A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board is providing more insight into the emergency landing of a small commuter plane on the Loudoun County Parkway in Virginia last month.
On Jan. 19, the plane’s two pilots were forced to land their disabled Southern Airways Express Cessna 208, putting the disabled aircraft down safely on Virginia State Route 606, just moments after taking off from runway 30 at Dulles International Airport.
The aircraft was headed for a short flight to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with two pilots and five passengers on board.
The NTSB report indicates that weather conditions that day for Flight 246 would be somewhat challenging, with snow, mist and a broken ceiling of 900 feet — meaning that moments after they got off the airport property, the pilots would be in instrument conditions, flying the plane with limited visibility and operating the propeller airplane from their instrument panel for their navigation.
At about 600 feet, less than a minute into the flight, the NTSB report shows the pilots said they saw a standby power indicator light go on.
Seconds later, the pilots said they heard a “shattering noise and began feeling vibrations from the engine area.”
The report said the engine was then unresponsive.
In emergency situations such as this, when the engine is producing either no power or limited power, pilots are trained first to consider attempting to turn back to the airport if they have enough altitude to do that — generally more than 1,000 feet.
A low-altitude turn at a low air speed could likely not be accomplished safely, as it would take whatever remaining altitude the crew had.
So with only likely less than a minute, pilots are trained to find a road or open field and fly straight ahead, with the wings level, and attempt an emergency landing.
The pilots lined the plane up for a landing on the highway and had then to find a gap in between the cars, whose drivers were unaware until the last moment that an airplane was just above them and would land in a few seconds.
During the landing, the airplane touched down on the paved surface of the road and collided with a steel guardrail before coming to a stop. The flight crew secured the airplane, and the crew and passengers were met by first responders.
No one was injured.
Virginia State Police identified the pilot as 27-year-old Ahmed Awais, of Florida. Passengers included four adults and a 15-year-old boy, police said. The other pilot was not identified in the NTSB report.
Eyewitness Jesse Labell was driving on the Loudoun County Parkway when he said he heard a loud noise, looked up and saw a plane 20 feet above him, then landing 30 feet ahead of him before skidding into a guardrail, he told WTOP’s Neal Augenstein.
In a statement on the day of the incident, airline CEO Stan Little said, “We are relieved to report there were no injuries, and all passengers are safe and sound. We are thankful to our pilots, who did exactly what they were trained to do — to put the safety of our passengers first. We are working closely with the authorities to thoroughly investigate the situation.”
Part of the airplane was disassembled and taken to a maintenance facility for inspection. The NTSB’s full investigation could take longer than a year to reach a conclusion as to what happened and any recommendations the safety agency wants to make to improve aviation safety.
The site of the emergency landing was just three miles from the plane’s departure point.
WTOP’s Dan Ronan is a commercially rated pilot and transportation expert.
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