Crash: Cub, Destroyed. Injuries, Zero. Number of Occupants? Also Zero.

Photo courtesy of Merrick County Sheriff’s Office.

You read about these stories from time to time, where someone hand-props a small plane with no one at the controls, and it gets away and eventually takes off. We ran a story a few years ago about a Cessna that went off on its own but never took off, instead wreaking havoc on the surrounding planes on the ramp.

In this case, the spontaneously autonomous Cub got off unhindered and decided on its own to go flying. We can only imagine the pit-of-the-stomach feeling for the person who propped it to life, like, "What do you do now?" And you know the answer is, "Nothing." Wait until it crashes and hope it doesn't hit, number one, anyone and, two, no object that's very expensive. Crash into the old Le Car in the parking lot, not the Tesla, please ,oh please.

Photo courtesy of Merrick County Sheriff's Office.

Details are sparse, but the Merrick County (Nebraska) Sherriff's Office told a local reporter that the plane was "undergoing maintenance" when this happened. So it was mostly likely an A&P this happened to. Again, can you imagine when the owner calls in to check on the progress on their cream puff? "It was like that when you brought it in," ain't gonna cut it.

We'll update the story as more details emerge, but for now, send kind thoughts to someone who's trying hard to live this down.

Plane & PilotStaff