Microlight Class 2 aircraft at Martins Bay in the North Island of New Zealand.
The two incidents happened on the 10th Jan 2014.
The facts that I know are from my own PERSONAL eyewitness accounts only, as the CAA will be following up with their own investigation I'm sure.
1. ZK-ORN was flying from Ardmore Airfield to Whangarei when it en-counted engine problems causing it to stop.
2. The pilots commenced a Forced Landing, looking for a suitable spot, Martins Bay Beach was the closest and the pilots just managed to make it to the beach safely from over the water in non powered flight, landing to the south. The pilot advised me that they glided for about 3 minutes to make it to the beach.
3. The fault seemed to be a Fuel Problem.
4. After the fault was addressed by the pilots, the public were cleared from the beach by the police so the pilots could takeoff again. The tide was coming in at the time.
5. A takeoff attempt was made, but ended in a crash after the left hand rear wheel ran into the waters edge causing to pull the plane further into the water and causing the propeller to hit the water snapping off one blade making the aircraft almost most flip and rotating 90 degrees to the left, very quickly and stop resting on right wing.
6. Beach goers raced to the rescue and righted the aircraft and both pilots got out uninjured with no injuries apparent and walked away from it. Both very lucky.
Photos as follows.
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| ZK-ORN Parked under trees on beach after Forced Landing |
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| View looking South East from Martins Bay |
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| South End of Martins Bay |
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| Engine Covers Off |
The next 7 photos are from the Takeoff Attempt.
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| Full Power Applied |
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| Take Off Roll |
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| Very Close to the Water |
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| Wave about to break into the beach |
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| Wave Breaks |
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| Wave rolls up beach and hits left rear wheel. Full Right Rudder applied for Engine Torque. |
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| 1-2 seconds before almost sudden stop and flip. Stopped taking photos and started running to aircraft. |
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| Left Hand Wing Tip damage |
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| Being towed off beach by tractor. |
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| Both Wings were cracked. |
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| Towed up the boat ramp and taken to the carpark area |
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| Wings removed later in the day awaiting truck to collect for ride back to Ardmore. |
