A parachute jump in Limbaži ended rather dramatically for the pilot and passenger of a small aircraft. Unable to return to Limbaži or the alternate aerodrome in Cēsis due to weather conditions, the small aircraft also failed to reach Rīga Airport and made an emergency landing in a meadow near Babīte.
The pilot of the aircraft explained to the air traffic controller before the accident that he could not see the runway and warned that he was running out of fuel. Communication then broke down.
Avoiding a high-voltage line, the aircraft landed in a meadow and, after a 100-metre glide, completed the landing in a ditch.
The aircraft took off from Limbaži airfield with skydivers. After everyone had jumped, one changed plans and decided not to jump because of the rapidly changing weather conditions, so the decision was taken to land at alternative airfields.
"The distance from Limbaži to Rīga is long, it was not calculated correctly, that was the reason why they landed in the meadow," admitted Aivis Vincevs, Head of Operational Situations at the Civil Aviation Agency.
The pilot refused hospitalization. The passenger, a Lithuanian citizen, was taken to Riga East Hospital and was prepared for surgery on Wednesday afternoon. "With our protocol, the polytrauma team was activated and the patient was welcomed, fortunately there was no danger to life," said Aleksejs Višņakovs, Head of the Hospital's Emergency Medicine Clinic.
There were two skydivers from Lithuania on board. The Civil Aviation Agency informed that the Latvian Parachuting Federation reported that the parachutists had attended a two-day international event with international experts. During the flight, the weather conditions deteriorated and it was not possible to see the ground, so the pilot decided to fly to the planned alternate aerodromes, one in Cēsis and one in Rīga.
The weather in Cēsis was bad, so he flew to Rīga. Shortly before landing, the plane was almost out of fuel or completely out of fuel. The Civil Aviation Agency cannot yet say which.
Māris Gorodcovs, director of the agency, told Latvian Radio that "it is a dual situation. Given the weather conditions, others are asking whether it was even smart to carry out this kind of activity in the airspace today in these weather conditions. The second is how they got into the field, taking into account the weather conditions, the performance of the aircraft and the professionalism of the pilot. Of course, it could have ended worse, it could have ended in casualties, which was not the case today. So it worked."
"The site where the forced landing was made is not suitable for this type of flight. The pilot executed it quite skillfully. But the problem is that he should not have ended up in the situation he ended up in," the agency director said.
Because of this situation, the Riga International Airport was closed for an hour on Wednesday, as the crews of the State Fire and Rescue Service which supervise the airport had gone to the scene, but flights cannot take place without the supervision of rescuers, Latvian Radio was told at the airport.
The airport said that flights were delayed by half an hour. Two planes that were scheduled to land in Riga were diverted to Tallinn and Vilnius. The airport then resumed normal operations.
Authorities are investigating the accident. The Civil Aviation Agency has opened an administrative offense procedure.
The investigation has revealed information indicating possible breaches of civil aviation safety rules and the Civil Aviation Agency has therefore decided to suspend the licence of the pilot involved.
