Pilot uses SMS messages to safely land his faulty airplane

In what air accident investigator John Hughes described in his report yesterday as a “serious incident”, the twin-engined Piper plane lost all on-board electrical power, communications and weather radar soon after take-off from Kerry airport on November 7th last.

He paid tribute to the initiative of the air traffic controller, saying the loss of all aircraft electrics during a flight “is considered very serious”.

When he realized his problem the 39-year-old pilot, with four passengers on board, gained height and flew south. With a radio communications blackout on board, the pilot used his mobile phone to repeatedly try to establish contact with Kerry airport and then air traffic control at Cork.

Eventually he managed to contact Cork on his phone, telling them about his problem and his intention to approach the airport from the sea. He then lost audio telephone contact but the air traffic controller switched to texting and told the pilot that he had a primary radar signal on the aircraft and that Cork would allow them to land there. He then used texts to guide the 30-year-old plane in.

With no power the landing gear had to be lowered manually and the plane did a fly-past of the Cork control tower to check that it was successfully locked down before the plane landed safely.

SMS Messaging