Downed Plane in the Foothills!

A beautiful Sunday (a little bumpy but bumps come with clear skies) for flying, one of my IFR students, Tim Attoe, scheduled an IFR lesson in N64204, a Cessna 172N leased out of Livermore California (by Ahart Aviation Services). We had decided that the lesson would demonstrate and practice the skills needed to perform unpublished holds using VOR intersections, so we departed Livermore VFR towards the Manteca VOR (ECA) headed for HABXU intersection off of ECA 068 and LIN 107 radials.

As usual, Tim did great navigating to ECA, then flying on towards WRAPS intersection and then HABXU. Tim did a teardrop entry into a left-turn eastern hold over HABXU followed by some crosswind corrections towards the north to eliminate the resulting southern drift.

After a couple of turns, following my directions, Tim started heading back towards the Manteca VOR on bearing 248 (radial 068) towards WRAPS intersection to begin a southern holding pattern with right turns. During our turn back to ECA, we heard on Nor-Cal approach frequency 123.85 "MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY, This is XXX with engine failure near Oakdale airport 2,000 feet, going down". Immediately, Tim recognized the call and I went to action looking at the low-altitude enroute chart to see our proximity to Oakdale airport. We were indeed only about 10 miles to the north of O27, so I told Tim his lesson was over and asked him to turn to 200 and begin our descent from 5,500 feet. I then verified our course by entering O27 into the Apollo GPS receiver installed in N64204 and asked Tim to correct our course to 215.

Norcal Approach requested the aircraft in distress to squawk 7700 and notified them of a couple of airports in their general vicinity. We couldn't tell where the aircraft was, but assumed it was near the Oakdale airport so began scanning the low-altitude enroute chart for airports in that vicinity. Be aware, low-altitude enroute charts are awful at viewing terrain and never show airports that are private, and, I didn't bring my sectional charts. Tim came to the rescue again and had a sectional in hand. I quickly was able to find the airports in the area but Norcal had not mentioned the airport names and it was rather difficult trying to read their minds.
 

I turned COM-2 to 121.5 and began monitoring that frequency while I contacted Norcal to let them know our position and that we were heading towards Oakdale. They responded and accepted our help, so we continued on course. Less than 2 minutes later, Norcal lost contact with the aircraft. A shudder went through my body and I could feel a lump in my throat. The next thing I asked Tim to do was to begin circling the area around Oakdale looking for smoke. It got very quiet in the plane.
 

Norcal came back on asking us if we were still in the area. I responded and they asked the type of 172 we were flying in and to squaw 0373. They asked us to follow a heading of 035 and let us know they lost radar contact with the aircraft at 2,000 feet. I located Oakdale on the sectional chart and began drawing a line from O27 at 035. I found two airports on that course, both private; Kistler and Peoria. Norcal had asked if we had identified the airports in the area (as they had no idea of their identifies), so I phonetically spelled out the closer of the two and they agreed that this was the most probably landing place for the aircraft that was in distress.

We began to hear an ELT signal off of COM-2 which was set at 121.5. I let Norcal know and they thanked us for notifying them of this development. The aircraft was obviously on the ground and the ELT could have either been activated by a 3+ 'G' impact or manually by the pilots. Tim and I both hoped it was the later reason.

As we continued on a heading of 035, Norcal informed us we were about 2 miles away from the last known location of the aircraft. Tim and I found a multi-lane highway going up the foothills which I was able to identify on the sectional chart. We now knew exactly where we were and continued looking for the downed aircraft. In the near distance I spotted what looked like a camper that was at the end of a long dirt road. I asked Tim to head in that direction, but keep far enough away so we could get a good look. As we got closer, the once thought to be camper began looking more and more like a low-wing aircraft on the side of a road. I notified ATC that we had a possible target and that we were moving closer to investigate.

It was obvious the aircraft in distress was no where near Oakdale when they called this emergency in.  Understandable since during an engine-out emergency, emotions are running pretty high and details may be incorrect.  My thought:  Take your time, take deep breaths, and try to be as exact as possible.
 

Within a mile we knew, it was the downed airplane. Tim noticed some figures a little closer to us than the aircraft, and the first thing I worried it might be were the bodies of the pilot and passenger. We then saw the figures moving and waving something orange or red at us. If this was the plane, the crew had survived!. We sped up and after a few seconds we identified both the plane and the surviving crew members. I reported to ATC that we had found the downed aircraft but they wanted more details. I knew just what they were after. "Good news, both pilot and passenger have survived and the aircraft looks in tact". "Good news 64204 - Thank you for that update!"

We circled the downed aircraft while still at an altitude that ATC radar could see us. We also wagged our wings to let the pilot and passenger below know that they had been found that we were contacting the authorities with their position. I let ATC know that the plane was near the small town of Keystone next to a saw mill and asked if they had the position pretty well identified. ATC told us that they had the location which told me that there was nothing left for us to do. I asked for a flight following back to our home airport of Livermore while being thanked multiple times by ATC. "Your help has been greatly appreciated and you have made it very easy to find and take care of the occupants - Thank you very much for all of your help". All the thanks either Tim or I need.

Thanks Tim for your great flying skills giving me time to navigate us and find the downed aircraft. An experience I'm sure we won't soon forget.

Moral of the story?

Even in the unlikely event that an aircraft loses its engine, if you keep your head and follow procedures, you'll probably come out of it alive and well.

This page was last modified on 12/20/2006