Why might a cessna 172 crash?

Question

I know a bit about planes...but im writing a story for english where a man crashes his cessna on an island....hes expirenced so i cant use that he ran out of fuel or ran into bad weather (he would have checked).....i cant think how to have the plane crash and have him live....if he was spatialy disorientated i would assume that he would not have been able to land safely...and also that goes back to the weather thing.....

does anyone have any ideas? its supposed to be a small tropical island that has no people....any ideas of other small aircraft that I could use? i like the idea of him knowing how to fly using instruments......but im not really picky

Answer 1

Pilot could have decided to attempt a landing on the beach, have a prop strike and flip the plane. Poor decisions are made all the time.  Maybe he did a low fly by and startled some birds, and a bird strike on the windshield startled him into dipping the wing into a tree.

   John Denver died due to structural failure in a homebuilt airplane. Stuff happens.

Answer 2

The problem is, even experienced pilots make mistakes at times, sometimes ones which cost them big time.

Weather is a good one because even if the pilot checks the weather thouroughly just five minutes before he gets in his airplane, changes can happen so fast that he would not have foreseen them. This has happened to me in the past and I even got fired from a job because I couldn't make it back in time... my boss wanted to know "you're a pilot aren't you supposed to know these things?"

But unfortunately even the best forecasters are wrong at times.

If you want to get real technical you could say that he flew too low to keep good navigation signals and got lost that way.

Good luck with your story, let me know if I can help more.

Answer 3

the island happens to be a secret nuclear missile base and the cessna was shot down as an intruder

Answer 4

A sudden electrical fire in the cockpit. He shuts down the battery and alternator, throws the vents open and shuts the cabin heat down but the fire keeps on going. The cockpit is starting to fill with smoke and he's trying to grab the fire extinguisher. He takes a deep breath through his storm window and empties the fire extinguisher on the instrument panel. But the fire must be getting air from somewhere else because the fire wont go out. The guy is starting to see some flames now, his situation is becoming desperate and he has to land the plane immediately. He kicks in the window next to the left rear seat with his fire extinguisher to clear up the smoke but he can't do anything about the flames reaching his legs and arms from under the instrument panel. In a desperate move he cuts the throttle and pulls the flaps. He knows he should slow the plane down first but he trusts his instincts and pushes the plane straight down. The plane starts accelerating and soon he over speeds his flaps but he doesn't care bout that cause he needs a place to land, best place he can see is the beach because the rest of the island is covered with trees. Right over the beach he pulls the plane up violently and in doing so he damages his control surfaces. He tries to float a little longer but the damaged aircraft hits the soft sand wheels first causing him to tip over on its back. the moment the rudder hits the ground it breaks off and the plane slides on upside down for a moment, before flipping a couple of times again, breaking of the wings and the aircraft gets to a stop into the water, extinguishing the fire instantly in doing so. Our guy is badly hurt but he manages to leave the aircraft safely and walks on to the beach where his Lost adventure starts.

Something like this?

Answer 5

BIRD STRIKE!!!

At my local FBO, a hawk went through a Cessna 182 prop, through the cowling, and caused extensive damage to the engine compartment. The pilot was in the landing pattern and made an emergency landing, no power. But if this were to happen anywhere not near an airport, the pilot would be forced to find a suitable place to glide to and attempt to land. Depending on the area, it may end up in a crash landing.

This probably would work well in your book.

Answer 6

BullSHIT planes don't crash , pilots crash. everything listed above me is NOT WHY A CESSNA WOULD CRASH it is what can happen to a aircraft if it is not properly maintaned.A plane crashing , especially a cessna is so ridiculos from haha all the things he listed above ,crashing is only the most extreme case , you can always glide. If you are going to write that story , don't use a Cessna write about , another aircraft , such as a homebuilt.

Answer 7

If your pilot was experienced then he wouldn't crash, he would make a forced landing. Blame it on something like a fuel cap coming off, one of the magneto's failing or  loss of oil pressure. If you wish to blame it on the weather, have him making a emergency landing on the beach because of thunder storms all around him. You could also have a passenger put something on the dash that as a magnet in it like a a small radio with a speaker, that way they compass is off and he could be lost and running out of fuel. Just remember a good pilot will put it on the ground before he runs completely out of options. It might not be pretty, but he will live too fly another day.

Answer 8

prop falling off. VERY rare, but it happens.

It gets real quiet, and the oil all over the windshield blocks the pilots outside/forward visibility.

Hey Cessna 172 man, Do you think you could glide to a landing with out "fubar" the plane if the prop becomes unattached?

If you say yes, I am the one to call BS!  Do a w&b with out he prop and get back to me. Crash  would be inevitable. Check out the NTSB site, There are instances where this happened.

Answer 9

Experienced pilots make mistakes.  There are tons of examples in real world accidents.

C172s in the tropics?  How about a typhoon?  How about a bird hitting the windshield?  How about he just plain didn't do his calculations right and ran out of fuel?  How about just a mechanical malfunction - the engine failed due to poor maintenance?

Answer 10

The pilot was distracted by Polynesian Native girls practicing the 'Virgin's Dance of Seduction' on a neighboring island, became disoriented from lack of blood to his brain and had a low-level departure/flat spin from too much right rudder input.

Or something like that.

Answer 11

The Right Answer >

A Lighting in strike shorts out the radio and VOR in  heavy thunderstorm, He desperately try to regain direction and communication, he over looking his limiter. In doing so, he crashed in to the top of some trees…

Will that help?

Answer 12

there should be a tropical thunderstorm and really bad wind and visibility. he flies into the cloud. (make it a beechcraft baron). the turbulence is so extreme the plane breaks about and falls out of the sky he lands in the water near an island. he swims to the island. etc.

Answer 13

I would go with running out of fuel or some other mechanical problem.  I've seen pilots with tens of thousands of hours do things like take off with the flight control locks on so anything is possible.

Answer 14

An instructor I used to have had to make an off-field landing because one of his cylinders came loose from the engine block (started hammering away and lost power, major oil loss), so you could use that, or how about the engine threw a rod (connecting rod) or some other such major type of engine failure??

Answer 15

The real question here is how & why is a single engine aircraft flying around a deserted tropical island. You will have to set up a reasonable scenario for the pilot to fly from some destination airport withing reach of the Cessna.

As for the crash, there have been many crashes by experienced pilots. They DO make mistakes, just like anyone else. I'd opt for stretching the fuel for just another turn around this island, then running short. Fuel depletion happens often enough that it's a logical choice.

By the way, planes can glide to a landing without a prop. Sean Tucker did it at least twice that I know about, and our files have several other such events.

ATP

Answer 16

The MAJORITY of Cessna 172 crashes are PILOT ERROR!  Even pilots with thousands of hours DO crash because of running out of fuel, or flying into bad weather, or other mistakes that you would think only a rookie would make...  Don't rule out a simple explanation for a crash just because your character is an experienced pilot.

Answer 17

Fuel contamination

Oil pressure loss

Complete electrical failure

Engine failure

Hypoxia

The list is basically endless.  I just have a few basics here, go ahead and get creative though.  It's your story after all.

Answer 18

I'd call a "Mid-air" a crash....

Most of this other stuff you guys are talking about is more of a

"Forced Landing"

       Gotta Fly...

                          Mike & "Jaz" in MN

Answer 19

As the fuel prices of gas were climbing higher and higher, everyone was looking for a way to cut cost.   "Cut cost" he said to himself..."I'll cut the 100LL with some auto fuel!  I know I can't use auto fuel in my Cessna, but if I just cut some in, say 30%, that ought to be just fine.

Answer 20

Elevator hardover would be the best thing to survive from. He's flying at 15000 feet and his elevator hardovers for a dive. However, its a slow dive, so he basically crash lands on the island. That's probably the best way..

Answer 21

Tropical Islands are know for there fast developing thunder storms, depending on the size of the islands due to differntial heating, so He could hit a wind shear, hail, or the best way, a bird.

Bird are very common around island beach areas, and seagulls or any other bird that size would do substinal damage if it his the leading edge,or windsheild of the a/c when in cruise. it could make theh aircraft almost uncontrollable, due to aerodynamic forecs on a bent wing, or added drag from a blown out windscreen. If i had to write a story on a a/c having to be ditched on an island, thats how i would take out a c-172.  

My only objection, is that radios and ELT would still work in a emergency landing on the beach. Just make sure that the airplane caught on fire after it landed , from hitting a wing on a palm tree and the nav lights ignited the fuel dripping from the wing, after he got out.. and ran for his life.

Acutally auto fuel will not have major problems in most GA aircraft in short duration.  Most older aircraft acutally have a STC to use Auto Gas in their aircraft with very slight modification. The only problem is that on new, high performance engines, due to higher compression, Auto gas will detoniate due to the usually lower octane level.