within an hour, the first rescue flight arrived on the spot. My colleague was working on the airplane at the airport and so was airborne within minutes. I had joined on the second flight. This is what it looks like while turning on final. There is no way this airplane could outperform the crater slope. Already 1 to 10 or 11 at the airstrip itself at 6500 ft and it goes steeper further. The wreck is that little speck in the middle of the picture. Even a U turn proved to be dangerous…
2 days later, the team flew and walked to the wreck and studied the question.
this is where an engine is normally attached
the pilot’s seat was ripped off from its rails.
our belly pod made of fiber glass got ripped off too but must have cushioned the impact. We found the content trailing from the impact to the last stop. It looks the plane just bounced and flipped in one 30 m jump. The landing didn’t look damaged! The elasticity of those landing struts is just amazing. There is no plan to salvage them but the wheels will be, and tested I guess. The nose wheel strut is still straight, it didn’t bend but the bolts and mounts did snap. Something got to give…on impact dirt and pebbles got jammed between the rims and the tyre, though there is no puncture and no cracks in it, the rims are not scratched!
the crumbled belly.
the left wing got separated, the cabin got crushed a bit towards the outside.
beautiful sighting otherwise…
engine bonnet. The screws in the middle top didn’t even pop out!
The idea to drive up there started to look more and more doable.
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