Light plane makes emergency landing in Helsinki’s South Harbour

Pilot and two passengers escape injury

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A light aircraft made a forced landing in Helsinki’s South Harbour on Sunday. The four-seater Diamond DA40 aircraft with a male pilot and two female passengers on board crash-landed in the sea near the island of Valkosaari.
      All three people on board were rescued from the water, and none of them sustained serious injuries, rescue officials said.
      Only minutes before the emergency landing, the aircraft had left Malmi Airport, on its way to the Estonian capital Tallinn.
     
The plane crash was apparently caused by a defect in the engine. After noticing the problem, the pilot first tried to turn back to the airport, but was forced to make an emergency landing in Southern Helsinki. While the forced landing was successful in terms of preventing injury to the occupants, the plane suffered serious damage.
      The aircraft, owned by the the Polytechnic Students' Aviation Club, had a diesel engine, which is new and relatively rare in light aircraft.
      According to Air Accident Investigator Esko Lähteenmäki, planes with diesel engines have experienced problems before. However, he also said that it is too early to blame the accident on the engine.
      The chair of the aviation club, Sirkku Huisko, complimented the pilot on the well-managed emergency landing. She pointed out that not everyone has the nerves to go through with such a procedure.
     
Emergency landings on water are extremely rare in Finland. According to Lähteenmäki, such incidents occur only once in ten years, while normally almost all forced landings go well.
      In emergency landings over water the biggest risk is that the plane flips upside down, when it hits the water.
      However, the centre of gravity for the Diamond DA40 aircraft is lower, which makes it less likely to turn the wrong side up, notes Tommi Raitio from the Malmi Aviation Club.
      The training of emergency landings is compulsory in flight training.
      "However, in this case the location of the forced landing was particularly challenging, with rocky islands, and lively water traffic. Also the streets in Southern Helsinki were crowded", Raitio notes.
     
Towards evening the aircraft was lifted from the water and carried to the Katajanokka Quay, where cruise ships normally dock.
      The inquiry into the cause of the crash will take a few months, as the computers of the aircraft were most likely destroyed in the salt water and the defect will have to be detected using technical investigation methods.


Links:
  Malmi Aviation Club

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