Wisconsin Politician Has Narrow Escape
Imagine getting a call that waskes
you from sleep at about eleven at night: "This is your neighbor.
There's been an accident, there's a plane in your back yard!"
Sure enough, there was a plane in Sue Madden's Waunakee,
Wisconsin back yard, or the wreckage of the plane: a Piper Warrior,
N56715, belonging to JB Van Hollen, a Wisconsin politician. Van
Hollen and his passenger emerged from the wreck unhurt, except, in
Van Hollen's case, financially: his airplane is a write-off.
Van Hollen -- according to the FAA, a Private Pilot (ASEL) with
a current medical, and a Waunakee resident -- and campaign
assistant Thomas Wangard were trying to land on a 2,200 foot
airfield in Waunakee, when, according to Wisconsin media, Van
Hollen decided to abort the landing. It appears from these
preliminary and inexpert reports, that he didn't get out of ground
effect, and struck a six-foot-tall wooden fence.
The Piper made like a very expensive woodchipper for about 500
feet of fence before striking a basketball hoop, which spun the
plane around. The gradual deceleration this provided probably had a
lot to do with the fortunate survival of both men.
The FAA's preliminary data calls this an "incident," and
describes the circumstances as "unknown." It's fairly common for
the preliminary data to have errors. The FAA is investigating the
accident on behalf of the NTSB.
Van Hollen, a former Federal prosecutor, is one of two
Republicans competing to face the incumbent state attorney general,
Democrat Peg Lautenschlager, in the next general election. Van
Hollen's spokesman, Darren Schmitz, told Wisconsin newspapers that
the candidate was returning home from campaigning in Green Bay. He
pledges that Van Hollen will repair damage to Madden's fence and
other property.
We've heard of politicians who were on the fence, but we always
thought it was a metaphor, and they were usually on the fence
*about* something. Most candidates love getting news coveragem
too... and we'd bet that Van Hollen is an exception right now. To
his credit, he did pass the test for "good landing" ("any landing
you can walk away from") if falling short of the standard for
"great landing" ("you can use the plane again"). Perhaps he'll drop
by the Aero-News Mobile Newsroom at Airventure and tell us the
story -- we'll have a cold bottle of water on ice for him. (Any of
his opponents who are aviators get equal time, as we're a
non-partisan, if not always unbiased, organization).
FAA Preliminary Accident Report
IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 56715 Make/Model:
PA28 Description: PA-28
CHEROKEE, ARROW, WARRIOR, ACHER, D
Date: 04/02/2005 Time:
0439
Event Type: Incident Highest Injury:
None Mid Air: N
Missing: N
Damage: Unknown
LOCATION
City: WAUNAKEE State: WI
Country: US
DESCRIPTION
ACFT CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, WAUNAKEE,
WI
INJURY DATA Total
Fatal: 0
# Crew: 0
Fat: 0 Ser:
0 Min:
0
Unk:
# Pass:
0 Fat:
0 Ser:
0 Min:
0
Unk:
#
Grnd:
Fat: 0 Ser:
0 Min:
0
Unk:
WEATHER: METAR KMSN020353Z34006KT10SMFEW065BKN07505/00A2998
OTHER DATA
Departed: Dep Date: Dep.
Time:
Destination: WAUNAKEE,
WI Flt Plan: VFR Wx
Briefing: U
Last Radio Cont:
Last Clearance: RADAR SERVICE TERMINATED
FAA FSDO: MILWAUKEE, WI (GL13)
Entry date: 04/04/2005