Small airplane ditches off Put-In-Bay

Small airplane ditches off Put-In-Bay Video of the crash.

August 19th, 2010 |

Video: SOUTH BASS ISLAND, OHIO- Small plane ditches into the waters just off South Bass Island late Friday morning following an engine failure.

Watching this video along with my recent experiences flying over Lake Michigan and Lake Erie has made me seriously consider carrying life preservers on ALL over-water flights. Take note as to how quickly the airplane sank.

Thankfully the pilot executed the emergency landing flawlessly and efforts by the ferry crew led to all four occupants surviving without injury.
Video of the crash..

Video of the rescue:

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Frank Converrtini

You know how I feel about it. With all the money we spend on aviation an investment in a couple of constant wear life vests and a PLB with GPS locator built in along are well worth the piece of mind. You have many years of flying over water living in the Northeast, not to mention future flying trips to the Bahamas, Keys and and many more OSH trips over the lake. I would never forgive myself if I lost a passenger because there was no life vest on board or could not be located in time to obtain medical aid.
Lucas

Here is a video of the actual ditching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_TLja6onzY

Gives you a really good idea of how fast the plane actually sank. Amazing they all survived. After watching that I purchased a constant wear life vest, PLB, tool to break the canopy, knife for the seatbelt, and a strobe. It just shows that you never know what's going to happen. If you had to ditch farther out to sea or at night you have so little time to get everyone out. At night your odds of survival without anything go way down. There's going to be no time to grab a life vest and put it on. Depending on your altitude the pilot is going to be too busy dealing with the emergency. Even if you just have normal life vests available in the plane I think it is a good idea for the pilot to always wear one. It's not the most fashionable, and it's not the most comfortable but it can really be life saving. I think more pilots should watch this video, it was really eye opening and showed me the actual need. I ended up spending $500 which is a small price to pay for safety. Equates to a couple flights but it is your life we're talking about. Thanks for posting this!!

Mike Bennett

Thank you! I will post ASAP.
Mike Bennett

Great comment Lucas. Thanks again.