Near LA today
https://abc7.com/pacoima-plane-down-crash-metrolink-train-video-of-pilot-being-saved/11447057/
Thankfully they not only narrowly missed being hit by the locomotive, they also escaped flying debris. A flying piece of that plane could have severed and artery. Hats off to their quick thinking.
Wow...
SealBook27 Thankfully they not only narrowly missed being hit by the locomotive, they also escaped flying debris. A flying piece of that plane could have severed an artery. Hats off to their quick thinking.
Thankfully they not only narrowly missed being hit by the locomotive, they also escaped flying debris. A flying piece of that plane could have severed an artery. Hats off to their quick thinking.
Flying parts after the collision did nearly take out some bystanders. There is video of that, too.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
It's really unclear how that pilot wound up there. The airport runway was only about 200 ft. away, parallel to the track. Reports say he had just taken off, but I'm wondering if he actually was trying to land and was hit by a side draft; however the wind was pretty light. Maybe, arriving, he was trying to stretch his fuel but could not get clearance to land at the airport soon enough, so he went for the tracks.
Still in training.
No matter how it happened, those cops were brave as hell.
54light15 No matter how it happened, those cops were brave as hell.
Amen!!!
And the pilot was lucky: there is a police station on that block!
And here in Stanley county NC a NS freight hits a mobile home that just left Clayton homes.
Russell
My take on seeing that yesterday is that law enforcement appears to continue to have no protocols in place to contact Metrolink about a fouled grade crossing. Given Metrolink's history of grade crossing fatalities of crew and passengers, one would suppose that concept would be high on somebody's radar. In this case they lucked out, so that was good. Scary stuff, indeed.
ChuckCobleigh My take on seeing that yesterday is that law enforcement appears to continue to have no protocols in place to contact Metrolink about a fouled grade crossing. Given Metrolink's history of grade crossing fatalities of crew and passengers, one would suppose that concept would be high on somebody's radar. In this case they lucked out, so that was good. Scary stuff, indeed.
Given the time frame involved, even if someone was on the phone as soon as it was known the crossing was fouled, it may not have made any difference. For all we know someone was on the phone.
As Balt points out, there are often layers to go through. Calls to the toll-free number don't go directly to the dispatcher, except maybe on some shortlines. In some cases, it may start with a call taker, who then refers it to the railroad police, who then refers it to the dispatcher. In the meantime, they are trying to determine exactly which crossing is involved and what the problem may actually be.
Based on the videos, they had about 30 seconds for that to happen, with an oncoming train probably doing, what, 60 MPH?
A little humor...
Honey, our plane was hit by a train. No, I have NOT been drinking.
tree68 ChuckCobleigh My take on seeing that yesterday is that law enforcement appears to continue to have no protocols in place to contact Metrolink about a fouled grade crossing. Given Metrolink's history of grade crossing fatalities of crew and passengers, one would suppose that concept would be high on somebody's radar. In this case they lucked out, so that was good. Scary stuff, indeed. Given the time frame involved, even if someone was on the phone as soon as it was known the crossing was fouled, it may not have made any difference. For all we know someone was on the phone. As Balt points out, there are often layers to go through. Calls to the toll-free number don't go directly to the dispatcher, except maybe on some shortlines. In some cases, it may start with a call taker, who then refers it to the railroad police, who then refers it to the dispatcher. In the meantime, they are trying to determine exactly which crossing is involved and what the problem may actually be. Based on the videos, they had about 30 seconds for that to happen, with an oncoming train probably doing, what, 60 MPH?
On CSX the 800 number on the Crossing Tag goes to the CSX Police Command Center in Jacksonville. Giving them them the crossing identification number from the crossing tag expedities the getting the warning out to the correct train dispatcher to notify any train(s) approaching that crossing. The PCC accesses the Train Dispatcher and/or Chief Dispatcher for the territory on a 'Emergency Line' on the phone console - instructions in effect when I was working - you drop EVERYTHING to answer the Emergency Line after the 1st ring.
If the inbound caller doesn't have the crossing ID from the Crossing Tag then the person that answers at the PCC has to play 20 Questions to determine where HERE really is. Railroad property is nominally defined by mileposts. Political jurisdictions are nominally defined by hundred blocks of named or numbered streets, thus people are speaking 'different languages' to each other and they have to come to a agreement on a specific point.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACDIf the inbound caller doesn't have the crossing ID from the Crossing Tag then the person that answers at the PCC has to play 20 Questions to determine where HERE really is. Railroad property is nominally defined by mileposts. Political jurisdictions are nominally defined by hundred blocks of named or numbered streets, thus people are speaking 'different languages' to each other and they have to come to a agreement on a specific point.
We've had many instances in local emergency services where the caller has absolutely no idea where they are. They think they're near the Podunk Road, but when we get there, they are off by sometime miles. It can be worse on the Interstate, where it may be ten miles between exits. One can guarantee the caller has no idea what milepost they are near, or even what exit they last passed.
Add to that the adrenaline rush that comes with seeing (or being involved in) an incident and you know that extracting necessary information will become nearly impossible... "A plane just crashed into a railroad crossing!" "Which crossing?" "The one by the Humpty Mart!" (Caller is in Kentucky, call taker is in Florida...)
The story that I heard was that he landed on the road and ended up stopping on the crossing.
BaltACD tree68 ChuckCobleigh My take on seeing that yesterday is that law enforcement appears to continue to have no protocols in place to contact Metrolink about a fouled grade crossing. Given Metrolink's history of grade crossing fatalities of crew and passengers, one would suppose that concept would be high on somebody's radar. In this case they lucked out, so that was good. Scary stuff, indeed. Given the time frame involved, even if someone was on the phone as soon as it was known the crossing was fouled, it may not have made any difference. For all we know someone was on the phone. As Balt points out, there are often layers to go through. Calls to the toll-free number don't go directly to the dispatcher, except maybe on some shortlines. In some cases, it may start with a call taker, who then refers it to the railroad police, who then refers it to the dispatcher. In the meantime, they are trying to determine exactly which crossing is involved and what the problem may actually be. Based on the videos, they had about 30 seconds for that to happen, with an oncoming train probably doing, what, 60 MPH? On CSX the 800 number on the Crossing Tag goes to the CSX Police Command Center in Jacksonville. Giving them them the crossing identification number from the crossing tag expedities the getting the warning out to the correct train dispatcher to notify any train(s) approaching that crossing. The PCC accesses the Train Dispatcher and/or Chief Dispatcher for the territory on a 'Emergency Line' on the phone console - instructions in effect when I was working - you drop EVERYTHING to answer the Emergency Line after the 1st ring. If the inbound caller doesn't have the crossing ID from the Crossing Tag then the person that answers at the PCC has to play 20 Questions to determine where HERE really is. Railroad property is nominally defined by mileposts. Political jurisdictions are nominally defined by hundred blocks of named or numbered streets, thus people are speaking 'different languages' to each other and they have to come to a agreement on a specific point.
My take on this is it's possible one of the officers on scene relayed the phone number and crossing number to their dispatcher in order to go hands on in a situation that needed immediate addressing. If not it's not unlikely that the officers got tunnel vision and sought to put their resources into the plane itself since they had to evaluate whether they can/should extract the pilot, how many injuries, if fuel is leaking, etc.
Plane crashes are very uncommon (even in large depts like LAPD) and plane crashes on railroad crossings are even more uncommon, I'm just glad everyone involved survived and I commend the officers for their quick action!
After watching the short video clip can anyone tell is the train was attempting braking before or after the collision?
What a lucky pilot !
Lithonia OperatorReports say he had just taken off, but I'm wondering if he actually was trying to land
This seems unlikely. The incident site is at the southeast end of the runway. Records from ADS-B equipped aircraft shortly before the crash show that they were taking off to the southeast, which is either indicative of an aircraft failing to take off or overshooting the runway by a large margin. For a GA aircraft, the first is more likely than the second option.
The FAA ASIAS database also categorized it as a departure. N8056L was not operating a beacon at the time, and as such does not appear in public databases. However, it is likely that they would have filed a flightplan, even for a VFR flight. Whiteman is inside the class B airspace Van Nuys and less than a minute from the class B airspace around Burbank. If they say it was taking off, it was definitely taking off.
flourish96My take on this is it's possible one of the officers on scene relayed the phone number and crossing number to their dispatcher...
Odds are the police dispatcher has the railroad number on speed dial (or at least has easy reference to it). The exact crossing number, not so much.
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