Wisconsin Politician Has Narrow Escape

Imagine getting a call that waskes you from sleep at about eleven at night: "This is your neighbor. There's been an accident, there's a plane in your back yard!"

Sure enough, there was a plane in Sue Madden's Waunakee, Wisconsin back yard, or the wreckage of the plane: a Piper Warrior, N56715, belonging to JB Van Hollen, a Wisconsin politician. Van Hollen and his passenger emerged from the wreck unhurt, except, in Van Hollen's case, financially: his airplane is a write-off.

Van Hollen -- according to the FAA, a Private Pilot (ASEL) with a current medical, and a Waunakee resident -- and campaign assistant Thomas Wangard were trying to land on a 2,200 foot airfield in Waunakee, when, according to Wisconsin media, Van Hollen decided to abort the landing. It appears from these preliminary and inexpert reports, that he didn't get out of ground effect, and struck a six-foot-tall wooden fence.

The Piper made like a very expensive woodchipper for about 500 feet of fence before striking a basketball hoop, which spun the plane around. The gradual deceleration this provided probably had a lot to do with the fortunate survival of both men.

The FAA's preliminary data calls this an "incident," and describes the circumstances as "unknown." It's fairly common for the preliminary data to have errors. The FAA is investigating the accident on behalf of the NTSB.

Van Hollen, a former Federal prosecutor, is one of two Republicans competing to face the incumbent state attorney general, Democrat Peg Lautenschlager, in the next general election. Van Hollen's spokesman, Darren Schmitz, told Wisconsin newspapers that the candidate was returning home from campaigning in Green Bay. He pledges that Van Hollen will repair damage to Madden's fence and other property.

We've heard of politicians who were on the fence, but we always thought it was a metaphor, and they were usually on the fence *about* something. Most candidates love getting news coveragem too... and we'd bet that Van Hollen is an exception right now. To his credit, he did pass the test for "good landing" ("any landing you can walk away from") if falling short of the standard for "great landing" ("you can use the plane again"). Perhaps he'll drop by the Aero-News Mobile Newsroom at Airventure and tell us the story -- we'll have a cold bottle of water on ice for him. (Any of his opponents who are aviators get equal time, as we're a non-partisan, if not always unbiased, organization).

FAA Preliminary Accident Report

IDENTIFICATION
   Regis#: 56715 Make/Model: PA28      Description: PA-28
CHEROKEE, ARROW, WARRIOR, ACHER, D
   Date: 04/02/2005     Time: 0439

   Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N   
Missing: N
   Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
   City: WAUNAKEE   State: WI   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
   ACFT CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, WAUNAKEE, WI

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
    # Crew:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0    
Unk:
    # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0    
Unk:
    # Grnd:          Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0    
Unk:

WEATHER: METAR KMSN020353Z34006KT10SMFEW065BKN07505/00A2998

OTHER DATA

   Departed: Dep Date:    Dep. Time:
   Destination: WAUNAKEE, WI      Flt Plan: VFR   Wx
Briefing: U
   Last Radio Cont:
   Last Clearance: RADAR SERVICE TERMINATED

   FAA FSDO: MILWAUKEE, WI  (GL13)   Entry date: 04/04/2005

FMI: www.ntsb.com