Airplane collides with riding lawnmower in NC

[Carbonfiberfoot]

http://www.wsoctv.com/gallery/news/l...gCKSK/#5164082

[Popps]

All I see here are images, no story. What happened to the guy on the lawn mower? Or the guy flying the plane? I hope they are both alright. However, somehow I feel there should be a moral to this story...

[MIDWAY]

Well damn if it really did.

I wish that would happen around here. The report of that on our 'paperless' report software would likely crash the sever statewide thanks to all the impossibilities that the software company couldn't grasp. I can't imagine a more fun report to write up to bring the whole system down.

[JustAJ]

Just outside the picture are a gaggle of old men screaming "GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!"

Seriously, WTF? Did hte plane land on some guys property while he was mowing? Was the airport lawn guy mowing and the plane lost control? Was it a rip in the very fabric of the space/time continuum? FIND OUT! On the next episode of Pictures without Context.

[Michigan]

You all are idiots. It's pretty obvious. The lawnmower lost control during flight and landed into the aircraft that was parked in the grass.

The morale of the story? Don't try to fly your lawnmower.

[BTDT2]

Actually flying lawn mowers have been around since WW II. Germany had their Aggregat-4 (V-2) rockets and United States, ICRM’s (internal combustion rotary mower). ICRM’s were primarily used in the European Theatre. My Uncle was a 2nd LT and a ICRM pilot assigned to the Eighth Air Force third wave during the battle of Regensburg 1943.

[NYCTNT]

Stupid lawnmower

[just joe]

Never try to cut your grass with an airplane propeller.

[Aerohead]

I blame Obama.

Airplanes weren't crashing into lawn mowers when Bush was president.

[photone]

Here we go:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.1770221

Small plane crashes onto lawn mower operator, severs his hand
The crash occurred at North Carolina's Taylorsville Airport Saturday afternoon. The 84-year-old pilot, Edward Sisson, walked away without injuries, but lawn mower operator John Rufty is listed in critical condition at local hospital.

A small plane crash-landed right onto a man riding a lawn mower, chopping off his hand.

Edward Eugene Sisson, the 84-year-old pilot of the single-engine plane, collided with a lawn mower operator while landing at North Carolina’s Taylorsville Airport Saturday afternoon.

Sisson is an experienced pilot who was flying in from Crossville, Tenn., to visit family in Taylorsville, State Highway Patrol Sergeant Brian Owenby told the Daily News.

The airman was traveling east toward a grass landing strip at the small privately-owned airport. His unlucky victim, 74-year-old John Rufty, was also traveling east on his lawn mower.

The airport doesn't have a traffic controller, so there was no one to warn Rufty about the incoming plane.

"(Rufty) wouldn't have been able to hear or see the plane coming," Owenby said. "And the pilot was unable to see the driver until just before impact."

The propeller of the plane clipped into Rufty, completely severing the man's left hand.

Both the plane and the mower flipped over during the accident. The pilot was able to walk away from the crash without any injuries. The victim was airlifted to the Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, Russell Greene, director of emergency services for Alexander County, told The News.

Rufty was listed in critical condition on Saturday afternoon, a nursing supervisor told The News.

The sergeant said that despite the pilot's advanced age, he seemed to capable of handling the plane.

"He was 84, but he didn't look like it or act it," Owenby said of Sisson.

No charges are pending as of yet, Owenby reports.

Managers of the privately owned airport were not available for comment on Saturday.

The National Transportation and Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the incident.

[usetobe]

I have been hearing a lot about older pilots crashing lately. Maybe they need to start pulling their license at 70 years old. They should of had their fun by then. He should of seen the guy on the lawnmower.

[photone]

My dad had his private license for many years, and we lived in a very rural area at the time...two of the strips we used pretty regularly were grass farm strips (In no way could they be called 'Airports') and inviolable if unwritten SOP for both was a close downwind leg with all eyes on board looking for obstructions. (Including but not limited to cows, and touch football games).

If you still weren't sure, you did a circuit of the field...basically a full pattern without landing...before touching down. On a clear day a riding lawnmower should be easily visable from pattern altitude.

There was absolutely no excuse for this one happening.

[RR_Security]

In November 2012, there was a collision at an airport near here when a guy in a pickup truck apparently crossed the runway just as a small plane was taking off. The airport has no tower, so there's no one to authorize a vehicle going onto the runway.

According to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board filed a few days after the Nov. 16 crash, Turner told the NTSB investigator that he announced over the common traffic advisory frequency for aircraft that he planned to cross the runway. He said he heard no response and didn’t see anything on the 5,000-foot-long Runway 31, so he proceeded to cross.

The plane crashed and all three occupants died.
<http://bangordailynews.com/2013/01/0...al-plane-crash>

He should of seen the guy on the lawnmower.

Somebody should have seen somebody, but it might not have been the pilot.

On a clear day a riding lawnmower should be easily visable from pattern altitude.
There was absolutely no excuse for this one happening.

The pilot might have been taxiing and ran into the mower, although that's not 100% clear from the article. If you're in the middle of taking off (like the aircraft in the incident I mentioned above) or landing, it's a little hard to dodge someone or something that suddenly appears in your path.
Just maybe the pilot did circle the field first, but the guy on the mower wasn't out there before the plane began its final approach. Of course a riding mower probably doesn't have a radio with the common traffic advisory frequency, but maybe somebody could have made an announcement that they were going to be mowing Taylorsville Airport. What are those called, NOTAMs? "Because we don't have any paved runways or taxiways, we will be mowing on [date] unless it rains."
Like pretty much any collision between two or more objects/people, it was most likely preventable by removing just one factor from the chain of events.

As an old Maine saying goes, "Hard tellin', not knowin'." That's why NTSB investigators make the big buck$.

[PtownVAMike]

Never try to cut your grass with an airplane propeller.

Or put an airplane engine in your lawnmower....

[Popps]

What determines when a person is to old to drive, much less fly a plane? I really don't think an 84 year old man should be flying a plane, regardless of how "fit" he is. OK, if he doesn't care if he has a heart attack and dies what he loves doing, fine, but, as you see here, innocent people can get hurt, as well.