A MICROLIGHT pilot and his 12-year-old passenger had an amazing escape when the engine of their plane stalled and cut out at 800ft.
Pilot Steve Iwell managed to steer the fixed-wing microlight towards open moorland where it came down to earth and bounced twice before smashing into a dry stone wall.
Incredibly, Steve, 40, and his passenger Elliot Scott, 12, walked from the wreckage without serious injury. The youngsterés father, Angus, 39, who was at home in the Saddleworth village of Greenfield, had spotted a plane in trouble and gone to help, not realising his son was on board.
Flying
Steve and Elliot had been flying over Oldham from Huddersfield yesterday afternoon Sunday when the engine stalled. Steve, an experienced pilot, managed to make an emergency landing in a field off Ward Lane in Diggle.
Elliot, a Rishworth High School pupil from Rishworth High School near Sowerby Bridge, west Yorkshire, said: éIt was a bit scary when it was coming down.
éIt bounced a bit then hit the wall. I wasnét hurt during the crash but I cut my leg when I was getting out of the plane on some barbed wire. I have been up in a microlight before, but this time the plane had a bigger engine.
éIt hasnét put me off. I would go up there again but I donét think my mum will let me now."
Engine
Angus, a financial director said: éWe saw the plane and heard the engine drop so came to see if we could help.
éWe didnét know it was the plane that Elliot was in. I wasnét worried because I have every confidence in Steve, we have been friends for years.é
Pilot Steve, a pest controller from Lees, Oldham, said: éWe were doing a leisure flight when the engine just coughed. I didnét have time to think about what could have happened because everything went so quickly. People say microlights are dangerous, but what happened today is testament to their safety, we both walked away unharmed.é
Crash
Steve and friends who rushed to help after the crash dismantled the plane to take it away for repair. Following an examination of the engine, it is thought water may have got into the fuel tank causing the engine to stall. Steve is part of a syndicate which owns the é24,000 plane.
He estimates it will cost a few thousand pounds to repair the broken propeller and damaged undercarriage.
The plane had taken off from Crosland Moor Airfield in Huddersfield and was due to return there when the accident happened.
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Nice one Steve, only the crashes get reported and as they say "it's a good landing if you can walk away"
Engine outs are getting rarer but the safety gets better and good training paid off.
Well done Steve - you'll do anything to get in the papers!!
Can we have a refund on that 'pleasure trip' we've booked with you!!!
I hear the airport are recruiting cabin crew.... maybe a change in hobbies is required!!!
Glad you escaped and all is well,
Kirsten, Chirk.
Glad to see all those PFL's paid off and you were able to walk away from it.
Why oh why do poeople leave walls where they will hit microlights?
Glad to hear it was successful outcome, although have to comment on reporting. Firstly engines 'quit', wings aerodynamicly 'stall'. Secondly aeroplanes never 'plummet' they 'glide', big difference. Also using words like 'amazing escape' and 'incredibly' makes it sound like engine failures nearly always turn into funerals, which is untrue. The vast majority of engine failures are survived with no injury.
I am not being pedantic, just misreporting these incidents leads to more unwarrented public distrust in general aviation. To put it in perspective more people proportionally die fishing each year than flying.
I think Chris is being generous in his description of the reporting. An emergency landing when the injuries are caused by barbed wire whilst getting out is not a 'crash'. Using 'terror' in the headline when the quote says 'worried' is simple sensationalism.
Shame on you.
also it wasn't a microlite but actually a small 2 seater aeroplane. a microlight is similar to a hanglider but has an engine. What training do journalists need these days or does media studies really only give training on how to serve fries!
actually anon you are mistaken, it was indeed a microlight (note the spekking here...) we call them 3 axis microlights - they are controlled just like real aeroplanes (which is what they are actually) whereas flex-wing microlights are just like hang gliders with engines and places for people to sit underneath. so, although reporters work mainly with fiction in this case they have stumbled upon facts - odd isn't it?
Sorry Anon from Manc, the plane was in fact a microlight, a "Three axis" microlight. The hang glider type are called "Flexwings". It is the weight that make the difference between the microlight and what gets called a "real" plane.
Well done to pilot Steve and also to future pilot Elliot, it happened to me one week ago but thanks god I was 1500 feet and near to an airfield, I had carb ice and it shut down, I tried several times to start but it was hopeless and I managed to land it in the airfield safely for me my passenger and the aircraft, and thanks go to my past instructor Major Alex Dalli and Captain Mark Said for there dedicated lessons that they give me.I always said that microlights are safe.