These posts and articles of injured aircraft caught my eye this week and I couldn’t help but think that they’d interest you as well. Although it makes my stomach cramp up to see crumpled pieces of plane, in every instance below there were no fatalities. Once you see the images below, I think you’ll agree that’s amazing.

This amazing video of a rescue came to me via Golf Hotel Whiskey and My Flying Blog

I linked this Cub crashing into a Cadillac last week (follow Fear of Landing on Facebook if you want alerts for the sidebar links). The article on Velozia Air stated that “The pilot and sole occupant of the Piper J-3 Cub suffered only minor injuries to his arm and hand in the accident. The Cadillac was destroyed.” ABC have since posted a set of photographs in a slideshow. Unbelievable:

See the slideshow for the full set: PHOTOS: Small plane crashes into car

Looking at this photograph from Le Pays, it’s a miracle that the pilot walked away with only a minor shoulder injury. According to the article, the pilot flew in from England and landed to avoid bad weather. He then decided to carry on after all and crashed into the forest, flipping the plane over after hitting a tree.

You can see the full set of photographs and an article about the accident (in French) on Le Pays.

And this plane crash-landed in Bahia last week. According to a commenter on the PPRuNe Forums, “the most plausible sequence of events seems to be a normal approach, slight undershoot and main gear being snapped off by the kerb at the end of the runway.” Amazingly, there were no fatalities and only two minor injuries.

The full-sized photograph and an article in Portuguese are on O Globo’s website: Avião da Embraer com 27 pessoas a bordo pousa de barriga na Bahia

And while we’re talking about miracles … on the off chance that there is anyone left who hasn’t seen this great chart from Jeppesen memorialising the Hudson Landing by Captain Sully, I’ll link it once more:

Click on the image to view it at full-size. It’s a beautiful piece of work.

And finally, from the PPRuNe forums, this article about an escaped vulture:

Vulture alert for the air traffic over England – PPRuNe Forums:

Warnings were issued to air traffic over Scotland and England yesterday after a vulture which is capable of soaring at heights of more than 30,000 feet escaped during an air show.

Britain’s air traffic control group to issue the warning. “We made pilots aware of the possibility of seeing this bird as it has a three-meter wingspan and can fly at altitudes used by commercial aircraft,” a British air traffic control spokesman says to the Telegraph of London.

…and my favourite comment from the thread:

She’s probably just gently winging it along one of the upper link routes as I type – If you happen to establish visual contact, gently wave your wings and she may squawk ident. Not much carrion about at those sort of flight levels.

The vulture, who was named Gandalf, was returned to his home in Cumbernauld last week: BBC News – Delight after missing vulture found safe and well

Oh, but I do love a happy ending…