I was just called and informed there is a private plane that outrun the runway and is in the sand/beach area in st. jean.............going to check it

[Myrllyn]

That's too bad. A nice little plane ruined. I wonder if the brakes failed...from the photo it looks like the plane wasn't that high above the aiming point on the runway; could be the perpective though.

Thanks for the top notch photojournalism!

Not to embarass anyone, but "two one whiskey whiskey" (does that stand for 21 year-old drinks double shots) is owned by Air America, who's address is listed listed as a post office box in
city: "Carolina"
State:"Foreign"
Country: "Puerto Rico"

Hmmm... maybe they were doing those shots when they filled out the Registration application!

 

[Earl]

BL is that if you see the terminal passing you, and you have not touched down, everyone yell--Go Around!!!!!!!!

 

[Myrllyn]

I'd say that's a good rule of thumb at this airport!

 

[Lance]

Wonderful photo op. Been taking these types of photos for years, but never saw this happen. Once I did have to run for it on the beach during an early morning walk and never saw or heard the plance coming in over the bay until it was 200 yards awary. The other exciting time was watching JB's plane buzz the runway in both directions and then about four days later was waiting the lounge and saw it buzz the runway again flying about 30 feet above the runway

 

[NYCFred]

Where'd they get a crane that large on the island?

And for Earl and the other pilots? wouldn't you just gas the damn thing and try to take off again?
Pilot error, right?

 

[stbartslover]

Simply, yes---a go-around normally would have been executed if you passed the touchdown point.
Looks to me like an old Piper Aztec? SBC has one they use for charters as well.
Unlike the DH Otter/other tubos, non-reversable props, less forgiving.


We can all appreciate the fine airmanship of commerical pilots who make these challenging approaches look easy on a daily basis.

 

[podwich]

Working on the video. Unfortunately, it's half a gigabyte in size and in a HD format that doesn't work on YouTube. I downloaded a demo of a video editor and I'm working on getting it smaller and in a different format. Hopefully I'll have it pretty soon.

 

[cec1]

Interesting that the plane is owned by Air America. For anyone who is old enough to remember much about the Vietnam War, the name is synonomous with the Central Intelligence Agency. Air America served as the CIA's "cover" airline for transport of cargo as well as passengers in support of covert operations in Southeast Asia. Do you suppose . . .?

 

[podwich]

The crane is from the boatyard. It took them a while to get it there.

 

[stbartslover]

Dennis...not the same.
Apparently a 4 plane charter operation out of Puerto Rico.

http://www.aircharterguide.com/Operator_Info/AIR_AMERICA,_INC./36515/SAN_JUAN/22903

Correct me if I'm wrong, but those old birds belonged to AST...Air St. Thomas (banned from flying SB)---somebody smart could check.

 

[Earl]

Yep, it is a judgement thing (flying is all about making the right decision)...on face value, I would say that there was poor judgement In this case, unless there was a brake problem or stuck throttles, I would question their choice.

 

[podwich]

The brakes worked- they were locked up in an attempt to stop. The throttles did not appear to be stuck- the engines sounded to be at idle.

 

[GramChop]

good job, pod....thanks for sharing your photos with us!

 

[griegle1]

Jeff is right on. Air America is a small charter operation in SJU. Looked into using them once, but Tradewind was a far better deal.

As an aside I flew the onl AST once and it was one time only. Aircraft appeared very poorly maintained.

 

[KevinS]

Air America's counter at SJU is just a few feet from Rome International Handling, the firm that provides services for Tradewind. As noted by Voyager, they offer charter services to SBH and other islands.

 

[podwich]

Well, I was able to convert the video of the crash to 1280x720 with a lower bitrate to make it usable for Vimeo. It's still decent HD (though not as good). I uploaded it to vimeo.com but since I'm a free user it says I have to wait three hours for it to be available to view. I'll post the link once it's done. It should have better quality than Youtube though so hopefully it's worth it.

 

[cassidain]

A few interesting gleanings from the Weekly article: 1)notice "l'avion de tourisme se beache". "se beacher" is franglais and not found in standard French dictionaries. perhaps one of our French forum members might explain why the journaliste didn't opt for "se planter", "s'enfoncer", "s'échouer", ou quelque chose comme ça? 2) the pilot states that at the moment of touch-down he encountered a wind shear which rendered impossible a normal landing and precipitated an emergency manoeuvre. 3) the pilot states that he was faced with two choices: the application of maximum power or maximum brakes. he judged the remaining runway insufficient to re-takeoff and therefore applied maximum brakes..."se beachant à St-Jean". All onboard were fortunate to emerge physically unhurt.

 

[Voosh]

podwich,

Some spectacular photos of something we never want to experience. Thanks.

 

[cec1]

I'm not generally a conspiracy theorist, but I still find romance in the fact that the CIA might be planting moles on SBH in order to establish its foothold in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, Chief Inspector Clouseau seems to be managing the project.

I say, "Round up the usual suspects!"

 

[podwich]

I'm not sure I agree with the wind shear argument, but I wasn't flying.

Anyway, here's a link to the video. Make sure to hit the fullscreen button (looks like 4 arrows pointed outward) at the bottom right hand corner of the video to get the full size and good resolution. It's a much, much better picture of the landing than the stills (the camcorder has better zoom than the still camera). Sorry for the inane commentary.

http://www.vimeo.com/4875559