Anyone else see this? Pretty amazing they survived, they got really lucky...or unlucky, depending on how you look at it.

I'd like to know what kind of gremlin makes 2 engines quit within minutes of each other.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/551015

<div class="forum_news_column"><div class="forum_news_column_title">Arctic crash survivors beat up, but happy to be alive</div>Dec 09, 2008 04:31 PM
Sara Minogue
THE CANADIAN PRESS

IQALUIT, Nunavut – A day after being plucked from an ice floe just south of Baffin Island, two men from Sweden say they're feeling beat up, tired and lucky to be alive.

Troels Hansen, 45, and Oliver Edwards-Neil, 25, were flying a Cessna Skymaster from Wabush, N.L., to Iqaluit on Sunday when first one engine, then the second, gave out over the Hudson Strait.

Hansen's company had just bought the plane from an American company, and was flying it to Sweden with refuelling stops in Nunavut, Greenland and Iceland. That plan came to a sudden halt about 40 minutes outside of Iqaluit.

"We heard a hard metallic boom and the front engine quit," co-pilot Edwards-Neil said in an interview Tuesday with The Canadian Press.

"Two or three minutes later, we heard another boom, then it was really, 'Yeah, we're going down.' "

The pair had five to eight minutes to prepare for a crash landing – just enough time to put on their survival suits, send a mayday message, and aim for a crash landing next to a pan of ice, where the pair hoped to wait out a rescue.

Edwards-Neil said he braced for impact by holding his door open, ready to get out of the plane before it sank.

The windshield smashed on impact, and forced his door shut, but he managed to stick his head far enough out of the window and smash the glass with his back.

The water was to the roof in five seconds, he said.

Fortunately, one wing of the plane was resting on an ice floe. The ice was strong enough for both to walk across the wing to the ice before the plane disappeared into the freezing water.

That left the two men alone, under a half moon and a darkening sky, with no food, shelter, heat or flares.

Unsure of the strength of the ice, they paced within a one-metre radius, trying to keep warm while waiting for a rescue. The survival suits kept both men relatively dry, except their hands and feet, which were frostbitten.

The conversation was "only pep talk," Edwards-Neil said.

That night, the pair watched as military spotter planes zigzagged in all directions, shining their spotlights everywhere but on their desolate ice pan. Three walruses surfaced nearby, then quickly disappeared.

"Barren," said Edwards-Neil, describing the landscape.

Later, the pair watched as the light of the last plane disappeared, the search done for the night.

"That's when Troels's wife had a policeman knock on her door," Edwards-Neil said. She was told her husband would not likely be found alive.

Alone in the dark, the men continued to pace all night.

At first light, they could make out the snowy cliffs of South Baffin Island. Knowing they could not last another night on the ice, they hopped from one piece of floating ice to the next – neither confident that they would make it the six or seven kilometres to shore without a fatal misstep.

Salvation came around 9 a.m. on Monday, when a small light appeared, barely visible on the horizon. The Atlantic Enterprise, perhaps the only fishing boat in all of Hudson Strait, had travelled 290 kilometres out of its way after hearing the plane's mayday call.

"It honked its horn, and we knew we were the luckiest people alive," said Edwards-Neil.

On board, the pair was offered food, warm clothing and a chance to call home.

Hansen called his wife immediately.

"I just said, I'm alive, I'm alive, and we just cried," he said.

Both men were emotional and reflective Tuesday as they lay side by side in the Qikiqtani General Hospital, where they spent the night after being treated for frostbite.

"We were friends before," said Edwards-Neil. "Now we are soul brothers."

Edwards-Neil said he'll rest for a few weeks before getting on with getting his pilot's license.

Hansen, who is also a commercial pilot with Thomas Cook of Scandinavia, said he'll seek psychological treatment before putting himself at the helm of an airplane again.

"Most of the time you think about your family and your life, and the great risk that you'll end there on this little ice patch," he said, with moist eyes.
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Wow after two things went wrong allot of things went rite.

The 337 has a kind of "busy" fuel system. I'd bet they either ran em both out of gas due to fuel mis management or got a load of contaminated fuel.

They are lucky gents in any case,

MTV

...."if you're wearing it, it's survival gear. If its in the back, it's camping gear"...

As strange as it may seem, I had a friend buy a 336 several years ago that had both engines quit at the same time. He had to put it down in a cotton field here in south Texas. The aircraft had been sitting for a while before it was purchased by another friend that bought it at auction for $5,500, (drug plane). He went through all the systems in the plane and had gotten it airworthy and back in license. Shortly after he had a heart attack and had to sell it. The 2nd guy bought it, put about 1 hour on it, and both engines quit nearly the same time. After all the systems were rechecked the engines fired right up and he flew it home, only to lose one engine right after another again, but this time on the ground. At that time the Bendix mags had an AD or SB on them, reference the coils, in those particular models of mags, and you guessed it, ALL of the coils would heat up and fail at approximately the same temp on this engine! The coils were replaced and there were never any problems with the mags again. So much for redundancy ! Jon

Glad they survived, buy I am amazed the BOTH of them didn't have 406 Locator beacons AND sat phones, hand-held aviation radios, and flares on their persons before getting in that plane. A well packed survival vest you are wearing is a must on any trip. I wouldn't dream of doing that trip without all that on my body, and not packed away in the back of the plane.