2003-12 · NASA ASRS report 602647
PA25 PLT MAKES AN OFF-FIELD LNDG DUE TO WX E OF ZZZ1.
WX STARTS TO DETERIORATE OUT TO THE W. I DECIDED TO LEAVE STATION EARLY. IN DEPARTING THE AREA; I HEARD A PIREP FROM ANOTHER BANNER PLANE WHO WAS ON THE SAME RTE THAT WE NORMALLY TAKE BACK TO ZZZ. HE HAD TO HEAD SBOUND DUE TO WX. AT THIS POINT; I DECIDED TO HEAD S ALONG THE SHORE LINE TO GET BACK TO ZZZ. I WAS E OF ZZZ AT 1000 FT WHEN I CALLED TWR TO ENTER THE AIRSPACE USING THE COASTAL ARR. THEY ADVISED ME THAT THE FIELD WAS GOING IFR. TWR TOLD ME NOT TO ENTER; SO I PROCEEDED TO HEAD BACK TO THE SHORE LINE TO HOLD STATION. I ASKED TWR TO CHK THE WX FOR ME. TWR RPTED THAT AS FAR AS THEY COULD TELL OUT TO 40 NM WAS HVY PRECIP. TO THE S AND N ZZZ1 AND ZZZ2 WERE BOTH STILL VISIBLE. I MADE CONTACT WITH ZZZ2 TO ENTER THEIR AIRSPACE. I PROCEEDED TO HEAD INTO ZZZ2. AT ABOUT 2 MI OUT; THE ARPT WENT IFR. LOOKING TO THE S; ZZZ1 WAS NOT VISIBLE. I HEADED TO MY SECOND ALTERNATE ARPT (ZZZ3) NBOUND ALONG THE SHORE LINE AND CONTACTED THE TWR TO ENTER AIRSPACE. THEY INFORMED ME THE FIELD WAS ABOUT TO GO IFR AND BE PREPARED TO HEAD S BOUND. AT THIS POINT; I LOST SIGHT WITH THE ZZZ3 AREA; SO I PROCEEDED SBOUND TO ZZZ4. IN DOING SO; IT WAS EVIDENT THAT THE WX WAS ONE HUGE LINE WITH NO BREAK IN IT. VISIBILITY WAS DETERIORATING RAPIDLY AS THE LINE OF WX WAS PASSING OVER ME. I LOST VISUAL REF TO THE HORIZON IN ALL DIRECTIONS. ALL I COULD SEE WAS THE BEACH BELOW ME. AT THIS TIME I WAS BEING PUSHED DOWN BY THE WX WITH NOWHERE TO GO BUT DOWN ON THE BEACH. I MADE 1 SBOUND PASS TO MAKE SURE THE AREA WAS CLR. ON THE SECOND PASS; I DROPPED THE BANNER AND LANDED ON THE BEACH. I SECURED THE PLANE AND REMOVED THE BANNER FROM THE WATER. AFTER THAT; I DECIDED TO MOVE THE PLANE FARTHER AWAY FROM THE WATER LINE; SO I TAXIED THE PLANE ABOUT 20 FT FURTHER ONTO THE BEACH.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.