The aircraft, a Twin Otter, belonged to Air Antilles and was on a flight from Point-a-Pitre on 23/08/2023. According to local accident reports, there were 7 people on board and 1 person was slightly hurt but treated on site and didn't need to go to hospital. The report said the plane veered onto the grass due to a nosewheel steering failure on landing, clipped a signpost, then turned sharp left into the parked helicopter. It is apparently still parked at the airport awaiting a decision on whether it's repairable. It is a 2019 built aircraft, so it probably is repairable if they can recover it to a workshop.
Even though Kelsey doesn't usually pilot passenger planes, he's one of the best unofficial spokesmen that the industry has, at least for those of us with a fear of flying.
A plane ran off the runway, through a fence and hit a car. No one was hurt so it ended up an interesting picture and probably an interesting call with the car insurance
@AbductedbyAliens58"He just rambles on and repeats himself?" I haven't noticed that he just rambles on and repeats himself. I've been watching Kelsey's channel for a good long while now on account of the fact that airplanes, heck, even aviation in general, have interested me since I was a wee one, since before I even understood the Bernoulli Effect, so as far as I knew when I was very young aircraft were held up by magic because I was a kid, so it has been kind of fascinating, watching and enjoying all the videos he works so hard to make, especially because he also shares all kinds of interesting facts about the aviation industry, too. So whe you say he just rambles on and repeats himself, can you give us any examples of where and how he just rambles on and repeats himself, because that way we might see where he just rambles on and repeats himself. That way we can all get together and explain to him that he just rambles and repeats himself and maybe with our input he might recognize that he rambles on and repeats himself and he very well may stop just rambling on and repeating himself because a lot of content creators don't want to become known as channel hosts who just ramble on and repeat themselves, and a lot of them dont want to be or become hosts who just ramble on and repeat themselves because they take pride in their work and often take the experiences of their viewers into account when they're working hard to provide interesting, quality content to their viewers even though their viewers don't pay a dime to watch the videos they make. It's almost like a public service and/or a labor of love! 😁 tl/dr: Viewer makes vague complaint. I ask for clarification.
Not sure how many comments you see but you have helped me tremendously. I have a long time fear of flying so bad I wouldn’t fly at all. Watching your channel has alleviated the fear so much I was able to fly to Washington state from NC to visit my son and daughter in law. Your explanations of what planes do and why they do them and how safe it really is. I had no surprises on the flight as I remembered things you said at each point of my trip taxiing, takeoff, in flight, landing , braking etc. Thanks so much for what you do. PS Delta comfort is worth the extra money. Thanks for your professional insight
It's not the flying that you should worry about, it's the landing, whether you roll down a runway, or bounce from a sudden impact of slamming into the earth. But if you trust your pilot and the aircraft and the pilot is qualified, you shouldn't have to worry. 😁
I totally understand this! I also have to thank Kelsey. Because of watching his videos, my 50-years of absolute terror of flying is gone! You couldn't get me on a plane!! My husband always wanted to go to Europe...nope. There was no way! Two years ago I made my first flight in 30 years (without anxiety meds or alcohol-I don't drink). We flew to the UK from California. I did really well, considering the length and distance. I was pretty proud of myself but we had two great flights. I had been watching 74Gear since 2019. I just flew three weeks ago to DFW from GA without a care in the world; even my husband remarked how calm I was and how wonderful it was that we could go places now. Turbulence, Smurbulence! Thank you, Kelsey! You really changed my life!!! I wish you could see what you've done for us!
HI @74 Gear. I’m a private pilot at St Barthélémy based at the island. I want to clarify the first part as I landed there more than 600 times there (Even landed there yesterday). First for small airplanes only (C172 - PA28 single engine only). Normally you can land few meters after Charly exit no problem at all. It depends on your speed of course but you have way enough runway after touching down to slow down. In case of airplanes doesn’t want to touch down you can retract your flaps (you can see the C172 did it, that’s help to push the plane on the ground) I’m not a fan of this, but sometimes I do this when not confident (Piper flaps are manual hopefully). Blow off tire happen lot of times, there is a bunch of videos on CZcams that you can see with that kind of problems. Just check your tires before flying, but if it happen to you in st Barth, it’s kind of a normal thing on your pilot life 😅.
@@thierrygaillot1980Yeah kind of looks like the pilot got spooked by the less than ideal landing up to then (first off center then floating along) and mashed the brakes too hard because he saw the end of the runway coming up, even though "normal" brake application would have been fine.
Years ago I lived for a year down in the Caribbean. I remember one flight extremely well that went from Union Island to Argentina. We got on the flight and it had two long benches down each side rather than seats. We sat down and there were a couple goats, some chickens and other farm animals with their owners. We shrugged, no big. We took off and I looked out the window and noticed the engine cowling was being held on by wire. I looked closer and realized there was wire holding all kinds of parts on the plane. We made it and have some great pics of a plane we probably shouldn't have gotten on lol.
Union Island airfield used to be even shorter - and has a big hill at one end, just like this. The problem back then wasn't goats and cows on the aircraft - it was goats and cows on the runway... 🙂
Nice “tall story” - amazing how that plane survived a 3K+ mile flight giving its condition and that it had range given that Union Island Airport runway is only 2.4kft long and only handles small prop planes 😂
@@mrsnow61 mentioning Argentina is pure nonsense, especially with farm animals. Argentina exports those, not the other way around. But this story would make sense for island hopping.
Watching Kelsey’s face when something goes horribly wrong is awesome. 😂😂Always excited to see a new video. Thanks for making my day !! Stay safe Kelsey.
I'm thinking, those pilots in the 2nd video were disgruntled and they saw their bosses helicopter sitting there, so they thought, "WHY NOT?!" and used his helicopter as a brake to stop their airplane before quitting their jobs. 😁
Great video. Reminds me of my long student XC flight. I landed at KMAE for fuel before returning to KFAT, and my right main blew upon touchdown. The panel was slanted to the right (weird feeling) and the plane was obviously pulling hard to the right as well. I immediately jumped on my left break in an attempt to match the drag induced by the blown right main, but my trajectory was still heading towards the side of the runway. I then went full deflection left rudder, and while that helped, I was still heading for disaster (the side of the runway was a slight drop into mushy greens). I then added FULL power to gain rudder authority, which straightened me out just enough as my forward momentum dropped off, ultimately coming to a stop about a foot before going off the runway. Within 30 seconds there were pilots driving out to assist from the hangers. It was really awesome to see the response of those who witnessed it on the ground. The aviation community looks out for one another... Oh by the way. You know the "rule of 3s?" Yeah. I experienced it that day. After the mechanic shop replaced my tire (my CFI knew them and got it handled), I proceeded to refuel as intended. The fuel pad was slightly skewed and not level, and I forgot to put my fuel selector on one tank, leaving it in the "both" tanks position. Needless to say I was still a bit flustered by the entire ordeal. Well, after measuring the tank and watching the gallons tick away patiently, halfway through the tank overfilled and I had 100LL all over the top of the wing. On me. Ugh. How embarrassing that was... THEN, on my t/o roll out of there, at 50kts just before rotation, I noticed a massive hawk coming from my 10 o'clock heading towards my 4 o'clock. I sat back, accepting what looked to be an imminent bird strike as fate, but remained on the runway and didn't rotate. I heard him graze the top of the fuselage as he went overhead. I can only imagine what would have happened had I not seen the hawk. I likely would have rotated right into him. It was quite the eventful long student XC flight 😂. I won't lie. I questioned my aeronautical desires that day ... But in the end, realized I handled the blow out remarkably well, and that my instincts in the moment saved the plane from further damage.
As a student pilot I was practicing T&L with my CFI. On one landing I was on the brakes trying to make the first exit when suddenly the plane yawed about 45 degrees left towards the dirt. I knew instantly that I had a brake failure as the right pedal backpressure was lost. I immediately released the left brake and pushed full right rudder and announced brake failure, saving it just before reaching the runway edge. My CFI was pleased and gave me an attaboy.
You can tell it IS the pilot revving the engine as you can see the propeller spin sync up differently with the camera shutter when it goes from idle to revved and back to idle again
I had a brake lockup in my Bonanza which shut down a runway for a while. It happened after touching down and slowing to taxi speed and there was no skidding, and actually hardly used brakes at all as it was a long runway. I only began to notice loss of directional control when turning off on a taxiway but then with my starboard brake locked up I couldn't move. Operations had to come out with dollies and a tug, but the tug stalled and ended up stuck as well so they had to go find a FBO with a second tug. It was a comedy of problems. A supervisor came out and, noting no skid marks or flat tire and the one brake locked up solid, determined it to be purely a mechanical failure and I wasn't even charged for the towing. The problem turned out to be moisture contamination of the brake fluid which had frozen on that extremely cold night. Everyone was super nice to me and I gave all the guys who came out nice tips.
I really enjoy these videos. After watching enough of these videos, I feel confident that if I'm ever in a plane and there's an emergency situation, everything I have learned from this channel will allow me to know that eventually I will see a break down of it on this channel.
Small correction. Airport was there before 1984. I did landings with my instructor there multiple times in the late 1970s and early 1980s before 1984. Thanks for the memories!
As a Cessna pilot I can say we get tought to rev the engine for 5 to 10 sec after taxi and then shut it down by giving it full lean. By doing so you 'clean' the cylinders and spark plugs of all unused gas.
The main reason we do that is for safety, to remove all gas from the cylinders so you don't park a Cessna full of fuel in its engine connected to a prop that could go live if bumped
My guess as to what happened to the first plane was that they got on the brakes as soon as they felt the plane touch down, about 0:42 you can hear a brake noise, but the right wheel is still floating because of the lean. So the left brake is starting to slow the plane down, but the right brake is fully locked because that wheel wasn't spinning yet. And the moment it finally touches down, around 0:45 it's just dragging static rubber along the pavement and turning it into white smoke.
Or they may not have realized the right wheel wasn't down yet, and were trying to compensate for the lack of braking on the right by applying it harder
Caribbean relaxed attitude, pretty common. An AMT friend is from Grand Cayman, the most chill person you’d ever meet. Great video of these short runways Kelsey!
Another great video! It sometimes seems like it takes forever for Sunday to get here each week so I can get another 74 Gear video. Anyway, as a younger pilot, I would have dreamed to take a shot at flying into St. Barts, but now, I'm older and I know better. BUT, you US based pilots can get a similar (although not as carzy dangerous) experience if you want to fly in low over a beach and drop it down over a sand dune onto a short runway: Montauk (KMTP) is a thrill to fly into and, afterwards, you go get a great seafood lunch a short walk up the road. Nothing like kids on the beach waving at you as you swoop by 30 feet over their heads.
I have been a passenger flying in and out of St Barts a half dozen times and it was wonderful. Standing at the top of the hill at the rotary was fun watching how close the planes came in overhead. The best fun though was driving on the roller coaster narrow roads around the island.
im extremely scared of flying, and i got thalassophobia and megalohydrothalassophobia, its embarassing, but this prevents me a lot from going places as you can imagine, but 74's videos are helping a lot, words coming from an actual pilot, who has experienced a lot, it truly does give you a sense of comfort, but then you have moments like this incident, we dont know exactly what happened but there could have been civilians on this plane landing somewhere and crashed into a damn helicopter somehow which adds to it, now, this is not a common thing but still, details matter in aviation.
I flew a Grumman AA-5 for a while. That type doesn't have nosewheel steering - you need to use differential braking. One time, halfway to the runway, one brake failed, partially locking up. I could still taxi, but could only make left-hand turns. It made taxiing back interesting.
Your eyes are righteously green in this vid Kelsey 🤩 I even put it on my TV to check the color against my phone 🍀 and they’re even brighter… just like the ocean around St Barts. I literally had to keep rewinding the content to keep up 🫠 It’s usually your big brain that distracts me, but not this time 🙈
Great video as always. Hoping you're gonna cover that AC 777 that had an interesting landing at YYZ a few days ago - I gotta fly on one of those to that airport soon and could use the reassurance lol
Regarding the Cessna, wheel pants will grab a blown tire. There's not much clearance inside between pant wall and tire and when the tire gets low, it gets fat. It's one reason many owners remove the pants.
So i was watching your video at breakfast (free BTW) before our flight in the hotel with my coworker, when he remarked I hope we are never in one of his videos. We both nervously LOL’d and I quickly switched to Squirrel videos. Anyway love your Videos.
I've had a flat in a Cessna 172. It isn't possible to tow a 172 that has wheel pants* with a flat tire (at least, not without damaging the plane). The deflated tire gets stuck between the pant and the rim, causing the whole wheel to lock up. The FBO had to send out a mechanic to take off the pant to free the tire so that it could be towed. Considering this happened at around 10:00pm, it took quite a while to get that plane off the taxiway. * The aerodynamic farings that go over the tire.
What could've happened with the twin Otter is the tiller being off centre (by a lot) to the left. It would've touched on the mains with no issues, but as soon as the nose came down that nose wheel would've put it on a trajectory for disaster. The nose tiller is not spring loaded so wherever you leave it last is where the wheel will stay pointing. Edit: fixed typos
This is similar to incidents/accidents that have happened many many times in the past. Just check any of the accident data bases for DHC6 runway excursions. The nosewheel comes out of the centered position (where it is supposed to be mechanically locked) for some reason. Once a nosewheel that is not centered, makes contact with the runway, the excursion is almost impossible to overcome.
If I remember correctly there’s a cantering lug it sits in when the oleo is extended. We would check the tiller is straight during pre landing checks. I once flew an aircraft that consistently pulled left. It turned out a hydraulic non return valve was faulty and was causing the gradual left input to develop between the tiller check and landing. The big thing with the Twin Otter normally is the weather cocking but that would have turned it the other way. I think the crosswind limit is around 25-27 knots and into wind aileron was vital above about 15 knots. The rudder was not enough.
Always cool to see a video about a project we just wrapped up. The aircraft is now enroute back to canada for repair. Your analysis is interesting, but i think the final report will supprise many.
St Barths is worth the cost of a flight inbound. San Martin has a small airport nearby with direct flights, cheap. St Barths and Saba are great landing spectacles. On Saba, pilots often come in below the airport level (to avoid strong headwinds, heading straight into a cliff), lifting and touching down at the last moment.
Hey Kelsey, I'm sitting here after Thanksgiving and decided to put on Die Hard. I would like to hear your critique of the 747 landing that they decided to use in the opening scene. Lol. Happy Thanksgiving buddy, may your landings be better than his.
One thing that may very well have contributed to the blown tire on the C172 is the lack of left rudder that was clearly needed before touchdown. The plane is basically pointing at the cameraman when it touches down, and I can't imagine that such an amount of side loading is good for the tires. Crosswind correction would've called for left rudder and right aileron to keep the airplane aligned with the runway, but also over the centerline. Might've saved the tire. The wind sock is not that indicative of what the winds around the whole airport might've been doing; especially over the hill right before the plane crossed the threshold. As you mentioned, the airport is surrounded by mountains. Winds tend to bounce off of those mountains and fly all over the place. The winds might've been relatively calm at the surface near the beach, but they could've been very different just a couple hundred feet above and at the approach end of the runway.
Kelsey, since i born ,i'm leaving in ST Barths,I'm 62. This airport was created by Free French pilots fighting for the RAF;Today it is an attraction for many who do not always have the expertise and the experience. For the twin Otter, the company was bankrupt and it was not the best pilot who were in command. In youtube check "Aviation dans la Caraïbes" for the historic of aviation in ST Barths
The Twin Otter approach looks low, but at this distance it's hard to tell. Looking closely, it appears that the nose wheel may have clipped the slight berm at runway 28, or at least touched down hard before the mains. That would explain a steering problem or failure. These guys are super good at getting the wheels on the ground quick at St. Barts, but I've seen a ton of video where they are pushing the nose down, rather than burning off the energy in a longer float. Once you reverse the props on the Twin Otter, it comes to a stop pretty darn quick.
Retired 3 yrs ago with around 5000 hrs PIC TwinOtter bush flying. Beautiful machine if handled well. It has a thick wing which creates a lot of lift and is prone to veer if "full stick in the wind" at Xwind landings is not done. It had full flaps so V ldg would be around 65 kts, nose wheel centred MUST be checked on base and final. Too fast/no stick in the wind/nosewheel not centred.
On a lot of smaller planes the front wheel is *not* steerable by any mechanical means. It is a castering wheel - a lot like a shopping cart. You steer your plane on the ground by means of differential braking.
I’m TERRIFIED of flying and I recently found this channel & mentour pilots channel which REALLY REALLY made me feel better if I ever decided to fly…..The thing is I trust the pilots & I know they will do absolutely anything and everything to save their aircraft if problems arise…..The thing I DEFINITELY DONT trust is mechanical issues, things falling off from wear and tear or someone accidentally covering up an extremely important sensor which then crashes the plane ✈️ that’s probably why I’ll never ever fly but give these pilots their due they are super impressive in what they do ❤❤❤❤❤
A St Bart's forum said he was landing over the beach and was wide left of the runway. They also mentioned that the pilot reported problems with the braking system. They were also saying they thought he landed on grass.
Many years ago, I landed my super swift at a Wichita airport in front of a thunderstorm. A little low on fuel, I could see the cross wind was way too high. So I landed on a taxi way directly into the wind. And spent the next 15 min flying the airplane on the ground. Needing 15 to 1800 RPM to hold position.
8:45 🤣The banner at the top of the video reading "the Turmoil Pass" as the location while the plane hits the helicopter. The pilots must have appreciated the foreshadowing... 🤪
I had a similar flat tire situation on touchdown flying same model C172. The tire was old and it was its time to go. At first, when the plane started pulling right I just concentrated on staying on the runway and not flipping over. And when I finally stopped I did exactly what the pilot in the video did: put power to move away. Of course the plane remained motionless. Only after that I opened up the passenger door and looked at the right wheel. I saw that the tire was flat. Called atc, and the airport team moved the plane to the hangar. There was no damage, just a fat bill for towing the plane. Was flying with a new tire in a couple of days.
I love your vids! I was looking pretty closely at the details of the runway " via google", correct me if I'm wrong. It looks like they landed on the apron, not the runway.
Kelsey, looking back on your experience you said in a video in the new year I have a thought. What if you did a set of vids of you in different countries you find yourself in doing a personal flight. Maybe in Japan rent a plane and go, then in Korea, etc whereever you find yourself. Just a thought
At my flight school for a while there was an exhibit of a a C172 tyre which was flat on the one side after the pilot had opted to slam the brakes on touchdown. The tyre had a sticky note saying "Self-choking tyre" 🙂
I've stood on that ridge watching planes land. Between the steep descent, the downhill short runway, and the water right at the end I can see how sphincters might be a bit tight.
we need contour lines on those maps, but looking at the obvious grade in the runway in the shot with the helicopter, I wonder if once you're off the runway, getting back is a bit like going uphill.
From a technician thoughts considering that there is smoke coming from the wheel it is more likely that the anti-lock brake system failed and locked up and caused the brake pads to lock up against the rotar causing the pads to burned onto the disc rotar. Or some thing got caught in the wheel assembly and smoked do to heat of the brake system.
I've enjoyed watching videos of landings at St. Barts for a number of years, going back prior to the current re-routed roadway, and I enjoy watching the challenge of the landing. However... given that there have been crashes there before including at least one fatal one in the past... and they DID move the roadway to improve safety... isn't it about time that they continue to improve the runway environment by bringing down the height of the hill in front of the runway? Either gradually shaving it down over time or as one large construction project. It might require re-routing traffic on the hill a bit, but they have already attempted a large project before.
"The wing came off, so that's obviously gonna be a problem" Hahaha, just gotta love Kelsey.
Given the lack of maintence facilities at St Barts they may need to tow it beyond the environment.
The aircraft, a Twin Otter, belonged to Air Antilles and was on a flight from Point-a-Pitre on 23/08/2023. According to local accident reports, there were 7 people on board and 1 person was slightly hurt but treated on site and didn't need to go to hospital. The report said the plane veered onto the grass due to a nosewheel steering failure on landing, clipped a signpost, then turned sharp left into the parked helicopter. It is apparently still parked at the airport awaiting a decision on whether it's repairable. It is a 2019 built aircraft, so it probably is repairable if they can recover it to a workshop.
From firsthand witness. It's a 2018, the aircraft was recovered, disassembled, and is enroute back to Canada to be rebuilt.
@@jetdoctr Thanks.
@@jetdoctrYes the plane remained parked for over two months and finally last week they disassembled it and got it out.
That will be a very expensive repair.
@@osd9933 correct. Were you watching the progress? Was a challenge to tune out the crowds and do the work
Even though Kelsey doesn't usually pilot passenger planes, he's one of the best unofficial spokesmen that the industry has, at least for those of us with a fear of flying.
Legit why I watch his channel
Kelsey is great but so is MentourPilot
A plane ran off the runway, through a fence and hit a car. No one was hurt so it ended up an interesting picture and probably an interesting call with the car insurance
As a retired pilot who's had some crash/emergency landings, I don't have a fear of flying, I have a fear of landing. 🤣
@AbductedbyAliens58"He just rambles on and repeats himself?" I haven't noticed that he just rambles on and repeats himself.
I've been watching Kelsey's channel for a good long while now on account of the fact that airplanes, heck, even aviation in general, have interested me since I was a wee one, since before I even understood the Bernoulli Effect, so as far as I knew when I was very young aircraft were held up by magic because I was a kid, so it has been kind of fascinating, watching and enjoying all the videos he works so hard to make, especially because he also shares all kinds of interesting facts about the aviation industry, too.
So whe you say he just rambles on and repeats himself, can you give us any examples of where and how he just rambles on and repeats himself, because that way we might see where he just rambles on and repeats himself. That way we can all get together and explain to him that he just rambles and repeats himself and maybe with our input he might recognize that he rambles on and repeats himself and he very well may stop just rambling on and repeating himself because a lot of content creators don't want to become known as channel hosts who just ramble on and repeat themselves, and a lot of them dont want to be or become hosts who just ramble on and repeat themselves because they take pride in their work and often take the experiences of their viewers into account when they're working hard to provide interesting, quality content to their viewers even though their viewers don't pay a dime to watch the videos they make.
It's almost like a public service and/or a labor of love! 😁
tl/dr: Viewer makes vague complaint. I ask for clarification.
Not sure how many comments you see but you have helped me tremendously. I have a long time fear of flying so bad I wouldn’t fly at all. Watching your channel has alleviated the fear so much I was able to fly to Washington state from NC to visit my son and daughter in law. Your explanations of what planes do and why they do them and how safe it really is. I had no surprises on the flight as I remembered things you said at each point of my trip taxiing, takeoff, in flight, landing , braking etc.
Thanks so much for what you do.
PS Delta comfort is worth the extra money.
Thanks for your professional insight
Congratulations!
This is great, well done! I hope Kelsey sees this too
Same here. I owe Kelsey a big thank you.
It's not the flying that you should worry about, it's the landing, whether you roll down a runway, or bounce from a sudden impact of slamming into the earth. But if you trust your pilot and the aircraft and the pilot is qualified, you shouldn't have to worry. 😁
I totally understand this! I also have to thank Kelsey.
Because of watching his videos, my 50-years of absolute terror of flying is gone! You couldn't get me on a plane!! My husband always wanted to go to Europe...nope. There was no way!
Two years ago I made my first flight in 30 years (without anxiety meds or alcohol-I don't drink). We flew to the UK from California. I did really well, considering the length and distance. I was pretty proud of myself but we had two great flights. I had been watching 74Gear since 2019.
I just flew three weeks ago to DFW from GA without a care in the world; even my husband remarked how calm I was and how wonderful it was that we could go places now.
Turbulence, Smurbulence!
Thank you, Kelsey!
You really changed my life!!!
I wish you could see what you've done for us!
HI @74 Gear. I’m a private pilot at St Barthélémy based at the island. I want to clarify the first part as I landed there more than 600 times there (Even landed there yesterday). First for small airplanes only (C172 - PA28 single engine only). Normally you can land few meters after Charly exit no problem at all. It depends on your speed of course but you have way enough runway after touching down to slow down.
In case of airplanes doesn’t want to touch down you can retract your flaps (you can see the C172 did it, that’s help to push the plane on the ground) I’m not a fan of this, but sometimes I do this when not confident (Piper flaps are manual hopefully). Blow off tire happen lot of times, there is a bunch of videos on CZcams that you can see with that kind of problems. Just check your tires before flying, but if it happen to you in st Barth, it’s kind of a normal thing on your pilot life 😅.
To land at st. Barts, don’t you need to get certified by a local instructor and do several landings with them before you can solo?
@@frankjones4550 Yes 👍 StBarth need a special endorsement to land.
Pretty sure it's a brake lock leading to a blown tire by friction in the C-172's case
@@thierrygaillot1980Yeah kind of looks like the pilot got spooked by the less than ideal landing up to then (first off center then floating along) and mashed the brakes too hard because he saw the end of the runway coming up, even though "normal" brake application would have been fine.
To me, this is the craziest airport I have seen. There are others.....
Years ago I lived for a year down in the Caribbean. I remember one flight extremely well that went from Union Island to Argentina. We got on the flight and it had two long benches down each side rather than seats. We sat down and there were a couple goats, some chickens and other farm animals with their owners. We shrugged, no big. We took off and I looked out the window and noticed the engine cowling was being held on by wire. I looked closer and realized there was wire holding all kinds of parts on the plane. We made it and have some great pics of a plane we probably shouldn't have gotten on lol.
Union Island airfield used to be even shorter - and has a big hill at one end, just like this. The problem back then wasn't goats and cows on the aircraft - it was goats and cows on the runway... 🙂
Oh my weird... I mean... word. 😅
Nice “tall story” - amazing how that plane survived a 3K+ mile flight giving its condition and that it had range given that Union Island Airport runway is only 2.4kft long and only handles small prop planes 😂
@@mrsnow61 C'mon now, don't be mean.
@@mrsnow61 mentioning Argentina is pure nonsense, especially with farm animals. Argentina exports those, not the other way around. But this story would make sense for island hopping.
Watching Kelsey’s face when something goes horribly wrong is awesome. 😂😂Always excited to see a new video. Thanks for making my day !! Stay safe Kelsey.
I'm thinking, those pilots in the 2nd video were disgruntled and they saw their bosses helicopter sitting there, so they thought, "WHY NOT?!" and used his helicopter as a brake to stop their airplane before quitting their jobs. 😁
@@glenturney4750 😂😂😂 always a possibility
Great video. Reminds me of my long student XC flight. I landed at KMAE for fuel before returning to KFAT, and my right main blew upon touchdown. The panel was slanted to the right (weird feeling) and the plane was obviously pulling hard to the right as well. I immediately jumped on my left break in an attempt to match the drag induced by the blown right main, but my trajectory was still heading towards the side of the runway. I then went full deflection left rudder, and while that helped, I was still heading for disaster (the side of the runway was a slight drop into mushy greens). I then added FULL power to gain rudder authority, which straightened me out just enough as my forward momentum dropped off, ultimately coming to a stop about a foot before going off the runway.
Within 30 seconds there were pilots driving out to assist from the hangers. It was really awesome to see the response of those who witnessed it on the ground. The aviation community looks out for one another...
Oh by the way. You know the "rule of 3s?" Yeah. I experienced it that day. After the mechanic shop replaced my tire (my CFI knew them and got it handled), I proceeded to refuel as intended. The fuel pad was slightly skewed and not level, and I forgot to put my fuel selector on one tank, leaving it in the "both" tanks position. Needless to say I was still a bit flustered by the entire ordeal. Well, after measuring the tank and watching the gallons tick away patiently, halfway through the tank overfilled and I had 100LL all over the top of the wing. On me. Ugh. How embarrassing that was...
THEN, on my t/o roll out of there, at 50kts just before rotation, I noticed a massive hawk coming from my 10 o'clock heading towards my 4 o'clock. I sat back, accepting what looked to be an imminent bird strike as fate, but remained on the runway and didn't rotate. I heard him graze the top of the fuselage as he went overhead. I can only imagine what would have happened had I not seen the hawk. I likely would have rotated right into him.
It was quite the eventful long student XC flight 😂. I won't lie. I questioned my aeronautical desires that day ... But in the end, realized I handled the blow out remarkably well, and that my instincts in the moment saved the plane from further damage.
When are you going to get the 4th stripe?
As a student pilot I was practicing T&L with my CFI. On one landing I was on the brakes trying to make the first exit when suddenly the plane yawed about 45 degrees left towards the dirt. I knew instantly that I had a brake failure as the right pedal backpressure was lost. I immediately released the left brake and pushed full right rudder and announced brake failure, saving it just before reaching the runway edge. My CFI was pleased and gave me an attaboy.
You can tell it IS the pilot revving the engine as you can see the propeller spin sync up differently with the camera shutter when it goes from idle to revved and back to idle again
I had a brake lockup in my Bonanza which shut down a runway for a while. It happened after touching down and slowing to taxi speed and there was no skidding, and actually hardly used brakes at all as it was a long runway. I only began to notice loss of directional control when turning off on a taxiway but then with my starboard brake locked up I couldn't move. Operations had to come out with dollies and a tug, but the tug stalled and ended up stuck as well so they had to go find a FBO with a second tug. It was a comedy of problems. A supervisor came out and, noting no skid marks or flat tire and the one brake locked up solid, determined it to be purely a mechanical failure and I wasn't even charged for the towing. The problem turned out to be moisture contamination of the brake fluid which had frozen on that extremely cold night. Everyone was super nice to me and I gave all the guys who came out nice tips.
"If you dont like the way I land my plane, stay off the helipad!"
😂😂
kinda like if you don't like the way i drive stay off the sidewalk!
Hi Kelsey, I saw you in Hong Kong airport yesterday and didn't want to bother you after a long flight. Welcome, and love the videos!
I really enjoy these videos. After watching enough of these videos, I feel confident that if I'm ever in a plane and there's an emergency situation, everything I have learned from this channel will allow me to know that eventually I will see a break down of it on this channel.
Kelsey, I love you! You're a real treasure to aviation. Thanks for all that you do!
Small correction. Airport was there before 1984. I did landings with my instructor there multiple times in the late 1970s and early 1980s before 1984. Thanks for the memories!
As a Cessna pilot I can say we get tought to rev the engine for 5 to 10 sec after taxi and then shut it down by giving it full lean. By doing so you 'clean' the cylinders and spark plugs of all unused gas.
The main reason we do that is for safety, to remove all gas from the cylinders so you don't park a Cessna full of fuel in its engine connected to a prop that could go live if bumped
I’m so glad I found this channel! My dad was a 747-800 capt. with Atlas but he died a few years ago. We loved to talk flying and ham radio.
Love you narration of these two events, Kelsey. Always looking forward to seeing what's next, pal. In the meantime, KTBSU.
Kelseys face is priceless in the second clip, even the traffic slowed down to see what just happened at 8:48
I love seeing your face when things are going pear shaped, thanks Kelsey.
Pear shaped? Never heard it. Sounds areophobic.
@@DrDeuteron not at all acrophobic,, it means when things aren’t going straight, according to plan.
@@DrDeuteron I meant aerophobic
@@TheLiznz no worries. Arephobic means fear of Martians, but I made it up. The shape of mars, defined by The Areoid, is 🍐 shaped in a big way.
Common expression.@@DrDeuteron
Every landing that you can walk away from is a good landing. Every landing that damages two aircraft is an expensive landing.
Yep, good 'n' expensive.
My guess as to what happened to the first plane was that they got on the brakes as soon as they felt the plane touch down, about 0:42 you can hear a brake noise, but the right wheel is still floating because of the lean.
So the left brake is starting to slow the plane down, but the right brake is fully locked because that wheel wasn't spinning yet. And the moment it finally touches down, around 0:45 it's just dragging static rubber along the pavement and turning it into white smoke.
Good point
They landed with too much sideward force and rolled the tire off the bead.
Looks like it ends up flat.
Or they may not have realized the right wheel wasn't down yet, and were trying to compensate for the lack of braking on the right by applying it harder
Do they not have some sort of ABS?
I read somewhere that you are getting or have received a forth stripe, Capitan Kelsey sounds great
"the wing came off. That's obviously going to be a problem"... lol, love you, bro!
"The wing came off. That's obviously gonna be a problem." Best line EVER! Thanks for another great video!
“The wing came off that’s obviously going to be a problem”
I was just going to comment this! lol.
That'll buff out, no problem.
Caribbean relaxed attitude, pretty common. An AMT friend is from Grand Cayman, the most chill person you’d ever meet. Great video of these short runways Kelsey!
Seeing that you're about to smack into a Helicopter, is definitely a "Code Brown" moment!
Another great video! It sometimes seems like it takes forever for Sunday to get here each week so I can get another 74 Gear video. Anyway, as a younger pilot, I would have dreamed to take a shot at flying into St. Barts, but now, I'm older and I know better. BUT, you US based pilots can get a similar (although not as carzy dangerous) experience if you want to fly in low over a beach and drop it down over a sand dune onto a short runway: Montauk (KMTP) is a thrill to fly into and, afterwards, you go get a great seafood lunch a short walk up the road. Nothing like kids on the beach waving at you as you swoop by 30 feet over their heads.
"the wing came off, that's obviously going to be a problem" 😅 keep up the good work K!
Thanks Kelsey love the topics you cover❤
Good morning! Great video Kelsey! I’ll be headed down to the Caribbean in a few weeks! Looking forward to my free breakfast and snacks 😉
I have been a passenger flying in and out of St Barts a half dozen times and it was wonderful. Standing at the top of the hill at the rotary was fun watching how close the planes came in overhead. The best fun though was driving on the roller coaster narrow roads around the island.
im extremely scared of flying, and i got thalassophobia and megalohydrothalassophobia, its embarassing, but this prevents me a lot from going places as you can imagine, but 74's videos are helping a lot, words coming from an actual pilot, who has experienced a lot, it truly does give you a sense of comfort, but then you have moments like this incident, we dont know exactly what happened but there could have been civilians on this plane landing somewhere and crashed into a damn helicopter somehow which adds to it, now, this is not a common thing but still, details matter in aviation.
Those pilots really didnt like that helicopter
I wonder if helicopter pilots and fixed wing pilots have a grudge that we all don't know about
I see the opposite. They obviously really love that helicopter & they wanted a better look at it.
I flew a Grumman AA-5 for a while. That type doesn't have nosewheel steering - you need to use differential braking. One time, halfway to the runway, one brake failed, partially locking up. I could still taxi, but could only make left-hand turns. It made taxiing back interesting.
You wound up doing donuts 😂
Another great video explanation.
Thanks Kelsey you da best
Whatever happened to "Coming Up" lol. That was classic stuff. I still enjoy your videos. Keep up the great work
The St Barts pilot did gun it. The prop definitely was spun up. Love yer videos!
Another great video, Kelsey!!
Love all your videos
Oh my gosh, your expressions are the best❤
love your vids!
Your eyes are righteously green in this vid Kelsey 🤩 I even put it on my TV to check the color against my phone 🍀 and they’re even brighter… just like the ocean around St Barts. I literally had to keep rewinding the content to keep up 🫠 It’s usually your big brain that distracts me, but not this time 🙈
Great video as always. Hoping you're gonna cover that AC 777 that had an interesting landing at YYZ a few days ago - I gotta fly on one of those to that airport soon and could use the reassurance lol
Wow this video is the craziest one I’ve seen on your channel Kelsey.😊
Keep these coming Kelsey!
I've done St. Barts a bunch in MSFS, it's a beautiful flight.
Regarding the Cessna, wheel pants will grab a blown tire. There's not much clearance inside between pant wall and tire and when the tire gets low, it gets fat. It's one reason many owners remove the pants.
"the wing came off - that's obviously gonna be a problem" - Thank you Kelsey for this quote!
Duct tape fixes everything.
Wouldn't be a good Sunday morning without Kelsey.
So i was watching your video at breakfast (free BTW) before our flight in the hotel with my coworker, when he remarked I hope we are never in one of his videos. We both nervously LOL’d and I quickly switched to Squirrel videos. Anyway love your Videos.
I've had a flat in a Cessna 172. It isn't possible to tow a 172 that has wheel pants* with a flat tire (at least, not without damaging the plane). The deflated tire gets stuck between the pant and the rim, causing the whole wheel to lock up. The FBO had to send out a mechanic to take off the pant to free the tire so that it could be towed.
Considering this happened at around 10:00pm, it took quite a while to get that plane off the taxiway.
* The aerodynamic farings that go over the tire.
Great video as usual!
What could've happened with the twin Otter is the tiller being off centre (by a lot) to the left. It would've touched on the mains with no issues, but as soon as the nose came down that nose wheel would've put it on a trajectory for disaster. The nose tiller is not spring loaded so wherever you leave it last is where the wheel will stay pointing.
Edit: fixed typos
This is similar to incidents/accidents that have happened many many times in the past. Just check any of the accident data bases for DHC6 runway excursions. The nosewheel comes out of the centered position (where it is supposed to be mechanically locked) for some reason. Once a nosewheel that is not centered, makes contact with the runway, the excursion is almost impossible to overcome.
There is another comment here saying the accident report cites a nosewheel steering failure on landing.
That’s the most likely reason. They had a few examples of that at flight safety. Part of the before landing checklist.
This is exactly what happened .
If I remember correctly there’s a cantering lug it sits in when the oleo is extended. We would check the tiller is straight during pre landing checks. I once flew an aircraft that consistently pulled left. It turned out a hydraulic non return valve was faulty and was causing the gradual left input to develop between the tiller check and landing. The big thing with the Twin Otter normally is the weather cocking but that would have turned it the other way. I think the crosswind limit is around 25-27 knots and into wind aileron was vital above about 15 knots. The rudder was not enough.
Always cool to see a video about a project we just wrapped up. The aircraft is now enroute back to canada for repair. Your analysis is interesting, but i think the final report will supprise many.
Do tell...
@@tridium-go6hw in sorry, you will have to wait for the official report to come out
Any idea when the report will be available?
I learn so much from your videos!
Lol what did you learn . Go on. Tell us
@@jamesbizswhy do you care?
Loving your facial expressions! :)
Thanks for another video Kels
St Barths is worth the cost of a flight inbound. San Martin has a small airport nearby with direct flights, cheap. St Barths and Saba are great landing spectacles. On Saba, pilots often come in below the airport level (to avoid strong headwinds, heading straight into a cliff), lifting and touching down at the last moment.
Hey Kelsey, I'm sitting here after Thanksgiving and decided to put on Die Hard. I would like to hear your critique of the 747 landing that they decided to use in the opening scene. Lol. Happy Thanksgiving buddy, may your landings be better than his.
One thing that may very well have contributed to the blown tire on the C172 is the lack of left rudder that was clearly needed before touchdown. The plane is basically pointing at the cameraman when it touches down, and I can't imagine that such an amount of side loading is good for the tires. Crosswind correction would've called for left rudder and right aileron to keep the airplane aligned with the runway, but also over the centerline. Might've saved the tire.
The wind sock is not that indicative of what the winds around the whole airport might've been doing; especially over the hill right before the plane crossed the threshold. As you mentioned, the airport is surrounded by mountains. Winds tend to bounce off of those mountains and fly all over the place. The winds might've been relatively calm at the surface near the beach, but they could've been very different just a couple hundred feet above and at the approach end of the runway.
"The wing came off and obviously that's going to be a problem!" I'm dying laughing OMG!😂
Kelsey, since i born ,i'm leaving in ST Barths,I'm 62. This airport was created by Free French pilots fighting for the RAF;Today it is an attraction for many who do not always have the expertise and the experience. For the twin Otter, the company was bankrupt and it was not the best pilot who were in command. In youtube check "Aviation dans la Caraïbes" for the historic of aviation in ST Barths
After 12:40, something about the way Kelsey says "the wing came off" really got me :)
The Twin Otter approach looks low, but at this distance it's hard to tell. Looking closely, it appears that the nose wheel may have clipped the slight berm at runway 28, or at least touched down hard before the mains. That would explain a steering problem or failure. These guys are super good at getting the wheels on the ground quick at St. Barts, but I've seen a ton of video where they are pushing the nose down, rather than burning off the energy in a longer float. Once you reverse the props on the Twin Otter, it comes to a stop pretty darn quick.
Another Great video!!!
Retired 3 yrs ago with around 5000 hrs PIC TwinOtter bush flying. Beautiful machine if handled well. It has a thick wing which creates a lot of lift and is prone to veer if "full stick in the wind" at Xwind landings is not done. It had full flaps so V ldg would be around 65 kts, nose wheel centred MUST be checked on base and final. Too fast/no stick in the wind/nosewheel not centred.
On a lot of smaller planes the front wheel is *not* steerable by any mechanical means. It is a castering wheel - a lot like a shopping cart. You steer your plane on the ground by means of differential braking.
true, but the front wheel on this Cessna 172 is connected to the rudder pedals; quite easily steerable.
"This plane... the wing came off - that's obviously going to be a problem". I love that kind of humour... in fact, I'm still laughing.
Great commentary
I’m TERRIFIED of flying and I recently found this channel & mentour pilots channel which REALLY REALLY made me feel better if I ever decided to fly…..The thing is I trust the pilots & I know they will do absolutely anything and everything to save their aircraft if problems arise…..The thing I DEFINITELY DONT trust is mechanical issues, things falling off from wear and tear or someone accidentally covering up an extremely important sensor which then crashes the plane ✈️ that’s probably why I’ll never ever fly but give these pilots their due they are super impressive in what they do ❤❤❤❤❤
My favourite show on Sunday!
"...this plane, the wing came off, that's obviously going to be a problem."
*me, scribbling into a notebook, 'Wing coming off is a problem''*
😂😂🤣🤣
A St Bart's forum said he was landing over the beach and was wide left of the runway. They also mentioned that the pilot reported problems with the braking system. They were also saying they thought he landed on grass.
Seems like I remember checking the SN's of some tires we had years ago, looking for SN's covered in an AD.
08:47 the look on your face killed me. 😂
Great video!😸
Great video!
Many years ago, I landed my super swift at a Wichita airport in front of a thunderstorm. A little low on fuel, I could see the cross wind was way too high. So I landed on a taxi way directly into the wind. And spent the next 15 min flying the airplane on the ground. Needing 15 to 1800 RPM to hold position.
That engine gunning is the same impulse that digs a car deeper in the mud/snow and gets it good and stuck. Pilot probably has a new nickname.
8:45 🤣The banner at the top of the video reading "the Turmoil Pass" as the location while the plane hits the helicopter. The pilots must have appreciated the foreshadowing... 🤪
I had a similar flat tire situation on touchdown flying same model C172. The tire was old and it was its time to go. At first, when the plane started pulling right I just concentrated on staying on the runway and not flipping over. And when I finally stopped I did exactly what the pilot in the video did: put power to move away. Of course the plane remained motionless. Only after that I opened up the passenger door and looked at the right wheel. I saw that the tire was flat. Called atc, and the airport team moved the plane to the hangar. There was no damage, just a fat bill for towing the plane. Was flying with a new tire in a couple of days.
Very interesting. Ty
I love your vids! I was looking pretty closely at the details of the runway " via google", correct me if I'm wrong. It looks like they landed on the apron, not the runway.
Kelsey, looking back on your experience you said in a video in the new year I have a thought.
What if you did a set of vids of you in different countries you find yourself in doing a personal flight. Maybe in Japan rent a plane and go, then in Korea, etc whereever you find yourself.
Just a thought
Said it years ago, gonna say it again.. the yummiest pilot on all of You Tube!!
At my flight school for a while there was an exhibit of a a C172 tyre which was flat on the one side after the pilot had opted to slam the brakes on touchdown. The tyre had a sticky note saying "Self-choking tyre" 🙂
Thanks Kelsey
Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
I've stood on that ridge watching planes land. Between the steep descent, the downhill short runway, and the water right at the end I can see how sphincters might be a bit tight.
Looks beautiful there. I'd like to visit assuming I can live through the landing!
Love the understatement "This plane the wing came off, that's obviously going to be a problem." LOL
we need contour lines on those maps, but looking at the obvious grade in the runway in the shot with the helicopter, I wonder if once you're off the runway, getting back is a bit like going uphill.
I have s friend who's a Delta pilot-he loves your channel and always says he hopes he doesn't end up as your feature video ha ha 👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️😳😳😳😳
I like chainsaws. And helicopters. Just subscribed!
From a technician thoughts considering that there is smoke coming from the wheel it is more likely that the anti-lock brake system failed and locked up and caused the brake pads to lock up against the rotar causing the pads to burned onto the disc rotar. Or some thing got caught in the wheel assembly and smoked do to heat of the brake system.
Thanks!
"the wing came off, that's obviously going to be a problem." 100% Kelsey.
I've enjoyed watching videos of landings at St. Barts for a number of years, going back prior to the current re-routed roadway, and I enjoy watching the challenge of the landing. However... given that there have been crashes there before including at least one fatal one in the past... and they DID move the roadway to improve safety... isn't it about time that they continue to improve the runway environment by bringing down the height of the hill in front of the runway? Either gradually shaving it down over time or as one large construction project. It might require re-routing traffic on the hill a bit, but they have already attempted a large project before.