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| Piper Super Cruiser reference image |
It happened in New Delhi once. On January 16, 1961, a Piper Super Cruiser belonging to Lucknow Flying Club took off “automatically”, rather, “autonomously”, from Safdarjung Aerodrome with nobody on board. The pint-sized single-engine craft, weighing just 430kg — a Maruti 800 weighs 650kg — zoomed down the runway and was airborne before the bewildered pilot could jump inside the cockpit. Minutes later, the plane crashed to the ground, “substantially damaged”.
The case summary published in the annual report of Accidents Investigation Branch of the Civil Aviation Department, Ministry of Transport and Communications, read: “The accident is attributed to an error of the pilot in not exercising adequate precautions while starting the engine by swinging the propeller without a competent person at the controls.”
The matter came up for discussion in Parliament on February 28, 1961 under the heading: “Automatic taking off of aircraft from Safdarjung Airport”.
Members expressed surprise. Jaswant Singh from Rajasthan asked, “Whether automatically the engines got started, or whether the engines were already running and the plane took off?”
Dr P Subbarayan, then minister of transport and communications, replied: “Even in the case of a motorcar, when a man starts it by turning the handle, the car being in gear, it starts off even without the driver.”
Babubhai Chinai, a member from Mumbai, remarked: “But we have never heard about the aircraft and therefore I was enquiring about it.”
Subbarayan then explained that, unable to fire up the engine with the self-starter, the pilot had got off the plane to start it by turning the propeller. Unfortunately, he had not placed chocks in front of the wheels, nor left anyone at the controls. The engine spun to life, and the plane sped off with the pilot scrambling behind it.
Most small vintage planes are capable of such mischief, but the Aeronca Champion has a reputation for it. In 1997, a Champ landed in Ohio, USA, with mechanical problems. The pilot got off and started the engine by hand-cranking the propeller, but before he could jump in again, the plane took off and flew for about 160km — about an hour — before the fuel ran out and it crashed.
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| Aeronca Champion reference image |
In another case, in 2001, a Champ took off while its owner was checking the running engine. It crashed after flying for about 56km.
And at an air show in 2009, a biplane with enough fuel to fly 240km took off on its own, only to crash into nearby trees.
