Hans Georg Schmid

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Hans Georg Schmid (born October 8, 1948 in Hergiswil , Canton Nidwalden as Hansjörg Schmid ; † July 23, 2007 in Basel ) was a Swiss professional pilot .

Schmid was a long-time airline pilot with Swissair , including seven years as a captain on the MD 11 . He then devoted himself passionately to small-scale aviation and set a total of 164 aviation world records with experimental aircraft. In 1997 he flew to South Africa in a self-built light aircraft , a Long-Ez, and a year later to South America.

In 2000, he set off from Zurich on two successful circumnavigations of the world as part of the Millennium Flight - Twice around the World . It took 192 hours to go east and 201 hours to go west. He completed both flights on a self-made aircraft.

At the time of his accidental death, Hans Georg Schmid was married and the father of two children.

Air crash over Basel

An Express, then offered as a kit by the Wheeler company. The accident machine, an Express 2000 ER, is a similar-looking successor model.

On the morning of July 23, 2007, Schmid set off on a 30-hour non-stop flight across the Atlantic to Oshkosh at Basel Mulhouse Freiburg in his self-made aircraft, an Express 2000 ER with the aircraft registration HB-YMN , which had been specially modified for this world record in the US state of Wisconsin . The flight was to commemorate Charles Lindbergh's first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927. For autumn 2007, the world record pilot Schmid also planned to circumnavigate the earth twice over both poles.

At 11.23 a.m., the aircraft touched two trees on Roggenburgstrasse in Basel after a flight distance of 3.8 kilometers. Then it crashed into the attic of a residential building, which immediately burned. The fire and the extinguishing work destroyed the upper apartments and slightly injured two residents and four rescue workers. The pilot was found in a playground in front of the house.

Initially, the start was postponed because the tanks overflowed. Then four lead plates were placed under the rudder pedals to defuse the center of gravity, which is far back. Nevertheless, shortly before take-off, the aircraft tipped over on the tail , but only a minor paint damage occurred. The pilot's statement that he had two knots of headwind was not corrected by an assistant. When it was cleared for take-off, the tower indicated a tail wind of five knots .

Various witnesses observed that the landing gear was smoking during the starting process. The lift off from the runway took place much later than had been calculated. Although an expert from the Experimental Aircraft Association advised that the take-off should be aborted after 700 meters of taxiing, Schmid only took off - with difficulty - after 3400 m of the 3900 m runway. The accident report indicates that an aborted take-off was possible at any time without great danger, especially by being accompanied by a fire engine. Film recordings showed that shortly after take-off the elevator had deflected downwards - a further indication of the center of gravity far back.

For this world record attempt, the self-built aircraft, which is therefore referred to as experimental in technical jargon, required a special permit in order to be allowed to exceed the permissible payload. The Federal Office for Civil Aviation (FOCA) had issued this just a few days before take-off, and Schmid had not carried out a test flight with overweight; likewise the center of gravity of the aircraft was not calculated correctly. The investigating body determined that the cause of the accident was that the aircraft was unable to climb, accelerate or turn corners due to its mass, center of gravity and the available power. Both the time pressure and pressure to succeed, which impaired the pilot's judgment, and the inadequate support of the project by the responsible authorities (Swiss Experimental Aircraft Association and FOCA ) contributed to the accident .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ NZZ am Sonntag , July 29, 2007, pp. 18f.
  2. ↑ Final report No. 2050 of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau; HB-YMN
  3. ↑ http://www.dasmagazin.ch/index.php/Flieger_im_Himmel ( Memento from November 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) . In: Das Magazin 02/2008 , pp. 10–16.
personal data
SURNAME Schmid, Hans Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmid, Hansjörg; Schmid, HG
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss pilot
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Hergiswil
DATE OF DEATH July 23, 2007
Place of death Basel