Fort Lauderdale Pilot Relives Frightening Belly Flop
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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – A bystander at a Fort Pierce runway captured an unusual sight earlier this month – a pilot doing a touch-and-go landing without his landing gear down. And the veteran pilot at the controls managed to not only keep the plane airborne, but to fly about 100 miles back home to Fort Lauderdale.
"There's no gear," a voice is heard on the home video, as the Chris Georgaklis' plane comes in for a landing.
Seconds later, the video captures the plane's belly hitting and skidding along a narrow runway for several seconds.
"His props are all messed up," says a voice on the recording. "He's gonna crash."
But amazingly, he didn't crash.
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Georgaklis, 85, and his dog, Buddy, made it back home. That's where Georgaklis spoke to CBS4 News on Thursday.
Georgaklis said he started flying 50 years ago but he said he's never encountered a situation like this.
He said he was coming in too fast for a landing so he retracted his landing gear and put his flaps up to ascend. However, he said the plane sank and hit the ground. Then he was worried about his speed.
"I noticed when I was going out that it was only 100 miles an hour and that's perilous because at 92 the plane stalls," he said. "I thought, 'Good gravy, man, I can't get any lower than that. This has gotta go.'"
And he did.
He radioed to the ground for help but there wasn't any.
"What they told me was, 'If you have a problem with something you can't anything done or repaired here,'" he said.
With damaged propellers, he and Buddy flew about 100 miles to Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.
"The dog never complained at all," Georgaklis said. "The dog was okay."
He said he never felt scared just focused on what needed to be done and he really doesn't understand all the fuss.
"You gotta do the right thing to survive," he said.
Georgaklis said the is looking into this accident. He said his flying days are over, not because of what happened but because he said flying is too expensive and he's ready to move on.
