Two Cayman men escaped unscathed last week after a fuel leak left them without engine power mid-flight, forcing them to make an emergency landing in their two-seater plane in a peanut field in Florida.
Former Mosquito Research and Control Unit spray plane pilot Richard Clough was flying his 1957 Piper Super Cub from Houma, Louisiana, to Lakeland in Florida, accompanied by his former colleague Fraser Allen, who was on the trip to assist with logistics.
The single-engine aircraft was to be flown in short hops over three days and then disassembled for shipping to the UK.
Allen said the first couple of days were “smooth going”, with the longest leg on the second day from Atmore, Alabama, to Cross City in Florida.
The only unusual occurrence at that time was a cold snap that had plunged the southern states into freezing conditions, he said.
But the final short flight to Lakeland on day three didn’t quite turn out as planned.
Half-an-hour into the flight, whilst cruising at 2,500 feet, Allen explained, they both noticed a strong smell of fuel. Suddenly, the sight gauge in the cockpit was indicating worrying levels of fuel loss.
The starboard tank quickly ran dry and the engine quit but was restarted again using the port-side tank, Allen said.
He said they radioed a fuel emergency to the nearest control tower and the aircraft turned on to a heading towards the closest airfield, 10 miles away.
However, Clough realised they wouldn’t make it to the airfield with such heavy fuel loss and quickly decided to find an alternative landing spot.
Mayday call
Shortly after, the port-side tank fully drained and the engine quit.
They sent out a Mayday call with the approximate position of the aircraft.
“The area didn’t appear to have many options for landing except for a couple of fields and a roadway,” Allen said.
But the road was narrow and they ruled out landing there due to traffic and power lines. The nearby fields had irrigation booms or were ploughed with deep furrows, and several had the risk of unsighted telephone and power lines, he said.
“A peanut field without too many obstacles was identified; Richard then steep-banked and committed to the landing,” he explained.
‘Best landing in 10 years’
The pair touched down safely, without injury or a scratch on the aircraft.
“It was the best landing I’ve done in the last 10 years,” Clough said.
Emergency services and local peanut farmers turned up quickly to assist, the pair said.
The aircraft was then disassembled in the field and the final leg from the Williston Peanut Farm in Dunnellon to Lakeside was completed by vehicle.
The farmers gave them a good send-off, providing free caps and cans of peanuts as souvenirs.
“The folks we dealt with up there were absolutely fantastic and our thanks go out to them,” Clough said.
Experience, no doubt, had a part to play in the outcome of this aerial emergency. Clough, a former MRCU spray pilot in Cayman, has approximately 15,000 hours of flying, quite often in adverse environments.
He said of the emergency landing, “Everyone on board stayed calm and the whole trip was a positive experience.”
Allen, who had worked alongside Clough at MRCU as a scientist, said, “In this kind of a situation, there is no one I’d rather be sat behind flying the aircraft than Richard. It was a text-book procedural resolution with the most favourable outcome.”
He added, “We did have a few rums that evening, it had been an interesting day!”
The men said the reason for the fuel leak is still being investigated. Initial thoughts are a failure in one of the fuel-delivery hoses or connections.
Both are now safely back on terra firma in Cayman.
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