Sunday, February 24, 2013

Maule M7-235B, YJ-LM7: Precautionary Landing at Jubilee Farm - Vanuatu

Daily Post was able to catch up with the flying Doctor Mark Turnbul, the expatriate doctor providing health services for people in the Torba province and he shared how his quick decision saved not only the lives of his patients who were in the aircraft with him but also the aircraft.

Dr Turnbul remembered that Wednesday morning he flew to Santo in a small orange colored light aircraft, Model Maule M7-235B, call sign YJ-LM7, which is operated in the Torba Islands as the Wings of Hope Flying Doctor Service.

He said that flight was a medical flight carrying two patients and family members to Santo for a TB checkup.

“Most of the flight was normal and the weather was good. But on arrival at Santo the weather started to deteriorate.

“Instead of landing in the heavy rain, I chose to orbit north of the airport in the area a few miles north of Pekoa airport, waiting until the rain had passed,” he said.

He said the rain got heavier and the whole area started to get very cloudy on every side.

“I tried several times to make an approach to Pekoa airport but the rain got worse so we had to turn back. Eventually I decided to fly to Ambae but the clouds were forming ahead of me too in that direction so I thought it would be dangerous to go there too unless I could confirm first that the airport in Ambae was clear.

“I decided it was safer to look for a small field in Santo in case I had an emergency situation coming,” he said.

He thought it would be much safer to land on an open area in the bush than to try to make a landing in the blinding rain.

Eventually the rain closed in around them and they had very poor visibility on all sides.

“I decided to checkout a field which was a big open space on a farm. Later I learned that this farm is called Jubilee Farm.

“I made several passes over this field to check it out for possible landing and then I flew close to the ground to check out for obstacles, fences, trees and bumpiness. It looked OK for a landing, although I knew it would be a bit bumpy,” the brave Turnbul told the Daily Post.

He recalled that when the rain started to get heavier, he knew he had a short time to make a decision, so he made a landing with the plan to take off if the landing was out of control.

He said but after touching down, although it was bumpy, the landing was OK.

Fortunately the aircraft was specially designed for bush airstrips and it has big bush wheels for that kind of landing.

“I let the plane come to a stop, and our landing was completely safe. There was no damage to the plane at all, and all the passengers were completely unharmed.

“The landing did not damage any property either. I called the Air Traffic services in Santo and they informed the Police and Ambulance to come,” he said.

On arrival, they could see that there was no danger or damage, so the patients were taken for their TB checkup, and Dr Turnbul got clearance from Civil Aviation to take-off.

He asked the Police to carry all the extra weight like chairs from the plane, so that the plane would be light enough to take off in a very small space, and they cleared a small 'airstrip' on the field for take-off.

Dr Turnbul took off in less than 100 meters, and flew to Pekoa were he landed safely.

He said however, when the plane taxied to the parking place at the airport, there was a huge amount of rain on the ground.

The water sprayed up to the wings like a jetski. It was clear to him that if he had tried to land at Pekoa during that heavy rain, surely he would have had an accident.

He thanked God for this experience and that the plane landed and took off on that bush 'landing site' at Jubilee Farm without a damage or harm.

He was very thankful to the owners of that property although he said he has not yet met them.

“Nobody was responsible for this emergency. It was purely caused by the rapidly changing weather which nobody could have predicted, and there is nothing to be sorry for because nothing bad happened.

“I just burned a bit of extra avgas during the 30 minutes of extra flight, thats all. This was not a crash landing and there was no crash involved. It was not a forced landing either. It was what pilots refer to as a "Precautionary Landing" and private pilots have a right and obligation to perform such a landing where safety requires it,” he emphasized.

He assumed that without the right aircraft and without the right training in landing on bush airstrips, maybe things would have been much more difficult.

“But I thanked God for the plane and training he provided for me, and for his help. I believe that God protected us for the sake of the patients and also that the Wings of Hope Flying Doctor Service can continue this work of helping the sick in the remote areas of Torba Province,” he said with joy in his heart.

Story and Photo:   http://www.dailypost.vu

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