Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Cessna 182C Skylane, N511W: Accident occurred October 01, 2022 in Boulder City, Clark County, Nevada

National Transportation Safety Board - Accident Report Number: WPR23LA003

Federal Aviation Administration / Flight Standards District Office; Las Vegas, Nevada 

Aircraft experienced engine issues and landed on Lake Mead. 


Date: 02-OCT-22
Time: 03:16:00Z
Regis#: N511W
Aircraft Make: CESSNA
Aircraft Model: 182
Event Type: INCIDENT
Highest Injury: UNKNOWN
Flight Crew: 1 Unknown Injuries
Pax:  1 Unknown Injuries 
Aircraft Missing: No
Damage: UNKNOWN
Activity: PERSONAL
Flight Phase: EN ROUTE (ENR)
Operation: 91
City: BOULDER CITY
State: NEVADA





LAKE MEAD, Nevada (3TV/CBS 5) - Engine failure forced a pair of pilots to ditch a small plane into Lake Mead earlier this month, and they survived virtually unscathed.

Chad Rodgers and Charles Wood took off from Grand Canyon Airport on the night of October 1 and realized something was wrong just 30 minutes into the air. “I saw sparks and flames coming out of my side of the engine, Chad never saw that on his side, the cockpit filled with smoke,” said Wood.

“My first reaction was, I’m going to die,” said Rodgers. Instead of panicking, Rodgers jumped on the radio, and the pair worked together to figure out where to land. “Chad asked what’s directly below us and they said ‘you’re over the lake right now’,” said Wood. “Once I heard the lake was beneath me, I was 100% confident we are going to live,” said Rodgers. The pilot was confident in the pair’s safety with reduced impact landing on the water. “It was probably 30-40 seconds after we landed, the plane flipped over, it was already pretty much sunk,” said Rodgers.

It only took three minutes from when the engine failed to the pilot landing in Lake Mead. They swam away from the crash as the plane fully submerged under water. The two were left uninjured from the crash. “I think there was a bigger hand at play other than good piloting and aviation. I think we definitely had some angels and God looking over us,” said Rodgers.

The two pilots lost all of their personal belongings in the water and created a GoFundMe to help replace items. If you’d like to help, click here.

9 comments:

  1. Is it just me or does the gofundme seem a bit sketchy?

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  2. Trying to raise $12,000 for personal items?

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    Replies
    1. that's what I said. If you can afford a 182 you can surely afford to replace other items. What a sham.

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    2. They didn’t own the 182, they rented it. $12k may seem high for 2 pilots but if you think of what they lost…2 iPhones. 2 Bose A20s. 2 iPads & cases, Stratus ADS-B in, flight bags, etc, the it starts adding up. I easily fly with $5k worth of gear in my flight bag.

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  3. Will be interesting to see what caused the catastrophic engine failure

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  4. The pilots had ALL of their personal belongings in the aircraft? Were they homeless and living in the plane? I think Lake Mead is really low right now, how about doing a recovery of the plane? Maybe the NTSB will do it for them.

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  5. Congrats on surviving an engine failure, but I don't think "God" had anything to do with it.

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  6. Here is the only ADS-B track available for the date of the alleged incident. https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a6671a&lat=34.769&lon=-105.928&zoom=7.8&showTrace=2022-10-01&trackLabels
    As far as a donation campaign is concerned,
    1. If they recover the airplane from the wise choice ditching zone, they can dry the stuff out and it will be as good as new. I have done this already.
    2. After the Canadian truckers debacle, I only trust GiveSendGo.

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