Donny Olson's
'Precautionary Landing'


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

On September 15, 2010, at aproximately 08:40, State Senator Donny Olson - a respected individual and a good friend of mine - had the misfortune of being forced to make a 'controlled emergency landing'   with his Cessna Turbo 310 on the Tundra, North of Nome.


 

See the
Official
Announcement.

Here is what his landing looks like, at aproximately the 700 foot elevation of King Mountain, 8 miles North of Nome, Alaska.


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

Approaching the 'Precautionary Landing' Site by ATV


 


Copyright © 2010, Keith Andrews

Overview

  1. Airplane contacts the ground;
  2. Goes through boulder field;
  3. Spins 180 degrees and comes to rest pointing the way it came from.

 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

Looking North. The plane is facing the way
it came from, or 'landed.'


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

The plane stopped facing North, although the
landing was to the south. It got spun around.


  >


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

Donny just opened the door and stepped out. The right wing is bent backwards about 20 degrees; the right engine is completely missing and is about 200 feet behind the cameraman, roughly in the direction of the landing.


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

The cabin. It looks nice in there, like you could step in and crank it up. No damage. There are some blood spatters on the passenger (right hand) seat and some more here and there on the panel and visors.


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

Right hand engine nacelle. The engine is missing, but was found about 200 feet farther along the line of landing, to the left of centerline 75 feet or so. The engine cowling, exhaust parts, propeller and miscellaneous debris is all to be found along the debris field.


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

The nose of the airplane is not a pretty sight, but there is nothing too structural there other than the nose landing gear.


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

This is the left wing. It is not bent back, although the wingtips are pretty mangled. Notice the engine is twisted 90 degrees, possibly due to the engine torque at the moment of impact, or due to striking some rocks. Again, the propeller is located some distance away.


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

Closeup of the left engine. Notice the propeller bolts were cleanly sheared off. Closer inspection reveals the crankshaft is slightly bent. There is little to no salvage here!


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

Better view of the left wing. The wingtip is smashed, the flaps are retracted; the aileron is deflected up, as is the other aileron. This indicates that either the aileron controls broke or the bent right hand wing distorted the aileron mechanism.


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

This lonesome starter is located about 20 feet from the left engine, but it does not belong to the left engine. It belongs to the right engine which is 250 or 300 feet away.


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

The tip of the fin and rudder. It is torn off. At first wild speculations were offered in explanation: "the plane was inverted ...", "a propeller or other object hit it ...", but the most logical explanation is that the force of the cartwheel upon impact simply exploded the tip. There is a rudder counterweight in there which would amplify the forces. No sign of dirt or other impact was found, so that is offered as the most likely explanation.


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

This poor propeller came to rest about 100 feet away from the plane. It looks like the left propller.


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

This is the other propeller, likely the right hand propeller. Like its twin, it shows that there was considerable power when it hit, possibly cruise or climb power.


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

This cowling belongs to the right hand nacelle, and it was pretty close to the site of the initial impact; about 600 feet back along the debris field. It even looks repairable.


 


Copyright © 2010, Ramon Gandia (iPhone 4HD)

This is probably the most dramatic picture of the whole series. It is back at the point of initial impact. There are three parallel tracks along the 'landing' line. The track shown here is the right hand propeller just starting to bite the ground, and each blade took a chunk out of the tundra and earth. The propeller track extends twenty or thirty feet and then becomes a straight groove when the propeller stopped turning. The blade strikes are about 18 inches apart. The other two tracks were the airplane belly and the other propeller (not pictured).

I leave it as an excercise in mathematics to figure out the speed of the hapless plane, assuming 2400 propeller rpm, three blades, each strike 18 inches apart. I did not take a measuring tape, so the 18 inches is an educated guess.

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