Monday, July 24, 2017

Sonex, N695VW: Incident occurred July 24, 2017 near Gwinnett County Airport (KLZU), Lawrenceville, Georgia

Federal Aviation Administration / Flight Standards District Office; Atlanta, Georgia

http://registry.faa.gov/N695VW

Aircraft force landed on a highway.

Date: 24-JUL-17
Time: 16:32:00Z
Regis#: N695VW
Aircraft Make: SONEX
Aircraft Model: SONEX
Event Type: INCIDENT
Highest Injury: NONE
Aircraft Missing: No
Damage: NONE
Activity: UNKNOWN
Flight Phase: LANDING (LDG)
City: LAWRENCEVILLE
State: GEORGIA


 Pilot Fred Meyer


Channel 2's Tyisha Fernandes and Pilot Fred Meyer


The Reich Stuff: Aircraft covered in Nazi symbols and swastika makes forced landing in Gwinnett County, Georgia.







GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - A small plane landed on Highway 316 in Gwinnett County on Monday.

The Gwinnett County Police Department tweeted a photo of the aircraft near Harbins Road.

Authorities said the plane landed safely. It was pulled into the median, waiting for FAA response.

Drivers in the area could see delays.

The FAA said the plane was a Sonex experimental, amateur-built aircraft and it made the emergency landing around 12:45 p.m. 

The aircraft was about three miles from the Gwinnett County Airport when it made the landing and only the pilot was onboard.

Channel 2's Tyisha Fernandes said the pilot was OK as he walked her through his decision to make an emergency landing along the highway.

Pilot Fred Meyer said that when the engine failed, the plane kept gliding so he just steered it to land right on the median in Dacula.

Meyer told Fernandes that he gives God all the credit.

“The engine just quit, it just stopped,” said Meyer, who likes to take the plane out for a nice flight over Gwinnett County often. 

Meyer doesn’t own the plane, but said he built the engine and takes care of the maintenance.

When he took off from Brisco Field in Lawrenceville on Monday, Meyer said he was doing aerobatics and that everything was fine, but then he heard the engine go out.

“I pulled up in a vertical and the engine just stopped. It just stopped just like that,” Meyer said, adding that he was thinking "oops" when it happened.

“You just fall back on your training at that point in time,” Meyer said. “You really think about the circumstance. You think about your training and what to do.”

Fernandes found a swastika insignia on the wing of the plane and asked Meyer about it.

"A lot of people like to paint these small airplanes up top (to) look like the war birds," he said. "They’re more for fun (than) anything else… with the fake bullet holes and everything.”

Meyer said it wasn’t the first time a plane engine has failed on him, claiming he did the same thing in Gwinnett County 15 years ago.

The FAA is investigating what made the engine fail. 

http://www.wsbtv.com




A small airplane landed on Ga. 316 in Gwinnett County on Monday afternoon, police said.

The plane is registered to a Buford man, FAA records show. It appears to be designed to look like a Messerschmitt BF 109, a plane used by Nazi Germany in World War II. The design includes a swastika on the plane’s tail.

The aircraft landed safely just before 1 p.m. and there were no injuries reported, according to Gwinnett County police. The plane landed on the highway near Harbins Road, the same intersection where an accident involving a milk truck spill snarled traffic earlier this month. 

Fred Meyer, who was piloting the plane, was the only person on board. He does not own the aircraft but built the engine and helps take care of the maintenance, he told Channel 2 Action News.

“The engine just quit, it just died,” Meyer told Channel 2. “You just sort of fall back on your training at that point in time. You don't think of the circumstances, you just think of your training.”

The landing took place about three miles east of the Gwinnett County Airport at 12:45 p.m. After the landing near Dacula, the plane was pulled into the median.

The plane was described by a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman as a “Sonex experimental, amateur-built aircraft.” Sonex is a company that sells kits that allow people to build their own airplanes.

Meyer told Channel 2 the Nazi design was “just for fun.”

“A lot of people like to paint these planes up like old warbirds,” Meyer said. 

http://www.ajc.com






GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - A small plane has landed on Highway 316 in Gwinnett County Monday.

The Gwinnett County police department tweeted photos of the aircraft near Harbins Road.

Authorities said the plane landed safely. It was pulled into the median, waiting for Federal Aviation Administration response.

Drivers in the area could see delays.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was a Sonex experimental, amateur-built aircraft and it made the emergency landing around 12:45 p.m.

The aircraft was about three miles from the Gwinnett County Airport when it made the landing.

Only the pilot was onboard.

http://www.wgauradio.com