Falcon Recovery
By: Steve Smalley
Saturday, Nov 17/01

12:35PM We received a call to respond to the scene of a Falcon 10 jet that had experienced an engine problem and had to abort take off at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

After skidding approximately 300 feet past the threshold of the runway, the aircraft came to rest with it's nose turned slightly to the left with both main landing gear dug into the sand.

(Pic-1) After talking with fire rescue to make sure there was no fire danger,
Note: our next concern was the condition of the aircraft's landing gear and if the jet was stable enough to get under to inspect. Sometimes when aircraft skid sideways, their landing gear can be damaged and can collapse.

(Pic-2) Our next move was to dig out around the wheels of the 3 million-dollar jet, making a slightly up sloping ramp where we laid pieces of cut plywood.

(Pic-3) We then wrapped 20' recovery straps around the lower main gear struts, making sure not to place the straps over brake or hydraulic lines. We made sure that the straps were exactly the same lengths (pic-4&5)

At this point I asked the pilot how much fuel was onboard. He said approximately three thousand pounds. I was a little concerned about the right main gear, so I made the decision to de-fuel the plane to lighten it up. I called for a fuel truck and an APU (auxiliary power unit) to be brought to the site.

Note: The transfer pumps of most older fuel trucks are not designed to pull fuel through long hoses. Using the APU to provide auxiliary power to the Falcon, we connected the hoses directly to the jets fuel pumps, which were far more efficient and a lot faster. (Pic-6, 7, 8)

From the start of the operation I had our good friend Wayne Owensby from Falcon Towing in Fort Lauderdale standing by with two Century wreckers, a 25 and a 14 ton. We positioned them approximately 100' behind the aircraft and blocked down the cable to the height of the straps on the main gear. We then attached the lines to the straps and pulled out the slack. (Pics-9, 10,11)

Once the wreckers were in position I had an aircraft tug and tow bar hook up to the nose gear. (Pic-12)

Note: Trying to pull an airplane backwards is like trying to pull a child's tricycle backwards, unless you can hold the front wheel straight, it will immediately turn to one side or the other. If that happened to the Falcon, the nose wheel could be seriously damaged in a second. With the nose wheel being partially buried in the sand, I wanted the tug to make sure the aircraft pulled straight while it was being winched backward.

As everyone in the recovery business knows, when you have multiple pieces of large equipment all trying to work together, it is vital that only one person directs the effort. Our crew chief Larry Addison got the job and positioned himself where the wrecker operators and the tug driver could clearly see him. He directed the wreckers to pull and all the tug had to do was keep the nose wheel from turning and follow. As the lines became taught the Falcon lurched backward onto the plywood ramps. Once the aircraft was out of the soft sand and up on the harder grass, I disconnected the tug and held the tow bar by hand while the wreckers continued pulling it backward. (Pic-13, 14)

We had hoped that once the aircraft was out of the sand, we could pull it forward in a large arc back onto the runway, but, once hooked up, to the heavy Falcon, the tug could not get enough traction and quickly buried itself. We ended up having to pull the aircraft backward the entire 300' until it was on hard pavement where the tug could tow it.