When Airplanes Break

Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at 11:00 AM ET

Verified

On The Cover: Structural failure of the airplane you're riding in can ruin your whole day. But the instructor and student aboard the AA-5 Traveler pictured managed to walk away after their tail almost fell off. They had some help from a chase plane, which identified the problem for them, but the rest of it was skill. See page 16 for more.

Key Takeaways:

A routine flight suddenly experienced a violent structural failure involving the elevator and horizontal stabilizer, causing severe control issues and leading the pilot to initially misdiagnose an engine failure.
The pilot, aided by external observation from a chase plane, quickly realized the true structural damage and managed to navigate the severely compromised aircraft towards the nearest airport.
Despite the pilot's skilled control, the landing resulted in a nose-gear collapse due to the damaged elevator's inability to provide sufficient pitch authority for a proper flare, though all occupants were unharmed.
Key takeaways from the incident emphasize the importance of maintaining aircraft control, the value of external assistance in emergencies, and the critical advice to consult legal counsel before speaking with aviation authorities like the FAA.

See a mistake? Contact us.

I was the CFI, flying with a keen 17-year-old student in a Grumman AA-5 Traveler. As we used to say in the Air Force when describing a flying scenario, “There we were, flying along, fat, dumb and happy.” It’s just a saying, take it easy—we weren’t actually fat, but we were happy, and the student, at least, wasn’t dumb.

We were flying a straight line, direct to my home field, the Leesburg (Va.) Executive Airport (JYO), in level flight at about 1000 feet agl and 140 KIAS in smooth air. I looked at my iPad, and saw we were making over 160 knots groundspeed, and the aircraft was flying solidly, just humming along, not a vibration or noise. I remarked to the student, who was at the controls, “This thing really likes to go fast—look how stable it is.”