Plane Rally 2007

Charity pilot’s plane loses power
10/05/2007 00:00:00
By Dana Gloger

The Chief Executive of Jewish National Fund UK has told the JC how he remained calm when an aircraft he was piloting suffered a complete loss of electric power.

Simon Winters was co-piloting the six-seater plane with Adam Huberman of the travel agency Issta, as part of a five-day charity rally from North-West London to Israel involving 12 pilots.

As the pair approached Calvi airport, Corsica, to make one of their stops, Mr Winters pressed the talk button to communicate with the control tower. At that moment, the plane lost all electric power.

“We were flying over an 80-mile stretch of water at the time, but we didn’t think about what might happen as all the training kicked in straight away and we just concentrated on landing the plane safely. Luckily the engine didn’t fail,” Mr Winters said.

“We tried to lower the undercarriage, but because of the lack of power nothing happened. So we pulled an emergency lever but still didn’t know if it had worked.”

The pair used a hand-held radio to communicate with airport staff. They then had to fly over the airport so that the ground staff could check if the undercarriage had lowered.

“It had lowered, luckily, but until we landed, we had no idea if it would collapse under us or not. It was quite a hairy ride,” Mr Winters said.

They eventually landed safely, where local fire services were waiting.

A broken alternator, which had caused the power failure, was fixed and the pilots set off again for the rest of their journey, only five hours delayed. They were soon back on schedule.

“We weren’t at all nervous to get back on the plane after what happened. We are thrilled to be flying all the way to Ben Gurion to raise money and support Israel for life. This is a great challenge and adventure for all of us,” Mr Winters said.

The pilots, in five small planes, were due to arrive at Ben Gurion airport yesterday (Thursday). They are hoping to raise around £80,000 for Aleh Negev, a rehabilitation village for severely disabled children and young adults in the Negev, southern Israel.

http://www.thejc.com