I’ve seen this picture online several times but usually as the punchline to some joke. But what actually happened to this plane? I can’t figure out what kind of machine would make a series of parallel cuts like this and why a plane would have fallen into such a machine.
It was hit by the propeller of another airplane. Mythbusters ever replicated the stunt to see if it could happen.
Another propeller-driven airplane taxied into it from behind. Probably a single engine plane.
At the rear of this plane, the two planes were offset enough that the prop was just barely long enough to cut into the side of this plane. The taxiing plane was converging towards this one & eventually buried its nose rigth where the wing joins the fuselage of the plane we see. So the cuts get deeper as they go forward.
It was episode 45
There’s a youtube clip (about three minutes in)
That makes sense. A lot more than my theory about the plane crash landing in the middle of a farm field on top of an upside down harrower. Thanks.
Even after cutting up an airplane, the Ginsu Knife remains razor sharp! Watch how it cuts this tomato paper thin!
Now how much would you pay?
But wait, there’s more!
Don’t laugh - I own a ginsu knife, and I know a little about single engine airplanes. I think my ginsu carving knife could slice airplane skin with little to no problem.
But for a really big job a propeller is still more efficient.
Here’s a short linkabout it.
I maded you a aeroplane but I eated it.
Here’s a slightly more detailed account. The guy who was (meant to be) in charge of the runaway aircraft was a surgeon. Hope he doesn’t slice up his patients the way he did that Seminole.
No chocks? Aiyiyiyiyi…
My mom flew us up to my dad’s once. There was an electrical problem on the way up. It turned out to be a popped circuit breaker, but we were on battery power for who-know-how-long. When it was time to go a couple of days later, the battery was dead. So mom sat in the pilot’s seat and dad went to hand-prop it. It scared the hell out of my young self because I had recently watched a TV movie called Family Flight, which had a rather bloody scene involving a father hand-propping a Mooney.
One of the aircraft incidents involving a Dash-8 wasn’t a hand-prop, but an incident in which a ground crew member wasn’t paying attention and walked into the spinning propeller as the plane was being loaded.
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?ev_id=20010904X01867&ntsbno=DCA01MA056&akey=1
I seem to recall the word “scalped” associated with this incident, but it doesn’t appear to be in this report. Even propellers can be incredibly dangerous!
That happens from time to time.
I’ve been around aircraft all of my life, and I know that engines won’t start spontaneously. But I still ensure I’m outside of the propeller arc whenever I’m around an aircraft. Maybe there’s someone in the cockpit I don’t see, or maybe there’s a bad switch and if I were to bump the prop it might be enough for the mag to give a spark. (Though how I’d casually bump a prop in such a way as to cause it to flip over is beyond me.)
Reminds me of the time I was taxing toward a DC-3 coming the other way. My instructor said not to worry but I couldn’t see the pilot so that meant he couldn’t see us. Luckily ground steered him off.
What happened to the plane in this thread happened at Oshkosh only the result was… unpleasant.
You can absolutely bump a prop and start a plane. If you are just shy of tripping the impulse coupler on the left mag it will fire.
One of my favorite Mythbuster episodes.
Yes. If it’s just about to ‘tick over’, it could start with a bad switch and a small turn. (I used to start my old motorcycle by putting the starter right at the bottom ratchet and kicking it down the final click.) I think what I was getting at was that I don’t know how I would turn the prop and tick it over, unless I tripped and tried to catch it for support or unless I deliberately moved it.
Hows this … Bend over through the prop arc to inspect the front tire. Then straighten up absent-mindedly and hit the underside of the up-going blade with your shoulders.
I spent a lot of time around small airplanes and tried hard to never, I mean never, pass any part of me through a prop arc. It just takes once. I’ve hand-propped a bunch and was never comfortable doing it. It always felt like handling rattlesnakes – keep a firm grip behind the head and never forget exactly what you’re doing.
When I was flying fixed-wing, I’d check the nose gear from behind the prop (next to the cowling). Not that I could see all that much, since both planes had wheel pants.
In a helicopter I’d fearlessly spin the rotors by hand. They’re not connected to the engine until the clutch is engaged. 
(Man, I’ve got to get back in the saddle!)