Utah Forced Landing Caught on Video

If you "hate to armchair quarterback this," then don't. Power lines are usually not visible from above. (Hint: look for power poles, not lines. You'll likely see them first, although you might be very low by the time you do.) A successful off-airport landing includes picking your landing area fairly early, setting up an acceptable pattern to get to it, and then executing a stabilized approach to your intended touchdown spot, just like any other landing. If you choose a road, by the time you get low enough to see power lines you are probably so low that you are committed to the road regardless. Utility poles range from 20 to 120 feet tall. Would you rather hit a pole at "flying speed," causing a loss of control, and fall the last 20-120 feet with all that forward motion, or land in the snow at a slower speed and slowly go over on your back onto a relatively soft surface? (Near the end of the video you can see the line in the snow where the plane slid, disapating speed, before it finally went over.) I hope I'm never in a position to have to pick one or the other of those options. Until I am, I'm not going to "armchair quarterback" a guy who was. I'll just point out that what he picked, for whatever reasons he had, worked. He and his passengers walked away. That's the bottom line.

As long as no one was killed or seriously injured. The pilot did great, screw the plane.

I am a CFI , CFII, CFIG, with a number of off airport landings. A road is usually a bad choice for a glider due to the 49 ft wingspan. For an airplane it may be OK depending on circumstances. The main concern in using a road is wires and poles. Wires are totally invisible until after you are committed. Poles can be seen. Power poles are not the only poles that are trouble. Here in New York the roads have steel mileage marker poles on both sides of the road. They are about 6 or 7 feet high and about 3 inches square. These are invisible from the air and if you hit one they will cause a severe ground loop or cartwheel. I think his choice was prudent. All certified singles have a stall speed with flaps down of 60 knots or less. This means nearly any landing under control at minimum speed will be survivable. Writing off the airplane is easy if you walk away unhurt. He got everyone down OK. Maybe he could have done some things differently (carb heat, flaps) but the bottom line is no one badly hurt Good job!

Maybe I'm a bit behind the power curve here (haha) but if it was carb ice that caused the problem, why didn't carb heat solve it? And on a seemingly dry day in an arid climate? Yes, I'm aware that carb ice can form in just about any condition, and that it must have been quite cold outside. Also, I'm aware that carb heat is not a blast furnace that instantly vaporises ice. That, however, is my question.

As to the selection of landing site, my tuppence says that he did a great job. OF course the fact that there was snow to cushion the impact is a big help. I am glad no one was hurt.

In complete agreement with pieman108 I would offer the additional facts in evidence-
-video and text give no indication of conditions under the cowl prior/post landing. Carb heat hoses come loose without warning lights.
-the pilot gave himself altitude in order to make calculated choices. No low circling of Grandma's house.
-the pilot was controlling an extreme amount of adrenalin motivated by the knowledge that a wrong choice could end the lives of an infant and young family.
-if there was a bad pilot choice here it was not purchasing a plane with wheels that can be made to go away for a belly landing.

Just some local input, as I live about 4 miles from the crash site. First, the roads in the area are very narrow and nearly all are lined with utility lines and fences. Deep barrow-pits are also the norm here (for run-off management). The only exception is nearby US 89/91, a four-lane highway with a median turn-lane, but it would have been busy that time of day. Second, we were experiencing a severe inversion (you can kind of see evidence of that in the video). In the valley temps struggled to reach the teens, but I was skiing at the time of the accident in the nearby mountains and it was in the mid 30s. The air was dry, but I'm not sure what the exact dew point or humidity was. Judging by the video, the pilot was just north of Sardine Summit, a 6,000' mt. pass. Guessing he was at 7,500'. In the local paper, the pilot said he may have been able to reach Brigham City (BMC) but had one more (7,500') ridge to clear and doubted he'd make it so he decided to turn back toward Logan (LGU). Overall, I think he did the right thing, but yeah- a little fast on touchdown. We all would like to think we could drop the flaps and haul back on the yoke with the stall horn screaming and land like a feather in such a situation.