The CAP Cessna 172 crash at Whiteman Airport was on the TV news last night. Big fireball took out a couple of parked cars, so I do not suspect fuel starvation. The pilot reported engine failure on final approach to the airport, and the last transmission was "I hope I can stretch it to the runway".
The big question on everyone's mind here (I am based at the same airport, KWHP) is how far out from the airport did he realize he had a problem.
We have four miles of solid houses and city between the main inbound reporting point (Newhall Pass) and the airport. If you know you have a problem when you get to Newhall Pass, it's a high risk decision to continue, because of exactly this scenario. There are several far more survivable and more appropriate places to the north of this pass to go into if things get quiet in the airplane.
That being said, I have also identified a few potentially survivable places between Newhall Pass and KWHP to go for if that situation happened to me:
- We have two major freeways that were within gliding distance at some point on his approach (I-5 and state Route 118). Definitely not pretty and definitely will result in a TV news fiasco, but a much more controlled crash.
- We have a set of railroad tracks that runs along the final approach path that would have been better than where he did land. But if he was coming form the other direction (a left base leg to runway 12) these tracks would have been 100 feet further away than the runway.
- We have two large open grass areas, one is a city park, and one is an open field with big power lines crossing over the middle. The park would significantly damage the airplane but again it would be a more controlled crash. The open field would be do-able with minimal damage to the airplane, you would be well under the power lines rolling on the ground.
- We have the LAPD driver training facility and skid-pad that is right next to I-5 at the 405 freeway split. There's 600-700 feet of straight pavement there, and if you got everything right you could possibly skid in there and stop without damaging anything.
I have not walked on, or landed on any of these spots. It's very easy to point at them, puff up my chest and say I could land safely at these places, but it ain't happened and I'd rather it not happen.
My condolences to the CAP and the family of the pilot who was lost yesterday in this crash.