Towing something with a plane, like a banner, can be tricky — and as we’ve seen twice in one week, it’s dangerous.
On Thursday, a pilot was hospitalized after his small banner plane crashed at North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines. Just over a week before, a pilot was killed after his banner plane crashed in Hollywood and erupted into flames.
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The cause of both crashes remains under investigation. Both planes were operated by Aerial Banners Inc. Its owner told NBC6 Thursday that they were conducting its own investigation alongside the NTSB and FAA.
Aerial banners are a marketing tool by advertisers to woo people into their product or service — but flying them is a huge responsibility.
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"Anytime you drag something in the back of the airplane, you’re increasing the drag of the airplane, the weight on the airplane, and so forth, and the operation becomes a little more dangerous," said U.S. airline captain Francisco Diaz.
A certain maneuver is the most dangerous and trickiest for an aerial plane, according to Diaz.
"The aircraft takes off from the airport and it flies, makes a circle and comes back," Diaz said. "And it has the hook in the tail of the airplane and the banner is positioned in a way that the airplane comes at a steep angle and picks up the banner with the hook, right? So that maneuver is a high-risk maneuver because you can stall the airplane, you can get into a situation where you’re too slow, the angle of attack is too high."
While flying, there are other factors pilots have to consider like an increasing drag, the weight of the airplane, and the wind.
"As you are doing the turns you have crosswinds, you have headwinds and things like that," he said.
Aerial plane pilots usually have less experience, Diaz said, and flying them is used to help build flight hours to go fly for airlines and to other jobs. Banner towing is the easier way to get hours.
"When you finish flight training and have your commercial pilot's certificate, you normally have 250-300 hours total," he said. "For you to get into an airline, you need at least 1,500 hours and this gap has to be filled somehow."
The owner of Aerial Banners told NBC 6 that the pilot in Thursday's crash has significant experience with over 1,000 hours flying banner planes.
