This video is pretty amazing to watch. The pilot of the plane (a Cirrus SR22) apparently ran out of fuel about 250 miles off the coast of Maui and was forced to ditch in the ocean. Luckily he was able to get in contact with the U.S. Coast Guard. They found him before he even crash landed and recorded the whole thing.
The cool thing about a Cirrus SR22 is it's whole-plane parachute which can safely lower the aircraft to the ground - or in this case, the water. Not very many single-engine planes have that option. It's pretty impressive to see one in use.
Having said that - a plane isn't going to just drop like a rock from the sky if it runs out of fuel. Pilots are trained to safely land a plane without a working engine. In fact, in order to get your private pilot's license, you need to demonstrate you can do this.
The pilot was flying to Hawaii from the San Francisco, CA area. That's over 2,000 miles. This plane only has a range of about 1,200 miles. The SFGate is reporting that the plane was outfitted with an auxiliary fuel tank (which would have allowed for a longer trip). The theory is that the auxiliary tank somehow failed.
I'm glad the pilot is okay. He apparently got picked up by a cruise ship that was in the area. Which is good, because now I can watch the video guilt free. And so can you. Enjoy!
Having said that - a plane isn't going to just drop like a rock from the sky if it runs out of fuel. Pilots are trained to safely land a plane without a working engine. In fact, in order to get your private pilot's license, you need to demonstrate you can do this.
The pilot was flying to Hawaii from the San Francisco, CA area. That's over 2,000 miles. This plane only has a range of about 1,200 miles. The SFGate is reporting that the plane was outfitted with an auxiliary fuel tank (which would have allowed for a longer trip). The theory is that the auxiliary tank somehow failed.
I'm glad the pilot is okay. He apparently got picked up by a cruise ship that was in the area. Which is good, because now I can watch the video guilt free. And so can you. Enjoy!
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