Historic Hood River
Hard Landing
6-17-2013
Notes
This Porterfield “Zephyr” tail number NC18733 made a hard landing on the sand flats near the Columbia River at Hood River on November 26, 1937. I suspect the folks at WAAAM will fill us in on the Zephyr, and what might have happened here.
db
I’m presuming the pilot survived the landing!
Lesa
That just looks painful!
Buzz
Since no expert observations, a few amateur guesses. Lost power and made a forced hard landing. Appears right wing clipped smething close to final resting spot. Probably no fatalaties. As a friend in Alaska used to say after every landing, "we cheated death one more time." Now tell me how wrong I am.
Rawhide
What’s odd is that the tail section has been broken off from the cockpit area. The wing damage and gear failure (landing gear) would seem to point toward hitting something like the sand castle seen under the left wing and doing something of a ground somersault. It is the Gorge though and thus a gust of wind with these light aircraft….
Buzz
Any landing you can walk away from is a success.
Longshot
That so called sand castle might just be a biff mark where the plane hit and dug into the sand, followed by a flip and spin. I would guess the pilot must have been beat up pretty bad.
Bill P.
Jim Case was the pilot and Jim Lill was his passenger. Both were injured. I remember Jim Lill as my English instrucor at the U of O. Lill had huge scars on his face from the crash.
Bill P.