From Mayday to Miracle: Cessna Bellylanding at Bankstown
On the 26th of May 2024, a private pilot in a Cessna T210 Centurion II suffered an engine failure while downwind at Bankstown Airport in New South Wales, Australia. What followed was an emergency landing on video that will make you sweat.
The pilot and one passenger, his wife, were on a private flight between Camden and Bankstown in a Cessna 210 Centurion II, a six-seater single-engined aircraft with a turbo-charged engine. Based on the flight history on FlightAware, Bankstown was their home airport.
They were approaching Bankstown when the first call was made on Bankstown Tower frequency. I picked up the recording from VASAviation who presumably was quick to grab it off of ATCLive.
Pilot of VH-MYW: Bankstown …Tower, MYW is approaching the [undecipherable]. The reservoir. Um, Echo… um, inbound, Cessna 210, two onboard, requesting permission to join.
Bankstown Tower: MYW: join downwind runway 29R, maintain 1,500.
Pilot of VH-MYW: Join 29R, maintain 1,500. MYW
Bankstown Tower: MYW: just confirm a downwind to runway 29R, maintain 1,500.
Pilot of VH-MYW: Um, downwind, MYW, runway 29R.
I don’t usually mark hesitation notes in ATC but these were quite long pauses and speak to a lack of experience on the radio. The controller comes back because it is important to repeat the instruction, so that the controller can know that you understood. The pilot’s response is still pretty disjointed.
Bankstown Tower: MYW, Maintain 1,500
Bankstown Tower: MYW, confirm maintain 1,500.
We can assume from these calls that the Cessna was descending below 1,500 feet.
Pilot of VH-MYW: Bankstown Tower, Mayday, Mayday. MAYDAY, MYW, engine, engine problem.
Once the engine failed, the pilot struggled to keep the Cessna’s altitude. I have heard the comment that the Centurion is a bit of a brick in the glide.
At the same time, a news helicopter, also based at Bankstown but presumably already in the air, flew above the Cessna and began filming.
Bankstown Tower: MYW, roger. All runways will be available. Track as required.
The controller immediately made all runways available to the pilot, which means he’s now getting everyone out of the way.
Pilot of VH-MYW: Mayday, mayday mayday, coming in. Mayday, mayday.
Bankstown Tower: MYW, roger the mayday. We’ve got help coming your way.
There are not many details yet but one source says that at the time of the engine failure, the Cessna was travelling at 100 knots at 1,250 feet above ground level. The pilot’s radio calls seem a bit fractured but it’s hard to know if that’s lack of experience or stress. Someone claiming to be from Bankstown says the hangar gossip is that the engine failed because he ran out of fuel. All I’m saying is that if the pilot was inexperienced, I’m more impressed, not less.
From the video, it seems that the pilot kept the landing gear stowed, which I presume was in order to reduce drag. They glided over the trees, which the pilot later said they clipped. Watching the shadow of the aircraft growing bigger over the airport buildings was the most stressful thing I’ve done all day; I can’t imagine being in that cockpit. The pilot realised he was not going to make the runway. He kept the gear up and attempted a belly landing on a taxiway. Even without extending the landing gear, they barely made it.
The aircraft touched down and then skidded to the right, turning onto its side before coming to a halt.
Here’s the video taken by the news crew:
Bankstown Tower: Media 28, Bankstown Tower
This is the tower controller calling the news helicopter pilot. I love that the helicopter pilot doesn’t need to ask why.
Media 28: Tower, he is on the ground and uh, OK, he is sideways but he’s stopped moving. We are maintaining 1,500.
Bankstown Tower: Media 28, I’m not sure what your fuel status is but if able, request that you give us some more updates on that at 1,500.
The Cessna is out of sight of the tower and the controller just wants someone to tell him if they are OK.
Media 28: Well, technically, we are fairly low but I’ve got about ten litres. The aircraft is… is attended by people now and it looks like the pilot’s hopping out. I’ll get back to you in a bit.
Miraculously, the pilot and the passenger were unscathed.
Bankstown Tower: Media 28, are you able to give us an indication on where they are?
Media 28: Yeah, they’re on the intersection of November 1 and Lima.
Bankstown Tower: Media 28, thanks for that. And we’ve got services heading that way. Can we get you to land on 29R now to keep clear of that area so continue a right orbit. And then, cleared visual approach, number one, to runway 29R.
Media 28: Cleared visual approach, number one, to 29R. And we’re just coming out of the orbit now, Media 28. And Tower, everyone’s out of the aircraft. Security are in attendance and services have just arrived.
Unbelievable.
You can hear the original audio on VASAviation’s YouTube post
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has launched an investigation. The report’s heading states Engine failure or malfunction is an interesting choice, as I think of an engine malfunction as being a type of engine failure. The summary is pretty sparse but, the ATSB is very efficient when it comes to reporting and I’m sure we’ll get an update soon. They are anticipating a final report in Q4 2024 (that’s such a great field to have on the accident database, I wish everyone did it!). I’m very interested to know what happened here.
Whether it was luck or good management, that was an incredible glide to a happy ending. They say any landing you can walk away from is a good one but after watching that, I think I need a drink.
Lucky couple! The prop was rotating before impact, is this to be expected if the engine had failed? I do hope it was not lack of fuel.
Unless feathered, it’ll act like a windmill. Only some propellors can be feathered. J.
There is an extremely long thread on PPRuNe about this but I glazed over after page three
He came damn close to that last building. There wasn’t even space for a man with a rifle between the plane and the roof.
Your mind worries me sometimes!
Pedant’s Corner. Me, I’d say that an engine failure is a type of malfunction – you can get a wide variety of issues before the engine completely stops producing power.
Maybe you accidentally got it the wrong way round.
Regards, David
If the engine runs out of fuel, it can fail without a malfunction being involved. Likewise, an engine can malfunction (e.g. lose compression on some cylinders) without failing completely.
The word “or” can have an inclusive meaning: “A or B” can mean “A or B or both”.
I deserved that as having been pedantic about it in the first place!
Pedantry apart, from the video I’d have dumped it on the golf course. However, there may have been too many golfers there.
David
If he was at 1500 making a moderate downwind (not too close to the field, not too far from it), dumping on the golf course would have been tricky to judge; he’d have had to continue past and make a tight or multiple turn back, and fit into a tight space — there are trees separating the fairways and several of the fairways are bent, where the field is ~1 mile by .5 mile of wide-open space. He might done better to aim for the grass between the parallel taxiway and 29L, but that would have led to an abrupt stop if he skidded as far as the crossing taxiway.
I’m impressed that there wasn’t a traffic issue; the 3 parallel runways may be a hangover from WW2 rather than reflecting current use, but I’d expect a general aviation airport close to Australia’s biggest city to be busy. I’m interested that the traffic copter was able to identify the taxiways from that height — guess they’re very familiar with the field.
The Media28 pilot did pause for a moment on that but I saw one reference that the helicopter was hangared in N1