to land the plane even if it is still flyable.

Ditching

Ditching is essentially a controlled crash landing, only on water. A pilot would be forced to make this kind of landing if there is a failure of or damage to vital systems such as engines, hydraulics, or landing gear. If the aircraft is not designed to float, it will typically sink when it makes contact with the surface of the water.

Pilots must be equipped to handle emergency situations, and the only way to acquire skills like that is at a quality flight training school.