On January 23, 2010, there was fog at the time of takeoff and visibility was a half-mile. Gary Bradford and his passenger Drago Strahija were killed when Bradford’s plane crashed in a neighborhood eight minutes from the Aurora Municipal Airport.
The Doyles, the family in whose yard the plane crashed are suing the pilot’s widow. On April 5, the Doyle family will face Gary Bradford’s estate in court.
Rita Bradford and her deceased husband owned ENS Corp., a Florida IT firm. At the time of the crash, he had owned the plane for three months after 98 hours of instrument experience, and 52 hours of flight instruction in seven days.
The meat of the suit is that the Doyles say the pilot did not properly inspect, maintain or know how to land the Cessna.
When the Cessna crashed in the Doyle’s yard, the plane did not strike the house, but debris started a fire in the north side of the garage.
A Cessna 210 made an emergency landing near Gordon Downs Road, near Halls Creek, East Kimberley region, Western Australia, on November 28.
The plane was on its way to Ringer Soak when the pilot noticed engine failure, shortly after 1 p.m.
The plane landed uneventfully. The pilot and his only passenger remained unharmed.
One person was injured after a small plane crash landed at Cameron Airport in El Dorado County, California.
The accident happened on the afternoon of May 21 when the single-engine Cessna 180 lost control, flipped over and landed upside down.
The pilot of the plane, Robert Petersen, 78, was the only one on-board and escaped with minor injuries.
He said that the accident happened due to a strong wind gust. “A little gust as I’m three-pointing and rolling out. When it starts and you don’t keep it straight, it’ll ground loop… it dragged the right wing tip, went up, the prop hit, then it stops and just flips over backwards.” He said after the accident.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating.
What: C And S Manufacturing Corp Cessna 414A en route from Marco Island, Collier County, Florida to Cherryland Airport in Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin
Where: Wisconsin
When: April 2,2012
Who: 2 aboard
Why: After her husband John passed out at the controls of their Cessna, eighty-one year old Helen Collins took some quick lessons “on the fly” and managed to land the plane, with minor damage.
Air Traffic Control talked to her until pilot instructor Robert Vuksanovic took his plane up to fly by her as he coached her down. The distress call came at 5:05 pm. after Collins was three hours in flight from Marco Island, Florida. On landing, Helen and her husband John were hospitalized; John was declared dead at 6:38 p.m. Helen had back pain, minor bumps and bruises and a broken rib, but her son Richard Collins did not lose both of his parents that day.
A heroic effort from ATC, Collins and flight instructor Robert Vuksanovic.
