Microstock Photography Forum - General > Off Topic

Plane crashed in my front yard

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Shelma1:
Happened last night. (Everyone's OK.)

Think I can make some money from editorial images? Lol.

I'd just like, as a public service, to let everyone know that small planes are extremely dangerous. In the U.S. they crash several times a day, with fatal crashes about 5 times a week. There's a saying that you're more likely to die in a car on the way to the airport than on a plane, but that saying only applies to large jetliners, which are extremely safe. Small planes (general aviation) account for 90% of air travel fatalities in the U.S.

In addition, they're one of the last forms of transportation to run on leaded gas (avgas), which has levels of lead 8 times higher than the leaded gasoline banned for use in cars. In fact, small planes contribute half the lead in he atmosphere.

This pilot had just filled his balsa-wood-and-papier-mache plane with lots of leaded gasoline, which all poured out into my front yard, where it will enter the water table. We've been warned not to drink our water (we have wells).

The plane missed my house by just a few yards, snapping branches off my trees as it traveled down my driveway and crashed into a stand of trees near the street. The pilot is from Texas, so I suppose I should feel honored that he flew all he way to my yard in New Jersey to crash.  ::)

dragonblade:
Son-of-a-gun! Woah! I'm glad everyone is okay. Though that's pretty devastating that your water is affected. I guess it's pretty warm over in the US at the moment - I hope there won't be a chance that all that fuel in your front yard won't get ignited by something.

I fly a remote controlled plane as a hobby though I haven't had a crash as yet. I can certainly see that a crash in a full size plane would have pretty severe consequences.

BaldricksTrousers:
Glad you're safe.  300 deaths a year is pretty minimal compared with road deaths though I have no idea how many deaths-per-trip or per-mile they work out at. As for guns...

ShadySue:
That is super-scary.

Shelma1:
They had to spray foam all ver the plane because it was on fire before it crashed, and then with the fuel leak it was not a good situation.

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