Cessna 188 Pacific rescue

Last updated

Cessna 188 Pacific rescue
Cessna 188.JPG
A Cessna 188 similar to the rescued aircraft
Incident
Date22 December 1978
SummaryNavigational disorientation
SiteOver the Pacific Ocean
First aircraft
Type Cessna 188
OperatorJay Prochnow
Registration Unknown
Flight origin San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California, United States
1st stopover Honolulu International Airport, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
2nd stopover Pago Pago International Airport, Pago Pago, American Samoa
Last stopover Norfolk Island Airport, Norfolk Island, Australia
Destination Sydney Airport, Sydney, Australia
Occupants1
Passengers0
Crew1
Fatalities0
Injuries0
Survivors1
Second aircraft
Air New Zealand DC-10 (6961717348).jpg
An Air New Zealand McDonnell Douglas DC-10 in 1978
Type McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30
Operator Air New Zealand
RegistrationZK-NZS
Flight origin Nadi International Airport, Nadi, Fiji
Destination Auckland Airport, Auckland, New Zealand
Passengers88

On 22 December 1978, a Cessna 188 aircraft, flown by an American private pilot, became lost over the Pacific Ocean. The only other aircraft in the area that was able to assist was a commercial Air New Zealand flight. After several hours of searching, the crew of the commercial flight located the lost Cessna and helped it reach Norfolk Island, where the plane landed safely.

Contents

The incident

Jay Prochnow, a retired United States Navy pilot, was delivering a Cessna 188 from the United States to Australia. Prochnow had a colleague who was flying another Cessna 188 alongside him. The long trip would be completed in four stages. On the morning of 20 December, both pilots took off from Pago Pago. His colleague crashed on takeoff but was unharmed. Prochnow landed and set out the following day to Norfolk Island.

When Prochnow believed he was approaching Norfolk Island, he was unable to see the island. He informed Air Traffic Control (ATC), but at this point, there was no immediate danger. He continued searching; after locating more homing beacons from other islands, he realised his automatic direction finder had malfunctioned and he was now lost somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. He alerted ATC and declared an emergency.

There was only one aircraft in the vicinity, Air New Zealand Flight 103, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 travelling from Fiji to Auckland. The flight had 88 passengers on board. The captain was Gordon Vette, the first officer was Arthur Dovey, and the flight engineer was Gordon Brooks. [1] Vette knew that if they did not try to help, Prochnow would almost certainly die. Vette was a navigator, and at the time of the incident, he still held his licence. Furthermore, another passenger, Malcolm Forsyth, was also a navigator; when he heard about the situation he volunteered to help.

As neither Prochnow nor the crew of the DC-10 knew where the Cessna was, the crew had to devise creative ways to find it. By this time, contact between both aircraft had been made on long-range HF radio. Prochnow had crossed the international date line, and the date was now 22 December. Vette was able to use the setting sun to gain an approximate position of the Cessna. He instructed the Cessna to point directly at the setting sun. He did the same and noted the difference in heading between the aircraft as four degrees. After making an allowance for the different altitudes of the aircraft, the difference in sunset times between the aircraft and Norfolk Island was also noted. This data allowed the crew to calculate that the Cessna must be southwest of the DC-10 by about 400 nautical miles (460 mi; 740 km).

About 25 minutes after turning in that direction, contact on short-range VHF radio was established. This had a range of 200 nautical miles (230 mi; 370 km). It was hoped the DC-10 would be making a vapour trail to make it more visible. After contacting Auckland it was determined that weather conditions were not suitable for a trail. Brooks knew that by dumping fuel they could produce a vapour trail. As the search was getting more and more desperate, they decided to try it. Prochnow did not see the trail, and darkness was increasing. Vette wanted all the passengers to be involved, so he asked them to look out of the windows and invited small groups to come to the cockpit.

As the light conditions became darker, Prochnow considered ditching, but Vette encouraged him not to give up. So, they also used a technique known as "aural boxing" to try to pinpoint the small plane; this took over an hour to complete. Once it had been done, they had a much better approximation of Prochnow's position. The DC-10 used its strobe lights to try to make itself more visible to the Cessna. It took some time, but eventually, Prochnow reported seeing light. This was not the DC-10, it was an oil rig, and Prochnow went towards it. This was identified as Penrod, which was being towed from New Zealand to Singapore. This gave Prochnow's exact position. After some confusion about the exact position of the Penrod, it was finally established that the estimates of the crew of the DC-10 were accurate. Prochnow reached Norfolk Island and landed after being in the air for twenty-three hours and five minutes.

Later events

Contemporary newspaper reports noted that Norfolk Island police were "angered" when Prochnow subsequently departed for Sydney without having the Cessna's direction-finding equipment repaired. [2]

McDonnell Douglas awarded the Air New Zealand crew a certificate of commendation for "the highest standards of compassion, judgment and airmanship." [1] As of 2018, the DC-10 they flew during the incident was reported to be in Havana, Cuba. [1]

The incident was dramatised in the American 1993 made-for-TV movie Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771 , which starred Scott Bakula as Jay Prochnow (which was changed to Perkins in the movie) and Robert Loggia as Gordon Vette. [3] The plane used in the movie, a Boeing 767-200, was not in service at the time of the incident. [4]

Gordon Brooks was the flight engineer on Air New Zealand Flight 901 and was killed when the DC-10 crashed into Mount Erebus, Antarctica, on 28 November 1979. Gordon Vette published a book about the Flight 901 disaster, called Impact Erebus. [5]

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aviation accidents and incidents</span> Accidental aviation occurences

An aviation accident is an event during aircraft operation that causes serious injury, death, or destruction. An aviation incident is any operating event that compromises safety but does not progress to an aviation accident. Preventing accidents and incidents is the main goal of aviation safety.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182</span> 1978 mid-air collision over San Diego

Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 was a scheduled flight on September 25, 1978, by Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA), from Sacramento to San Diego (SAN), with a stopover at Los Angeles (LAX). The aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing 727-214, collided mid-air with a private Cessna 172 over San Diego, California. It was Pacific Southwest Airlines' first fatal accident, and it remains the deadliest air disaster in California history. At the time, it was the deadliest air crash to occur in the United States, and remained so until the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 in May 1979.

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1978.

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin Musick</span> American pilot

Edwin Charles Musick was chief pilot for Pan American World Airways and pioneered many of Pan Am's transoceanic routes including the famous route across the Pacific Ocean, ultimately reaching the Philippine Islands, on the China Clipper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Erebus disaster</span> November 1979 aviation accident in Antarctica

The Mount Erebus disaster occurred on 28 November 1979 when Air New Zealand Flight 901 (TE901) flew into Mount Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew on board. Air New Zealand had been operating scheduled Antarctic sightseeing flights since 1977. This flight left Auckland Airport in the morning and was supposed to spend a few hours flying over the Antarctic continent, before returning to Auckland in the evening via Christchurch.

Ronald Chippindale was the Chief Inspector of Air Accidents in charge of the New Zealand Office of Air Accidents Investigations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pago Pago International Airport</span> Airport in American Samoa

Pago Pago International Airport, also known as Tafuna Airport, is a public airport located 7 miles (11.3 km) southwest of the central business district of Pago Pago, in the village and plains of Tafuna on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States.

PT ASI Pudjiastuti Aviation, operating as Susi Air, is a scheduled and charter airline based in Pangandaran, West Java, Indonesia. Sixty percent of the airline's operation serves commercial regular routes and pioneer routes while the rest is charter flights. The company currently operates from several main bases across the Indonesian archipelago. Susi Air is listed in category 2 by Indonesian Civil Aviation Authority for airline safety quality.

Throughout a normal flight, a pilot controls an aircraft through the use of flight controls including maintaining straight and level flight, as well as turns, climbing, and descending. Some controls, such as a "yoke" or "stick" move and adjust the control surfaces which affects the aircraft's attitude in the three axes of pitch, roll, and yaw. Other controls include those for adjusting wing characteristics and those that control the power or thrust of the propulsion systems. The loss of primary control systems in any phase of flight is an emergency. Aircraft are not designed to be flown under such circumstances; however, some pilots faced with such an emergency have had limited success flying and landing aircraft with disabled controls.

<i>Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771</i> 1993 American TV series or program

Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771 is a 1993 TV movie based on the real-life rescue of the pilot of a Cessna 188. It stars Scott Bakula as Jay Perkins, the pilot of Cessna 30771, and Robert Loggia as Gordon Vette, the Air New Zealand flight 308 pilot who rescues him. Although the film premiered on American television, it was filmed on location in Queensland, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Vette</span>

Alwyn Gordon Vette ONZM was a New Zealand airline captain best known for his involvement in the Cessna 188 Pacific rescue and his research into the cause of the Air New Zealand Flight TE901 crash. He spent five years in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) and 55 years as a commercial pilot. Vette was portrayed by Roy Billing in the 1988 miniseries Erebus: the Aftermath, which recounts Vette's research into the cause of the Mount Erebus Disaster; and by Robert Loggia in the 1993 TV movie Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771, which recounts Vette's experiences piloting Air New Zealand Flight 103.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ozark Air Lines Flight 965</span> 1968 mid-air collision in St. Louis, Missouri

Ozark Air Lines Flight 965 was a scheduled commercial flight from Chicago, Illinois, to Lambert Field in St. Louis, Missouri, with a scheduled intermediate stopover at Greater Peoria Regional Airport in Peoria, Illinois. On March 27, 1968, the Douglas DC-9-15 jetliner operating the flight, carrying 44 passengers and five crew, collided in mid-air with a single-engined Cessna 150F while both aircraft were on approach to the same runway at Lambert Field. The DC-9 landed safely with no injuries to any of its 49 occupants, while both pilots in the two-person Cessna died in the collision and subsequent ground impact.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Price, Mark (24 August 2018). "Derelict plane had its time in the limelight". Otago Daily Times . Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  2. "Pilot safe after ordeal". The Sydney Morning Herald . 23 December 1978. p. 2. Retrieved 17 August 2024 via newspapers.com.
  3. Hughes, Mike (12 December 1993). "Flight of Mercy". The Reporter Dispatch . White Plains, New York. p. C1. Retrieved 17 August 2024 via newspapers.com.
  4. Ortega, Sergio (1 March 1999). "Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771 (Movie review)". AirOdyssey.net. Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  5. Vette, Gordon. Impact Erebus. with John Macdonald. ASIN   B01F9QRI6S.