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Originally Posted by upthesaukee
According to an email I got from the message board at AANH (flying group), the truck belonged to the guy that owned the bob house that is situated extremely close to the runway, and he parked his truck there as protection for his bob house, in fact I think the term he used was for it to act as a "speed bump".
The unfortunate thing about the ice runway, is that it is just that: A runway, and people drive on it, cross it, park vehicles right next to it, without giving it a thought, and you know they would never do the same thing at Laconia, Manchester, or Logan!!!! If given a little space as a safety buffer zone, even if an airplane taking off was to veer off the runway, it would probably suffer little or no damage, and more than likely be able to fly away.
It should be an insurance nightmare...glad I'm not the claims adjuster.
More importantly, I'm glad no one was hurt.
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As a pilot, snowmobiler and ex-ice fishing enthusiast, I have to agree with your statements.
I witnessed the accident yesterday.
Here are my observations....for what it's worth!
*the "ice runway" is an OFFICIAL FAA runway!!
* the bobhouses and vehicles were parked closer than a wingspan from the edge of the runway.
*the pilots appeared to be communicating with each other through the flight radio system, therefore the take-off and landing sequence was more organized that some might think.
*the back wheel of the plane was skidding, however, the plane was still on the "runway" at that time and the pilot had a chance to pull it out of the skid......however, his wing hit the truck!!
*I heard the owner of the truck say, "another airplane almost hit my truck yesterday"!!!
*right after this accident, I saw a snowmobile cross the "official FAA runway" while a plane was in the process of landing and was less than 50 feet from touchdown right where the snowmobile crossed!!!
* there were no less than 5 snowmobiles with Fish and Game officers on them who were within a "stones-throw" from me and had to have witnessed at least some of what I saw???!!!
IT'S A MIRACLE NO-ONE WAS HURT!!!