You SURVIVED a plane crash! You won't believe what happens next!

I used to work with the AAIB inspectors and they were all very reasonable and genuine guys, I would have no fears about them using their report for any other reason than to make sure the community was as safe as it practically could be.

I can only imagine the thoughts going through ones head as the ground rapidly approaches and theres not much you can do, glad he survived!

Not a pilot or anything, just a bystander and fan of aviation, but I think the willingness to share stories like this, the transparency with investigators, and the no blame culture in aviation is both a key part of its relative safety and admirable in its own right. I think more things need to have that learning focused approach. Thanks to James for being willing to share his story.

I recognise the little park that the interview with James was filmed, as a aspiring pilot myself its pretty cool to see someone i watch has recorded an interview in the same place i crossed through on a night out with friends

Greetings from Czechia

I’d fly with that pilot anytime. Why? Because he is the kind of pilot that learns from mistakes.

This man is so refreshing in his openess , may he never have to go through this again.

Here is what you do!
Get up dust your tail feathers off and fly again!

As someone who is interested in getting a PPL the AAIB has been a bit of a scary shadowy man looking over your shoulder. It's great to see this video to learn their process and culture.

Sounds like the local police need to be replaced with more competent officers.

Honesty, how RARE these days, ANY Landing you walk away from is a Good one. Best wishes to Pilot (and Aircraft!) for future Flights.

This pilot's honesty may save someone's life.

I tell you, it’s bloody inconvenient when people with private aircraft are inconvenienced by the authorities who have crashed them! What a nuisance 😂

The best lessons are from your mistakes. I'm sure he will evaluate landing conditions a lot more in future and hopefully not have it occur again.

true Scotsmen.........one with no money,.......and the other draining petrol out of his tank

Aviation is an open, no-blame culture that learns from its mistakes. I'd be surprised if those advising 'no comment' to the AAIB are experienced, high-hours pilots. When I crashed my glider on a winch launch many years ago, I was happy to share the consequences of not being ready to release from the cable in a flash. Although checklists and procedures are drilled into every student, there's nothing like real-life experience to bring home an understanding of the knife-edge on which we fly.

Also, while it may be possible to pull the wool over the eyes of a country bobby or two, AAIB investigators have seen it all and will sniff out any economies with the truth in short order. Aircraft crash for a limited number of reasons and they will expect, indeed demand, that you tell them precisely what happened. Giving them the run around risks a call to the CAA flight crew licensing department.

Shit happens.
The most important thing is to analyze why it happened and try to learn not to repeat that again.

Why is he in Slovenia? What a lovely country!

This video is excellent. I think his approach to talking about this incident makes me confident in his abilities as a pilot not less. To properly reflect on the human factor dimensions and own the errors is huge. I also learnt that there's a airfield at Bute!! May even go there myself!

Hi James. Highly impressed that you were able to be do frank and honest. By sharing your experience I'm sure others will benefit. I recognise that some times little things not going to plan can knock you off your stride and play on your mind. I've certainly tried to overcome this by being hard nosed and determined that the loss of focus won't stop me flying. And its caught me out. But there again, as a balloon pilot, we always plan to have a controlled crash. But some are light as a feather. Others..!!? Happy flying and thanks for sharing

Interesting story..thanks

Excellent production Terry which is reflected in the views and your ever increasing subscribers. Chris in Devon.

I'm not a pilot just an oap new to the love of aviation and one year in. I was fascinated by your explanation and of course I love Scotland and the Hebrides so this came up on my fb feed. I guess there is no tower, no a&e vehicles and left to local population to cut the runway and policemen who like me had no idea how to deal with a downed aircraft and thank god you didn't have a fuel leak! I'm so glad you survived and your lovely little prop plane was repairable. Do you call it 'OY! You!' ? Lol At first when the notification came up on my fb page thought it was going to be Stornoway airport on Harris, or Barra's beach landing strip. I never even knew there was a strip on Bute! So we all live and learn. So glad it didn't put you off going back in the air. Bit like me when I rode horses falling off you just have to get over an incident and garner your courage to get back on! Im still fighting my fear of flying as a passenger. So glad you did the same. Plus I've liked and subscribed by the way! 😉🙂 xx

This gentleman is an inspiration and role model in terms of thoughtful, calm, logical, rational, and professional approaches to problems that I think we can all learn from.

I've flown my gyro into Bute with Alan (the person whose FB post and photo you showed in the video).
It was the first (and so far, only) time I've ever been off the mainland. It is a nice little strip and the pub in town is a great place to go for lunch.

Great to see an open and honest appraisal with some useful lessons we can all learn from. 👍

Been to Bute airfield several times in a Cessna 150 in the past...one of my favorite strips....not the easiest to get into approaching from the west.

Those errors are making you a much better pilot, mistakes? we all make them.

1. Do the rescue thing.
2. Make the scene safe.
3. Establish a cordon until AAIB and other ' RELEVANT authorities ' allow you to do your own thing.

The police throughout the UK is truly developing an appalling attitude. A man has an accident, could have been anything such as an engine failure, and is treated like a criminal!

What a great vid - shows the personal side of what goes through your mind after such an event. Usually all we see is the AAIB report. This film makes it real. Kudos to James for sharing his story - could be any one of us.
Glad it had all had a fairly positive outcomes
And once more, I Learned About Flying From That.
ps, EV97 as a temporary steed isn’t a bad deal - loving mine!

This pilot may have had an accident but his super mature attitude and openess would make me perfectly happy to fly with him as my pilot.

Lol you took time to do this whole video just to get the runway makings wrong, it's 27 ----- 09 not 09 --- 27. The marking is in correlation to your heading when you cross the threshold.

Get some bigger wheels

James it's always easy to see the "should have dones" after the event. This kind of openness about the event is proof of the old saying learn from the mistakes of others because you won't live long enough to make them all yourself. Your words about the helpfulness of the farmer brings to mind my experience of Scottish people.

Very interesting!🧐 Thank you.🛩

Absolutely brilliant video. This is a typical example of the no blame culture by which we as pilots can all learn from each other. Well done!

His buddies that already landed on Butte could have played a helpful role to inform him of conditions to expect upon landing ?
Also they seem to have evaporated in the telling of incident aftermath .

The one thing that I haven't given much thought about.

Been to the Bute airfield by car and there's zero facilities. Stunning Island.

Good post. Good story. I'm going to remember the "Swiss cheese" part for my planned days aloft. Wish you many happy landings.

This incident is why pilots are advised to keep up to date with airstrip information.
Chosing to land late on an airstrip just because that is how positioning was done before the airstrip approach was improved is just not professional. Having said that, reporting on the incident is professional.

Im not a pilot (would love to be one) but what a bloody brilliant little insight into the sort of accidents that one is more likely to have in their flying journey. Great to hear James and the Plane will be all good and flying again. This was some really great content!

Another prime example of how useless social media has mutated into the ridiculousness that it has. It has uses but certainly not the way it was intended. Happy everyone is fine, not so much the aircraft.

Did you still have lunch that day?

Excellent video, and great to hear from James about this experience! Fingers crossed it's all repaired nice and quickly and he gets back up in the air as soon as possible!

Excellent airmanship! Share your errors and allow others to learn

A lot of commenters failing to understand what the role of the police is in the AAIB response. Nothing wrong with what happened at all.

The job of the police, once immediate life threats are dealt with, is to secure the scene and any pertinent evidence, and then make referral to the AAIB. That is exactly what they did. He was not under arrest.

James seems like a very nice fellow, I like him and I'm sorry for his mishap. When he was relaying his story he said after the plane came to a stop" I got out of it and noticed there were some gofers coming toward me". And then I realized he was saying "golfers". My best wishes to him.