When you lay your towel down on a beach mere feet from the arrival end of an active runway, do you assume any of the responsibility for your personal safety? A German sunbather is likely contemplating that very question after a Piper Archer nearly landed on top of him recently as he relaxed on an island in northern Germany.
Pilot Juergen Drucker got a bit behind the power curve on approach to the airport on the island of Heligoland, missing the unsuspecting sunbather by inches before landing short and crashing through a low perimeter fence, eventually ending up on the runway with damage to his airplane. He also appears to narrowly miss another beachgoer near the fence.
Drucker apologized for the poor airmanship, saying it wasn’t one of his greatest moments as a pilot, according to British newspaper Metro.
German aviation authorities are investigating the botched landing. For what it’s worth, the sunbather can thank his lucky stars that Drucker wasn’t piloting a taildragger.
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