Pilotless Airplane Crash Lands Near House Under Construction

During flight training, to demonstrate the inherent stability characteristics that have been designed into most light training aircraft, your certified flight instructor (CFI) would have had you momentarily cease providing control inputs so you can observe for yourself, its tendency to return to a particular attitude of flight.

Earlier this month, the self-flying part was evident when a Bellanca Citabria, a single-engine tail-dragger airplane departed the Schlenker Airport (CFZ3) some 3 miles south of the city of Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada around 8:30pm and crash landed into a house that was under construction, near the 14^th hole of a golf-course in the city of Medicine Hat. The fire-dispatch audio can be accessed on youtube. There was some debate about who would be investigating and whether the scene should be preserved or cleaned up.

The airplane was apparently undergoing maintenance by its owner, and once the engine started, he said “it just took right off”. Other eyewitnesses reported seeing the aircraft circle one of the neighborhoods for almost 20 minutes, low enough for observers to see that no one was at the controls, before it crashed into a mound and came to rest against the house! The airplane owner reached out and apologized to the homeowner. Apparently, the damage was minor, the kids got some selfies and had a cool story to share, but most importantly, no one was injured in the process.

This is almost akin to an episode of Ripleys’ believe it or not! But we digress. The emergency responders rushed to the scene following calls reporting the incident, and the Canadian Transportation Safety Board (TSB) will be investigating.

FMI: https://www.youtube.com