VIDEO: Piper Malibu Slides Off the Runway during Landing

[challenger_nami]

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Uw7eBmi1Lt8

Piper Malibu Slides Off the Runway during Landing on Courchevel Airport’s short and challenging runway in the French Alps. The runway was wet and partially covered with snow and probably some ice.

The aircraft seemed to be rather fast and high on the approach and touched down too long.

This runway has no option for go around due to the terrain. So there is no room for error, or sloppiness.

3D Image of the airport and the area: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Altip ... f?hl=en-ca

Luckily, All 5 occupants survived the impact.




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[jschnurr]

Measuring distances on Google earth, the entire runway surface is about 1750' long, and it looks like he touched down with only about 500' remaining (about 2 runway centerlines from the end, and adjacent to the smaller building).

[goldeneagle]

That is Courchevel. Runway is 537 meters long with an 18% grade. Well known one way strip. Lots of videos online from that strip. Not as many as Lukla, but it's basically the same thing in the Alps rather than the Himalayas. Arrive high and/or hot, you go off the end, except the end is a wall.

[digits_]

You need a special checkout to fly to Courchevel. It might be a short runway but it has a steep incline. Small planes need to add power after touchdown to make it to the top.

[PostmasterGeneral]

Watching that I kept saying to myself "go around dude" but can you at that strip once you're past the numbers? Is there enough room to crank and bank it away from the ski hill?

[challenger_nami]

The field elevation is approx 6588” with rising terrain in the area.

Depending on the density altitude and the aircraft performance, I think most aircraft will have difficulty going around at below 500’ Above Airfield Height.

[rookiepilot]

This is a good one. St Bart's.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-z2o0acIlm4

[digits_]

Watching that I kept saying to myself "go around dude" but can you at that strip once you're past the numbers? Is there enough room to crank and bank it away from the ski hill?

From anecdotal evidence:
You can not. During the checkout it is made very clear that you are committed to land once past x miles from the threshold.

[pelmet]

You need a special checkout to fly to Courchevel. It might be a short runway but it has a steep incline. Small planes need to add power after touchdown to make it to the top.

Not necessarily. I have skied at this area(or group of areas) called the 3 valleys which is really 4 major ski areas all interconnected. 200 lifts if I remember correctly and at the time, a lot of them were poma lifts.

Anyways, there were three airports at the ski complex with the one in the video being the main airport which is at Courchevel.s. Les Menuires has a small airport but it was closed for the winter. Val Thorens was the highest altitude ski area but no airport. The final area was where I was staying.....Meribel. And it had an airport. As I was skiing, I noticed a red Jodel on skis several times and decided to investigate. There was the Jodel, on skis operating on the snow-covered paved runway. It turns out that you can go for a 30 minute training flight which is what I did but it was more like 45 minutes with spectacular views of the mountains and surrounding area. Even saw a Chamois doing its running on specatular terrain.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_G0WZkMK8A

Anyways, the runway at Meribel is a lot like where the Malibu landed. The instructor let me land. You have a steep upslope with visual illusions and land near the beginning and the uphill slope slows you right down and yes, you add power to get to the top....if you land in the proper place. So anyone can experience this if they want(and takeoff in the opposite direction - no matter what). It is a great ski vacation.

[challenger_nami]

From the video, the runway seems to be curved on a hill: initially uphill and then it goes downhill.

The Malibu landed long near the top of the uphill portion and from there on it was going downhill on the water/snow/ice covered surface.

Stopping the aircraft was going to be a losing battle, which was clearly lost, as proven by history.

But again, with go around not being an option after the botched landing, the pilot and occupants probably should be glad they survived the crash and hopefully all recovered from their injuries.