Posted on 11/15/2013 12:26:12 AM PST by Daffynition
A passenger fell out of small plane and plummeted into the water in Miami's Biscayne Bay today, police said.
The plane was flying at 1,800 feet at the time.
Air traffic control received a "mayday" call around 1:30 p.m. ET when the Piper PA 46 was flying roughly eight miles southeast of Tamiami Executive Airport.
"Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! I have a door ajar and I'm heading toward Tamiami," the pilot told air traffic control. "I have a door ajar and a passenger that fell down. I'm six miles from Tamiami."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
This and someone walking into a spinning prop are nightmares every private pilot has had.
#$%&ing flimsy doors.
18 hundred feet isn’t that far, is it? At 32 feet per second squared that’s, oh wait nevermind.
Could he swim?
I'm suspecting a suicide note and big insurance policy will eventually turn up.
Was the pilot a Good Shepherd?
It’s not the fall....but the landing that’ll kill ya.
The story was...Splashed, across the local news...
This week in Massachusetts:
http://www.salemnews.com/local/x1909763276/Man-rescued-off-Beverly-shore
Ability to tread water for hours is a plus.
I gotta tell you it’s impossible to “fall” out of a Piper PA-46.
The only way a passenger is getting out of a plane like this in flight is via a seriously intentional act.
The photo says…”Miami Dade police surround the plane”. What for? Were there donuts aboard? Guy opened the door, fell out.
No, the fall is only the terrifying part. Some of my worst nightmares are about falling. Others are about my in-laws. 1800 feet, that’s about 230 mph if not for terminal velocity. It’s about 10 seconds if also not for terminal velocity. Terminal velocity does you no good in this case.
Even if he managed to get the door opened against the slipstream, there is no way on earth that he "fell" out of the plane. Try it sometime.
I want to modify my position in this. I have been assuming that this guy was sitting next to the pilot.
if he was way in the back of the cabin, and out of his seat, he could access a door that opens upward - easier to open in flight than a front-hinged door. And if the guy were foolhardy enough to open the door, it is possible that he could “fall” out. The set of circumstances that could lead to such an outcome are improbable in the extreme - so extreme that I still think this had to be an intentional act.
I think either he guided the passenger to an excellent dive spot or the dude went head over heel on his own.
The under tow was holding back.
Should swam parallel to the shore line and he would have made it.
In high school some friends challenged me to swim out to a buoy.
I was a strong swimmer, no problem.
Made it out just fine. As I was coming back in it felt like something was pulling my legs down.
I had taken a course on lifesaving and in that moment recalled that I should swim parallel to shore.
So I swam about a mile south and when I walked back everyone wanted to know happened.
I relayed the story and didn’tt repeat the act.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3091584/posts
Opposite coast, man fatally jumps out of helicopter during scenic tour.
Wonder if they are connected in any way.
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