A plane was forced to make an emergency landing in an Enfield field after an engine failed, an investigation has found.
The quick-thinking pilot had to force the plane to land near Enfield after noticing oil leaking from the left engine and shutting down the engine during a flight on April 2, 2022.
A new report from the Government’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch, published today (January 5), stated the engine failed due to a fatigue crack in one of the cylinders.
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The private flight from Wellesbourne Mountford Airfield to Le Touquet in France was about 2,000 ft in the sky when the pilot discovered he was unable to maintain level in the air.
Three passengers were on board the plane as part of a flying club “fly-out”.
Despite the abrupt landing, no-one needed to be taken to hospital.
According to the report, oil was “clearly visible on the engine cowling” and the aircraft lost airspeed as the pilot tried to continue on the path to Wellesbourne, before requesting to reroute to other spots.
An attempt was then made to land immediately at Elstree Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, but a lot of altitude was lost to reach the destination and the pilot instead landed 7.8nm away from the aerodrome.
The report concluded: “The pilot’s decision to continue the flight following the shutdown of the left engine may have been influenced by high workload and plan continuation bias.
“The aircraft’s maintenance organisation has amended its maintenance programme for aircraft fitted with piston engines operating beyond the manufacturer’s recommended overhaul life.
“The revised maintenance programme includes a rate-of-climb air test to detect a loss of engine power output and introduction of an oil sample analysis monitoring programme.”
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We were called at 4.49pm on Saturday, April 2, to reports of an incident at Hadley Road, Enfield.
“We sent an ambulance crew, members of our hazardous area response team and an incident response officer to the scene. We assessed four people at the scene but did not take them to hospital.”
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