DA40NG Ditched into the sea near Calvi (Austro AE300 engine failures)

I have no idea why this should break forum rules; the guidelines explicitly allow people to advertise if they usefully participate.

There are various aids such as this and various previous threads e.g. this.

Thanks Peter.

Greg, I meant Alexandra from Orbifly, I didn’t think Cannes would be blessed with two lady IR instructors and certainly wouldn’t have imagined they would have the same name. Anyway whoever it is, they deserve congratulations for handling such a real emergency so well.

Thanks a lot for this video. Sorry for the non-french speakers

My conclusion is : in the absolute best case scenario, 2 hours is the minimum rescue time.
→ looking for raft rental options

denopa wrote:

Not sure I would do the flight of “Romain” who helped locate the the life raft, going to Corsica with pax with an aircraft just out of maintenance, but lucky for the accident aircraft!

Well, that is of course a PIC decision. Personally if I am in the vicinity (<30mins flight time away), have the flight endurance, and have no reason to question my own airplane’s reliability (why would I otherwise be there in the first place?) I would feel very inclined to assist as possible.

It has already been discussed many times but this incident serves as a reminder of the key items to survival in a ditching, in (my own) descending order of importance as well as natural sequence of utilization:

1) Training and preflight briefing
2) The ditching process itself.
3) Liferaft + lifevests
4) Location aids (ELT/PLB + signalling tools)
5) Other emergency equipment

Number 4 is where an airplane nearby can assist to accelerate the process. I also think the morale boost of an overflying aircraft to the marooned persons must be impressive, and a huge help to survival. This is surely related in the referred book?

Again the video is a reminder of how difficult it is to locate a liferaft (even more a person) in the water without location aids.

Sorry I should have been more precise. Like “Romain” I would have helped as much as I could. Unlike “Romain” I would not have been comfortable planning a long, low level water crossing straight out of maintenance (depends of what’s been touched of course).

Statistics for ditching, compared to forced landings on land, are not bad IF a lifejacket is worn, a mayday is sent, and it’s not too remote.
I can think of 2 fatals where they made it to land, but might have survived ditching.

@denopa: as to your question if it was Alexandra. Yes, it was but not the Alexandra from Orbifly. Seemingly there are 2 lady instructors operating from Cannes-Mandelieu and I just asked Alexandra from Orbifly who it was. It was not her but the other Alexandra :-)

Thanks. That’s quite amazing in itself !

As for ‘Why send a mirage’. We all have to have our hours. So do the Mirage pilots. Incidents like this is a good emergency practice.