Everyone remember this from yesterday?
Well, I found out more about what happened. The pilot in command has her private certificate as does the guy who was sitting in the right seat. The winds were out of the south, so they had landed on 17L, the smaller of two runways at David Wayne Hooks Airport. After landing, they probably exited at taxiway H, then proceeded into the “non-movement” area to head back north toward their parking area. It’s called a “non-movement” area because the tower doesn’t control traffic there. It’s the main access to the south end of the airport, so both cars and planes share the road.
This is where it gets interesting. They managed to negotiate the curve around the sea lane in front of Texas Flight (yes, sea planes operate out of KDWH), but someone fell asleep at the yoke and failed to make the little left-right jog. They literally drove straight into the ditch.
I watched the footage from the school’s camera. They didn’t even attempt to make the turn. One of the instructors ran over to help. The woman got out of the plane and the first thing she said was that the brakes failed. I think she was just rationalizing. My thoughts were confirmed by one of the maintenance crew. He said the brakes were tested by the owner’s maintenance team and were found to be perfectly functional.
All in all, this was a bad thing to happen. Everyone suffers in an incident like this, from the pilot to the plane’s owners. We don’t know exactly what the was going on in the cockpit, but I’d bet it’s a case of distracted taxiing.
Be safe out there, Oppos!