Pilot Lands On Louisiana Interstate | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-12.01.25

AirborneNextGen-
11.18.25

Airborne-Unlimited-11.19.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-11.20.25

AirborneUnlimited-11.21.25

LIVE MOSAIC Town Hall (Archived): www.airborne-live.net

Thu, May 29, 2003

Pilot Lands On Louisiana Interstate

Blames Contaminated Fuel For Engine Out

Remember when you were a junior birdman, so proud and so confident of your ability to fly that you literally were 12 feet tall, invisible and bullet-proof? Perhaps you were heading toward your first solo when, during dual flight instruction, the CFI pulled the throttle on you. No engine. "Now, hot shot, where are you going to land this thing?" All that suave, debonair and self-confidence evaporated with the dwindling sound of the engine winding down. You hated the CFI for pulling that throttle (something he'd do many times in lessons to come), but you never forgot the lesson. Always have a place to land.

Luciano Scarsella Didn't Forget.

Scarsella, his wife, and their son (note that the two passengers aren't listed in the FAA preliminary Report, below) were flying home to Lafayette (LA) from a Memorial Day vacation in Pensacola (FL) when the pilot says the engine suddenly quit. Scarsella said he aimed for the biggest, straightest stretch of concrete he could find - Interstate 12, near Holden (LA) - but the traffic was just too heavy. So, he opted instead for the median.

That, says Lt. Trevor Smith, a Louisiana State Trooper, was probably the best place to land under the circumstances. "He did the best job he could. We'd have had bad trouble if he'd landed on the blacktop."

Scarsella, a native of Italy, said he tried to call ATC, but, flying at 2500 ft., was too low to get a clear signal. "I didn't have a whole lot of time to call," he said in an interview with the Hammond (LA) Daily Star. "It happened so fast." Scarsella motioned to the interstate median. 

"This was the closest spot. There was no time to choose. I had to clear the trees first and I saw that spot way back there," he said, pointing ahead of the plane where the median ends abruptly at a ditch. "I knew I had to stop. It was super great. No rocks, and being so clean, nothing snagged and it was a good landing," he said. "Thank God."

Bad Gas?

Scarsella said he stopped in Anniston (AL) for fuel on his way to Lafayette. There, he believes, he picked up a load of fuel contaminated with water. How will he get the C-182 (file photos, above) out of the median along Interstate 12? The same way he got it there, he hopes. Late Wednesday, Scarsella was awaiting a fuel truck sent by the FAA to first unload the suspect avgas from his tanks, then refill them with clean fuel.

FAA Preliminary Report

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 21189    Make/Model: C182   Description: 182, Skylane
  Date: 05/27/2003     Time: 1900
  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None   Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: None

LOCATION
  City: HAMMOND   State: LA   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
ACFT MADE AN EMERGENCY LANDING ON INTERSTATE 12 MEDIAN DUE TO ENGINE FAILURE, OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES ARE UNKNOWN, HAMMOND, LA

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   1     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: UNK

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Pleasure   Phase: Landing   Operation: General Aviation
  Departed: MOBILE, AL    Dep Date:    Dep. Time:
  Destination: LAFAYETTE, LA   Flt Plan: UNK   Wx Briefing: U
  Last Radio Cont: UNK   Last Clearance: UNK
  FAA FSDO: BATON ROUGE, LA  (SW03)   Entry date: 05/28/2003

FMI: www.faa.gov

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (11.29.25): Waypoint

Waypoint A predetermined geographical position used for route/instrument approach definition, progress reports, published VFR routes, visual reporting points or points for transiti>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (11.29.25)

Aero Linx: Sentimental Journey to Cub Haven Sentimental Journey Flyin began in 1986 with a group of dedicated volunteers working to provide a sentimental return to Lock Haven, the >[...]

NTSB Prelim: Jabiru USA Sport Aircraft LLC J230-SP

The Pilot Would Often Fly Over Their House At A Low Altitude And That Family Members Would Go Outside To Wave On November 14, 2025, at 1708 eastern standard time, a Jabiru USA Spor>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: Crafting The Future of eVTOL Infrastructure

From 2024 (YouTube Edition): Volatus Infrastructure Paves The Way The name “Volatus” seems to be everywhere these days, popping up in a series of partnerships and proje>[...]

Klyde Morris (11.28.25)

Fortnite Conquers All, Klyde FMI: www.klydemorris.com>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC


Debugging Information
ColdFusion Server Enterprise 2023,0,16,330828
Template /FullsizeImage.cfm
Time Stamp 02-Dec-25 05:09 AM
Locale English (US)
User Agent Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)
Remote IP 10.0.20.1
Host Name 10.0.20.1


Execution Time

Total Time Avg Time Count Template
91 ms 91 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/parsed/main.textpost.cfm
91 ms 91 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc | onRequest(/FullsizeImage.cfm) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc
68 ms 68 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/actTextPost.cfm
10 ms 10 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc | onRequestStart(/FullsizeImage.cfm) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc
5 ms 5 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryTextPost.cfm
4 ms 4 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/dspBannerAds.cfm
3 ms 3 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fusebox.init.cfm
3 ms 3 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/actWidgets.cfm
3 ms 3 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/dspWidgets.cfm
3 ms 3 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc | compileRequest(main.textpost, CFC: fckeditor.fb551.fusebox5.myFusebox) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc
1 ms 1 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryAudio.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryNewscats.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/display/dspTextPost.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/dspSidebar.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_234BannerZone.cfm
1 ms 0 ms 13 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/components/utils.cfc | RandomNumber() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/components/utils.cfc
1 ms 1 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc | init(fusebox, [complex value], [complex value]) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/CustomTags/bph/QuerySim.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/cftags/sharelinks.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/comments/actDisqus.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/actFooter.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryAnnouncements.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryWidVideo.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/comments/dspDisqus.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/display/dspAnnouncements.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/dspNewscats.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/layAnnNew.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_admin.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_flashAd.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_podcasts.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_search.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_today.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_topvideos.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc | onRequestEnd(/FullsizeImage.cfm) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/components/utils.cfc | tagstripper() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/components/utils.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxAction.cfc | getAccess() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxAction.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc | expandFuseboxPath(parsed/) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 2 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc | getCoreToAppRootPath() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc | getVersion() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxEvent.cfc | init([complex value], [complex value], CFC: fckeditor.fb551.fusebox5.myFusebox) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxEvent.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 2 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc | getMyself() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc | getSelf() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc | trace(Fusebox, Request completed) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc
4 ms  STARTUP, PARSING, COMPILING, LOADING, & SHUTDOWN
105 ms  TOTAL EXECUTION TIME
red = over 250 ms average execution time


SQL Queries

post (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=5ms, Records=1) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryTextPost.cfm @ 05:09:10.010
SELECT
	cb.ContentBlockID as id,
	cb.ContentBlockName as title,
	cb.Display,
	ct.DisplayTemplate,
	cb.HTMLContent as description,
	cb.ForumCode,
	cb.Icon,
	convert(varchar(20), cb.Display, 111) AS GroupDate,
	t.TeaserText as teaser,
	cb.SortOrder
FROM
	vwContentBlock cb INNER JOIN ContentType ct
	ON cb.ContentTypeCode = ct.ContentTypeCode
	LEFT OUTER JOIN Teaser t
	ON cb.ContentBlockID = t.ContentBlockID AND t.TeaserType <> 'L'
WHERE
	cb.ContentBlockID = ?
	AND Status IN ('60','80') AND (Display <{ts '2025-12-02 05:09:09'} OR Display IS NULL)
Query Parameter Value(s) -
Parameter #1(CF_SQL_varchar) = 0CD71CA7-ECAF-4644-B6BC-51B20F63F61C

GetAnnouncements (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=1, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryAnnouncements.cfm @ 05:09:10.010
SELECT HTMLContent
FROM ContentBlockLive
WHERE ContentBlockKey = 'ANNOUNCE' 
	AND Status = 60 
	AND ((Display <{ts '2025-12-02 05:00:00'} OR Display IS NULL) 
	AND (Expire > {ts '2025-12-02 05:00:00'} OR Expire IS NULL))
qryAudio (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=0, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryAudio.cfm @ 05:09:10.010
SELECT NewID() as id,
	CAST(episodesid AS VARCHAR(38)) as myid,
	title,
	CAST(subtitle  AS Varchar(800)) as teaser, 
	CAST(summary AS Varchar(2000)) as description,
	ApprovedDate as published,
	episodefile as filelocation, 
	podcastsid as categoryid,
	CAST('audio' AS char(8)) as mytype,
	ApprovedDate as GroupDate,
	SPACE(2) AS previewimage,
	0 AS sortorder
FROM episodes
	WHERE Approved = 1 
		
	AND ApprovedDate <{ts '2025-12-02 05:00:00'} ANd ApprovedDate > {ts '2025-11-28 05:00:00'} 

Order By published DESC, sortorder DESC
qryWidVideo (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=3, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryWidVideo.cfm @ 05:09:10.010
SELECT TOP 3
videoId as id, 
	convert(varchar(38), videoId) as myid, 
	title, 
	CAST(description AS Varchar(2000)) as description, 
	Cast(teaser AS Varchar(800))as teaser,
	published,
	filelocation, 
	categoryid,
	CAST('video' AS char(8)) as mytype,
	published as GroupDate,
	previewimage,
	0 AS sortorder
	
FROM Videos
WHERE active = 1 AND approved = 1 AND published <{ts '2025-12-02 05:00:00'} 
ORDER BY published DESC
widgetsorted (Datasource=, Time=2ms, Records=6) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\actWidgets.cfm @ 05:09:10.010
SELECT *
	FROM qryWidgets
	WHERE wname IN('flashAd','today','search','podcasts','topvideos','adsection234')
	ORDER By sortorder
NewsCategories (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=7, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryNewscats.cfm @ 05:09:10.010
SELECT 
			ContentTypeName, ContentTypeCode
		FROM ContentType 
		WHERE CategoryCode = 'NEWS' AND CONTENTTYPECODE <> 'ATRVNW'
		ORDER BY ContentTypeName
NewsCategories2 (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=8, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryNewscats.cfm @ 05:09:10.010
SELECT 
			ContentTypeName, ContentTypeCode
		FROM ContentType 
		WHERE CategoryCode = 'NEWS'
		ORDER BY ContentTypeName


Scope Variables

CGI Variables:
AUTH_PASSWORD=
AUTH_TYPE=
AUTH_USER=
CERT_COOKIE=
CERT_FLAGS=
CERT_ISSUER=
CERT_KEYSIZE=
CERT_SECRETKEYSIZE=
CERT_SERIALNUMBER=
CERT_SERVER_ISSUER=
CERT_SERVER_SUBJECT=
CERT_SUBJECT=
CF_TEMPLATE_PATH=C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\FullsizeImage.cfm
CONTENT_LENGTH=0
CONTENT_TYPE=
CONTEXT_PATH=
GATEWAY_INTERFACE=CGI/1.1
HTTPS=off
HTTPS_KEYSIZE=
HTTPS_SECRETKEYSIZE=
HTTPS_SERVER_ISSUER=
HTTPS_SERVER_SUBJECT=
HTTP_ACCEPT=*/*
HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING=gzip, br, zstd, deflate
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE=
HTTP_CONNECTION=Keep-Alive
HTTP_COOKIE=CFTOKEN=f000dc6333425ac0-B15C1F86-B20F-39A3-BD83FAC485DBC3C6; CFID=5147144; JSESSIONID=20CA8E478E9F7BAD071D914944E1D4AA.cfusion
HTTP_HOST=www.aero-news.net
HTTP_REFERER=
HTTP_URL=/FullsizeImage.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=0CD71CA7-ECAF-4644-B6BC-51B20F63F61C
HTTP_USER_AGENT=Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)
LOCAL_ADDR=10.0.20.10
PATH_INFO=
PATH_TRANSLATED=C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\FullsizeImage.cfm
QUERY_STRING=do=main.textpost&id=0CD71CA7-ECAF-4644-B6BC-51B20F63F61C
REMOTE_ADDR=10.0.20.1
REMOTE_HOST=10.0.20.1
REMOTE_USER=
REQUEST_METHOD=GET
SCRIPT_NAME=/FullsizeImage.cfm
SERVER_NAME=www.aero-news.net
SERVER_PORT=80
SERVER_PORT_SECURE=0
SERVER_PROTOCOL=HTTP/1.1
SERVER_SOFTWARE=Microsoft-IIS/10.0
WEB_SERVER_API=
Cookie Variables:
CFID=5147144
CFTOKEN=f000dc6333425ac0-B15C1F86-B20F-39A3-BD83FAC485DBC3C6
JSESSIONID=20CA8E478E9F7BAD071D914944E1D4AA.cfusion
Session Variables:
sessionid=20CA8E478E9F7BAD071D914944E1D4AA.cfusion
urltoken=CFID=5147144&CFTOKEN=f000dc6333425ac0-B15C1F86-B20F-39A3-BD83FAC485DBC3C6&jsessionid=20CA8E478E9F7BAD071D914944E1D4AA.cfusion
URL Parameters:
do=main.textpost
id=0CD71CA7-ECAF-4644-B6BC-51B20F63F61C
Debug Rendering Time: 21 ms