Woman cut in half by landing mooney

[Landman]

Check this out. In South Africa a woman was walking across the runway at an airport when a Mooney was landing and the wing cut her in half.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Plane-slices-woman-in-half-on-runway-20120328

[middle]

hmmm...i guesse have to ban airplanes or women...

[Wittpilot]

hmmm...i guesse have to ban airplanes or women...


Easy decision.... Airplanes always win...

Am I the only one finding it hard to see how a Mooney, or any low-wing airplane for that matter, would "slice" someone in half?? I mean, kill them yes, lots of blunt force trama there, but it's not razor sharp like a knife... I don't know, just hard for me to imagine...
-witt

[Tako_Kichi]

Depending on just where on the wing and how hard the initial hit was I could see the aluminum sheeting tearing at some point and then you would have a knife edge to complete the cutting.

[Naki]

Am I the only one finding it hard to see how a Mooney, or any low-wing airplane for that matter, would "slice" someone in half?? I mean, kill them yes, lots of blunt force trama there, but it's not razor sharp like a knife... I don't know, just hard for me to imagine...
-witt


Same here ...if it was a F-104 Starfighter ..that would certainly slice. IIRC correctly they had to protect the trailing edge when working on them in case of cutting themselves

[Willy]

It depends on how fast the aircraft was moving when it hit her.

[Piglet]

The impact may have torn the body apart, as opposed to slicing the body. Depending on airspeed, the wing would mostly have "folded" her body to the ripping point. Either way, OUCH!

[stansdds]

This is cold and callous, but I'd say the gene pool just got filtered a bit. Pretty well ranks along with the people who dart across the railroad tracks just as a train is approaching them.

[rgatkinson]

May she RIP poor woman. This is a fellow human being we are talking about here people; somebody's daughter and perhaps somebody's mother. I'm not that interested in the damage to the plane or how she might have been sliced, chopped or folded in two! Planes can be repaired; dead people can not.

My sympathies to her family and to the pilot who must be shocked and upset by what has happened.

[luckydog]

Around here, the woman would've been fine...............the Mooney would have lost a wing.