Footage has emerged of the hair-raising moment a cargo plane belly flops on an icy runway before spinning out of control in a terrifying skid. The Atran Airlines plane was about to land at Novy Urengoy airport in central Russia on March 26 when its landing gear completely jammed.
The video of the crash-landing shows the Soviet-era Antonov An-12 turboprop plane skidding helplessly along the runway. As its left wing digs into snow beside the tarmac, the plane then pivots 180 degrees and only comes to a full stop when it slams into a snowdrift in a shower of ice.
Thankfully, all eight crew members escaped uninjured. Earlier in the flight from Sabetta, the plane suffered engine problems but the pilot decided to carry on regardless. Aviation experts are investigating the landing following the incident.
In another recent story of lucky escapes, three people – two of them children – astonishingly survived on the wing of a plane for around 12 hours after it crashed and became partially submerged in an icy lake. Terry Godes was one of approximately 12 pilots who headed out to scour the rugged terrain on Sunday for the Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser, which went missing after taking off in Soldotna, Alaska.
Mr Godes feared the worst but was overwhelmed to see the children, and the male pilot, alive – albeit struggling – on the wing of the plane. The three victims have been taken to hospital but their injuries are not thought to be serious.
“It kind of broke my heart to see that, but as I got closer down and lower, I could see that there’s three people on top of the wing. They were alive and responsive and moving around,” he said, adding the kids waved at him as he flew over the cold Tustumena Lake.
The plane careered into the frozen lake after it lost contact with authorities, following its departure for a recreational sightseeing tour to Skilak Lake. But the children clambered out of the water and sat together on a wing – which had submerged from the water – and huddled together there for 12 hours to survive.
Strangers, including Mr Godes, helped the Alaska Army National Guard rescue the trio. Mr Godes continued: “They spent a long, cold, dark, wet night out on top of a wing of an airplane that they weren’t planning on… It’s a cold dark place out there at night.”
Dale Eicher, another Good Samaritan, said: “I wasn’t sure if we would find them, especially because there was a cloud layer over quite a bit of the mountains so they could have very easily been in those clouds that we couldn’t get to.” He added that finding the family within an hour of starting the search, and finding them alive “was very good news.”
Sadly, passengers on a plane in the state’s western coast weren’t as lucky last month. A total of 10 people died when a small commuter plane that was overweight by half a ton crashed into sea ice in the Norton Sound.
The Bering Air single-engine turboprop plane was traveling from Unalakleet in the same state when it lost contact, David Olson, director of operations for Bering Air, said. Conditions at the time of the tragic incident included light snow and fog, with a temperature of -8.3C, according to the National Weather Service.
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