FLIGHT HORROR
Plane crashed right into garden on housing estate leaving aircraft in crumpled mess with pilot rushed to hospital
The report praised the seasoned pilot's skill in the face of the disaster - but some mystery remains
A PILOT was forced to perform dramatic crash-land in a Welsh housing estate after the plane's engine failed, an inquest has found.
The light plane barrelled into the back garden of a house in Anglesey in February, with the pilot, 50, then airlifted to hospital.
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Miraculously, no-one else was injured.
Now a report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch has found the aircraft had multiple engine issues, forcing an emergency landing attempt.
The plane the 50-year-old man flew was an Aerosport Scamp, a lightweight and compact aircraft
According to the investigation, it hit the skies from RAF Mona airfield just after 1:30pm and partially lost engine power at 400 feet - only shortly after take-off.
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The pilot then prepared for an emergency landing in a field, but the engine regained full power.
With the engine seemingly recovering, the aviator then tried to turn the plane back to a runway.
But it started malfunctioning again and the man realised reaching the runway was now unrealistic.
In response, he set his sights on a field - only for the engine to completely shut off.
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Now only a residential area was viable, so the pilot picked an area marked by gardens and trees to avoid a tragic turn.
In a skilled manoeuvre in the face of impending horror, he deliberately stalled to hit the tree line, then sliding sideways before eventually coming to a halt with the aircraft tipped on its right.
Terrifying moment plane crashes into front yard and explodes before neighbors pull two children from the fiery wreckage
Pictures showed the light aircraft crumpled in what was nearly a scene of carnage.
The pilot was rushed to hospital but escaped relatively unscathed compared to his aircraft's wreckage, suffering just a fractured wrist and minor injuries.
The report said the man was a seasoned aviator - a former commercial pilot - although was relatively inexperienced with the aircraft type.
He proposed that the engine's breakdown may have been consequent to carburettor icing.
The carburettor is a device in an engine that can become frozen when temperatures drop, causing reduced power.
His quick reaction in lowering the nose when the aircraft stalled ... probably prevented a more serious accident
Air Accidents Investigation Branch
The report praised the pilot's swift response, suggesting it may have saved lives.
Investigators said: "The pilot's prompt recognition and response to the aircraft's stall allowed for a greater degree of control over the aircraft's flight path and time to decide where to land, which probably contributed to a less severe outcome that might have otherwise occurred.
"He (the pilot) stated that as a commercial pilot, he had received upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT) which was reinforced during regular proficiency checks.
"He considered that this assisted his quick reaction in lowering the nose when the aircraft stalled, which probably prevented a more serious accident, as having regained control he had some additional time to decide where to set the aircraft down."
A GREAT BIG BANG
Despite the aviator's suspicions that the engine suffered from icing, the inquest found no cause for the malfunction.
It concluded: "The cause of the engine failure was not determined.
"Contributory factors to the resulting accident were a challenging decision making process due to the partial power loss and proximity to the ground, and the pilot's inexperience with the relatively high-drag, low-inertia aircraft type."
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At the time of the crash, a pensioner couple recounted how they heard "a great big bang" while watching TV.
Jeanette and Geoff said it was "absolutely amazing nothing more sinister" happened.
Recent aviation horror stories
In May, RAF pilot Mark Long was tragically killed on a Battle of Britain Memorial Flight spitfire after crashing into a field in Lincolnshire.
In March, tech entrepreneur Simon Riggs died when his aircraft crashed in Cambridgeshire.
It nose-dived into a field after he lost control.
In another spitfire crash in August 2023, Trevor Bailey, 68, died after smashing into a field in West Oxfordshire near a busy road.
Two people were in 2021 killed after an aircraft hit a tree in Somerset.
Pilot Joe Mann and passenger Margaret Costa got caught up in bad weather conditions, leading to a fatal crash.
In 2019, the body of a jet stowaway came falling from the clouds, smashing into a garden with someone sunbathing just steps away.
The migrant plunged from the landing gear bay of the Kenya Airways plane as it was lowering its wheels for a Heathrow landing.
The body smashed into the lawn in Clapham, South London, with a young man witnessing the horror.
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