The Miracle on Ground Hog Day

By now, everyone knows about "The Miracle on the Hudson", the fantastic emergency landing that occured on January 15th, when Captain "Sulley" Sullenburger glided his powerless Airbus 320 airliner to a safe ditching in the Hudson River, saving all on board after a total, double engine failure. The entire event was a study in pilot discipline, and quickly making the right choices as events tick off your options.

What many people may not remember is that this Ground Hog's Day marks the second anniversary of our own little miracle at Cape's airport. It didn't involve passengers, just the crew of two, but was, in itself, just as miraculous as that of the airliner's water landing.

On the morning of February 2nd, 2007, Super King Air N777AJ was cruising at 27000 feet above the Bloomfield area when it's pilot side windsheild fractured. Fearing a total failure of the windshield, the crew de-pressurized the cabin and donned oxygen masks. The oxygen system wasn't operating though, causing the pilots to quickly pass out...the King Air then went into a dive.

Radar tracking the aircraft at that moment showed almost no motion...meaning that the King Air was diving straight down. At some point, the denser air (higher oxygen content) at lower altitude helped revive the crew of the plummeting aircraft. Having just seconds to recover from oxygen deprivation, they tried to sort out their situation, and bring the plane to level flight. Together, they pulled on the controls, putting incredible stress on an airframe designed as a sort of flying limousine, meant to transport it's passengers in luxury and comfort.

The crew was able to bring the plane level at around 7000 feet, but it then wanted to continue to pull upward, as the pilots now pushed forward on the controls. They didn't know that the aircraft's horizontal tail (which controls it's vertical, or "pitch" attitude) had been mostly torn away during the high-g pull-out. They quickly switched to using the planes engines as a way to cause it's nose to rise or lower, and knew that they had to find an airport with adequate runways...long enough to give them a chance to land the crippled King Air with it's very marginal controls.

The first notice we had was an Arch medical helicopter calling the Cape Tower and reporting what the pilot perceived as "falling sheet metal" noticed by it's crew. A few seconds later we heard another call to the tower requesting an emergency landing. I grabbed my video camera, figuring to get some footage of the landing. It's not un-heard of for an aircraft to lose a gear door or piece of cowling in flight...still an urgent situation, but not usually life-threatening. This is not what I'd see through the camera's viewfinder.

The King Air was given clearance to our Runway 10 (landing toward the East) and approached after a couple zig-zagging turns. The plane turned to it's final approach and appeared to line up ok with the runway, but was moving fast. Inside the cockpit, the pilot would have think ahead of the aircraft and advance the throttles to raise the plane's nose at a time when he would normally be pulling power off. The King Air touched down at a speed higher than the flying speed of a lot of small planes, burning flat spots into it's brand new tires.

As the plane rolled out and slowed, I couldn't believe the image on my camera's screen. Almost the entire left horizontal stabilizer was missing. The remaining structure on the right side had lost most of it's elevator, with a remaining piece pointing down at about 45 degrees. The plane taxied up, and shut down like any other arriving aircraft, with a small crowd gathered to see if the crew needed help. They were still groggy, and I think it took some time for the sight of the King Air's twisted surfaces to fully register. The plane should not have been able to fly.

It would turn out that every major component of the airframe was crimped or twisted from the force of the pull-out. The wings were bent at about the halfway point of their span...the engines were deflected downward several degrees...the rear fuselage of the plane was partially buckled....but nothing totally failed...the devastated Super King Air still brought it's crew down safely.

The pilots weren't given a key to the city, politicians didn't rush to have their photos taken with them, and they weren't asked to appear at any major sporting events. They'd have to be thankful just to be breathing after a close-up peek into The Abyss...and they were.

Video of the landing can be seen on "Youtube"...listed under "King Air Emergency Landing"

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