We got a very weird email. "There's an Me 262 down in New York!"

By ANN Correspondent Kevin "Hognose" O'Brien

Whaaat?

We thought we were pretty well informed on the Me 262 project. We've been following it, as individuals or as the organization, since the late (and sadly missed) Steve Snyder cooked the idea up. Basically, in a sort of Jurassic Airpark, a badly used Me 262 airframe was reverse-engineered, and a limited run of five duplicates made. After many years of blood, sweat, tears and toil, the project is bearing fruit, with the first flight in late 2002. But we just couldn't see how one landed on a New York beach -- the project, and the planes, are in Washington state. Why would a twin-jet land on a beach anyway? Nobody is going to run a historic plane out of gas... especially not anybody from the Pacific Northwest. Those guys are too close to the heartbreak of the Boeing 307.

And... which 262 could this possible be? One plane, N262AZ, had flown, but was damaged in a harrowing runway excursion in January. It was still not quite ready to fly again, although the project was ahead of schedule repairing it. And the second plane (of five total, of which three have been sold) was even further from flying. And... they were in Washington state. How does an experimental still flying off its test time wind up pranging on the other side of the continent? We could find no evidence of this mishap -- a mishap to a very rare, very recognisable plane -- in any news source. Sure, some New York reporters make stuff up, but there have to be some of 'em that actually report news. An Me 262 landing on a beach, that's news. But... it wasn't news, not in New York, not anywhere. Our correspondent must have had his facts wrong.

No, he pleaded. I got the info from the FAA database.

So we checked. http://www2.faa.gov/avr/aai/A_0714_Y.txt (note, this is probably gone by now.... ). Well, the FAA said that the plane had made a forced landing. Specifically it "landed on a beach east of Robert Mosed State Park, Fair Harbor Beach, NY"

And what kind of plane was it?

The FAA said, "Make/Model: ME62     
Description: ME-262,  REPLICA 1943 M-62A-3"

Well, who would know if an Me 262 was down? Mike Anderson, crew chief of the project, was one of 'em. So I fired off a mail to Mike. That evening, he replied. "It had me going for a second also." But Mike knew that all his Stormbirds were safe in the nest... so who was on the New York beach?

Mike got the answer by looking in the registration database (D'oh. Like, I could have done that and not wasted his time). The plane was an M-62A-3, not an Me262A-3. What's that? Well, it's a WWII era Fairchild trainer. Someone typoed at FAA -- or saw M-62A-3, and had just been reading about the Me262. I'd like to think it was the latter, and the whole thing was an honest mistake by one of the aviation enthusiasts at FAA.

What's an M-62A? Well, it's the maker's designation for the famous PT-19A trainer. So... we understand what happened. It's much more logical that a single engine propeller plane would make an emergency landing on a beach.

But the FAA sure had us going for a while.

ANN wishes to express our corporate relief that none of the 262s was damaged, our satisfaction that no one was injured, and our best wishes to the PT-19 pilot and/or owner for a rapid return to the skies.

And to that unknown enthusiast in the FAA's ranks?

Well, all's well that ends well.

FMI: http://www.stormbirds.com, www.goldenwingsmuseum.com/Aircraft%20Pages/PT-19.htm