Read all about it here. There is a picture of her in the water as well...
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... -headlines
Cargo plane crash-lands in Aventura lake
By Shannon O'Boye
and Ken Kaye Staff Writers
December 5, 2004
North Miami Beach ยท A cargo plane pilot who encountered catastrophic engine failure Saturday morning on a run to the Bahamas deftly landed his craft on a lake just south of the Aventura Mall, avoiding nearby trees, power lines, high-rise condominiums and marinas packed with boats.
Alejandro Bristol, 28, brought the plane down belly first in the middle of a lake next to Biscayne Boulevard.
With the grace of a baseball player sliding into home plate, the Convair 340-70 skipped across the water from the west to the east for approximately 300 yards. Bristol landed right between sailboats that were docked to the north and the south.
Rick Kellogg, a pilot who lives aboard his boat in Maule Lake Marina, was enjoying a cup of coffee about 8:45 a.m. when he heard what sounded like a plane's engine idling as if about to land.
"Finally it clears over the tree line about 80 feet off the ground," Kellogg said. "I knew he was on one engine, and I knew where he was going.
"He had it all under control," Kellogg said. "It was beautiful. It wasn't luck. It was the pilot."
Bristol, who lives west of Boca Raton, was low-key about the landing, saying he relied mostly on instinct.
"I managed, luckily, with the help of God to get it down," he said Saturday. "The power lines [over Biscayne Boulevard] were my worst enemy, but I got over them."
Bristol, who has been flying for 12 years, said he will be back in the air as soon as possible. The son of a pilot, he said one close call isn't going to scare him away from what he loves.
Joe Alvarez, a Marine Patrol officer with Sunny Isles Beach police, maneuvered his boat close enough to the plane that Bristol and his co-pilot, Dennys Villavicencio, 51, of Princeton, Fla., never got their feet wet.
Once Miami-Dade County firefighters realized Bristol and Villavicencio were uninjured, they began to help Coast Guard and Fish and Wildlife officers contain an oil slick that threatened the lake, which is home to mangroves, a variety of fish and manatees.
The crews contained the slick, estimated at 15,000 square yards, and then used absorbent pads to soak up the oil.
At the same time, a salvage company developed plans to remove the plane from the water. The company said it probably would float the plane to the surface, pull it toward shore and either move it by barge or dismantle it and load it onto a truck. The process was expected to take 12 hours.
Bristol said he makes the trip nearly every day. Frank Freeman, who works at the marina, recognized the plane because "Re-elect George W. Bush," with the R painted out, is in large red letters on the fuselage. Bristol said the political statement was the work of his boss at Miami Air Lease, an air cargo company.
The doomed flight began about 8:40 a.m. when Bristol and Villavicencio took off from Opa-locka Airport headed for Nassau, Bahamas. The plane was loaded with electronics, toys and furniture.
Bristol began experiencing problems about four miles offshore. He felt the plane vibrating and saw smoke coming from the left engine.
Procedure called for the pilot to give the good engine full power and "feather" the dead engine, or lock its propeller to a stop, allowing the plane to maintain altitude or even climb. A propeller allowed to keep spinning creates drag.
However, the pilot said the feathering mechanism failed to work, and he was unable to maintain altitude. He knew he wouldn't be able to make it back to the airport and began looking for a safe place to land. The lake was his only option.
Tom Curran, a former cargo pilot, said a plane that has lost power and is heavy can be tricky to fly. Pilots cannot turn sharply, or they risk losing speed and altitude and stalling. Suddenly, the wings lose lift.
"In most airplanes, you don't want to turn unless there's a mountain out there in front of you," Curran said. "When you turn, it's like having a barn door hanging out, you lose lift. You don't have that much of a margin before you stall."
The NTSB is investigating the accident. The aircraft is relatively large, weighing more than 23 tons, and could have caused major destruction had it crashed into homes or buildings, said NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz.
Federal investigators will look into whether pilots followed proper procedures, whether the plane was properly maintained and whether it was properly loaded.
Old propeller planes, such as the Convair 340 and the DC-4, are still flown by air cargo companies because they are less expensive to operate than large jets. However, their numbers are dwindling because they require continual maintenance and spare parts are scarce.
Staff Researcher William Lucey and Staff Writer Patty Pensa contributed to this report.
Shannon O'Boye can be reached at
soboye@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4597.
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