| Date: November 16, 1934 |
Personnel: Toms Gailitis |
Aircraft Involved: Margeris Kenins' |
Location: Ilguciems |
Details:
- The engine stopped while the aircraft was still at a very low altitude.
- As Gailitis made the forced landing, a wingtip struck a radio antenna, and the aircraft was heavily damaged in the crash which followed.
- Apparently Gailitis had taken the plane up without the permission of its owner, Kenins.
- Kenins had to rebuild the aircraft, converting it into a single seater as the available engine had proved underpowered for
two seater flight.
- Gailitis himself described this accident in a 1936 interview:
"We were using a powered glider, with a two-cylinder motorcycle engine. I took off and, almost immediately, performed a
tight loop over the city. Of course, this was an act of overconfidence, and it almost proved fatal. The engine stopped, and
I had no hope of gliding back to the aerodrome. I tried to make a forced landing at Balastdambis in a sandy clearing, but
as I approached the landing I struck an antenna. What followed was a spectacular crash and a month in the hospital with
a broken leg."
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