Video: Young Australian Pilots Make "Textbook" Crash Landing After Engine Falters in Small Plane
By David Boroff, New York Daily News | Sep. 03, 2013
Two young Australian pilots made what has been called a "textbook" crash landing after experiencing engine problems with their small plane, footage taken from the cockpit shows.
Pilot Josh Matica, 18, and 22-year-old instructor Doug Field walked away unscathed after safely landing the Jabiru J-170 in Victoria Point, a suburb of Brisbane.
The cockpit footage shows Matica and Field calmly looking for a safe place to land as the engine faltered. They can be seen flying over homes and small bodies of water, and eventually landing in a horse paddock.
"Those are the sort of guys you want sitting next to you in the seat when something does go wrong because you know how they're going to react," veteran airline pilot Captain Michael Greig told ABC in Australia, which obtained the footage. "They're going to be calm, methodical and do the job at hand at the time."
Pathfinder Aviation, which owns the plane, complimented the pair for a "textbook execution of the forced landing procedure."