Forced landing, a bent propeller and a live ELT

This is an accident, not an incident.

Annex 13 defines an accident as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft in which a person is fatally or seriously injured, or the aircraft sustains damage or structural failure that adversely affects its performance or structural strength and would normally require major repair or replacement. Both limbs are in play here:

• The bent propeller, dented leading edge and distorted gear leg are damage requiring major repair.
• The passenger's head injury with overnight hospitalisation is at least potentially a serious injury under the Annex 13 list (hospitalisation, fractures, internal injuries, and similar).

The engine roughness alone would have been an incident; the damage and injury convert it.

Duties:

• Notify the investigation authority of the State of occurrence without delay by the quickest available means - in practice the emergency call or a direct call once people are safe - giving location, aircraft, persons on board, injuries and damage.
• Notify the owner/operator, who in turn notifies the State of Registry.
• Submit the written report in the form and timescale the State requires.
• Do not move the wreckage except to rescue people, prevent fire or further damage, or with the authorisation of the investigating authority.

The beacon has already done its job by alerting the search-and-rescue system; your task now is to stop an unnecessary search - but only in the right order.

1. Account for everyone first. If anyone is missing or trapped, leave the ELT on: it is guiding rescuers to the site.
2. Contact the authorities. Use a mobile phone (112 or the national emergency number) or any serviceable radio to reach ATS or the rescue coordination centre. Give position, number of persons on board, injuries, whether anyone is missing, and the fact that the ELT is activated. Ask them to confirm the alert has been received and cancelled.
3. Then switch the beacon off once that confirmation is given, and record the time. Switching it off before notifying leaves an unexplained 406 MHz alert and a search launched for an aircraft that is safely on the ground; leaving it on after notification ties up assets and may jam 121.5 for other traffic.
4. Stay with the aircraft until the emergency services or the authority release you, and keep a watch for the rescue helicopter.

Judgement point: the ELT is not 'just a beacon' - it starts a formal alerting chain that only a positive report can stop.

Sequence: people, fire, evidence, then property relations.

• Fire risk first. With fuel vapour at the wing root, keep everyone upwind and well back, no smoking, no electrics, no starting of vehicles near the aircraft, and call the fire service if there is any sign of leakage. A tractor towing an aircraft with a damaged gear leg and a fuel leak is a fire and injury risk in itself.
• The wreckage is not the landowner's to move. The investigating authority has control of the site; moving the aircraft without authorisation destroys evidence and may be an offence. Explain calmly that the authority must authorise removal, give the owner the authority's contact details, and ask the police to attend if he insists. Offer to secure the site and to deal with his damage claim through the insurer.
• Preserve evidence. Photograph the aircraft, the fence strike, the ground marks and the instrument readings before anything changes; keep the technical log, licences, flight plan and your own notes; note the engine parameters at the time of the roughness.
• Bystanders and phones. Ask people to keep clear and not to touch or move parts. Do not give interviews or speculate on cause - the investigation determines cause, and public attribution can prejudice it. Do not post about it yourself.
• Personal fitness. After an accident, do not fly again until you are fit and have had time to process it; and make sure the passenger's injury is included in the written report.