Crossfield's plane wreckage found

[Jim Burns]

per MSNBC
Wreckage found.
Roger, GA
Body inside wreckage, unidentified at this time.

Jim

[Peter R.]

Jim Burns > wrote:

> per MSNBC
> Wreckage found.
> Roger, GA
> Body inside wreckage, unidentified at this time.

The aircraft, as seen during better days, on Airliners.net:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0048724/L/

--
Peter

[Richard Riley]

Test Pilot's Body Said Found in Wreckage

By DANIEL YEE
Associated Press Writer

April 20, 2006, 2:14 PM EDT


RANGER, Ga. -- Legendary test pilot Scott Crossfield, the first man to
fly at twice the speed of sound, was found dead Thursday in the
wreckage of a single-engine plane in the mountains of northern Georgia,
his son-in-law said.

Searchers discovered the wreckage of a small plane about 50 miles
northwest of Atlanta, but the Civil Air Patrol didn't immediately
identify the body inside.

Ed Fleming, Crossfield's son-in-law, told The Associated Press from
Crossfield's home in Herndon, Va., that family had been told it was
Crossfield.

Crossfield's Cessna was last spotted in the same area on Wednesday
while on flight from Alabama to Virginia. There were thunderstorms in
the area when officials lost radar and radio contact with the plane at
11:15 a.m., said Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal
Aviation Administration.

Crossfield, 84, had been one of a group of civilian pilots assembled by
the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, the forerunner of NASA,
in the early 1950s.

Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager had already broken the speed of sound in
his history-making flight in 1947. But Crossfield set the Mach 2 record
-- twice the speed of sound -- in 1953, when he reached 1,300 mph in
NACA's Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket.

In 1960, Crossfield reached Mach 2.97 in an X-15 rocket plane launched
from a B-52 bomber. The plane reached an altitude of 81,000 feet. At
the time, Crossfield was working as a pilot and design consultant for
North American Aviation, which made the X-15. He later worked as an
executive for Eastern Airlines and Hawker Siddley Aviation.

More recently, Crossfield had a key role in preparations for the
attempt to re-enact the Wright brothers' flight on the 100th
anniversary of their feat near Kitty Hawk, N.C. He trained four pilots
for the Dec. 17, 2003, flight attempt in a replica of the brothers'
flyer, but poor weather prevented the take-off.

Among his many honors, Crossfield was inducted into the National
Aviation Hall of Fame in 1983.

On Wednesday, his plane had left Prattville, Ala., around 9 a.m. en
route to Manassas, Va., not far from his home.


Blue skies, Scott.

[gwengler]

Here's the flight path:

http://map3.flightaware.com/flight_track_map.rvt?ident=N6579X;airports=1A9%20K HEF+;key=594bedf25d2f9501473afdab2a4de421837971bd; keytime=1145565126;height=600;width=800;departuret ime=1145455500;arrivaltime=1145470080

(I know it's awfully long but makeashorterlink didn't work)

I'm not sure if the weather shown is actual but it looks he flew right
into a cell. Damn!

Gerd

[Kyle Boatright]

The crash occurred about 25 miles from my office, and happened around
lunchtime.

I was outside just before the line of huge storms moved through, and can
tell you that it was no place for a GA aircraft to be flying. There was a
50 mile x 25 mile area of solid red on the weather channel's radar, and
golfball sized hail was reported. I'd guess that weather was a big factor
in the crash.

I'm surprised that someone of Crossfield's experience and talent would have
been anywhere near a mess that.

A very sad day for the aviation community and for Mr. Crossfield's family
and friends. A true avaition great is gone.

KB


"gwengler" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Here's the flight path:
>
> http://map3.flightaware.com/flight_track_map.rvt?ident=N6579X;airports=1A9%20K HEF+;key=594bedf25d2f9501473afdab2a4de421837971bd; keytime=1145565126;height=600;width=800;departuret ime=1145455500;arrivaltime=1145470080
>
> (I know it's awfully long but makeashorterlink didn't work)
>
> I'm not sure if the weather shown is actual but it looks he flew right
> into a cell. Damn!
>
> Gerd
>

[Dudley Henriques]

"Kyle Boatright" > wrote in message
...
> The crash occurred about 25 miles from my office, and happened around
> lunchtime.
>
> I was outside just before the line of huge storms moved through, and can
> tell you that it was no place for a GA aircraft to be flying. There was a
> 50 mile x 25 mile area of solid red on the weather channel's radar, and
> golfball sized hail was reported. I'd guess that weather was a big factor
> in the crash.
>
> I'm surprised that someone of Crossfield's experience and talent would
> have been anywhere near a mess that.

Based on the almost straight flight path from takeoff to impact, and it's
reference to the weather line just to the left of the flight path, I'll be
interested in seeing the results of the post mortem examination on his body.
Dudley Henriques

[Grumman-581]

"Dudley Henriques" > wrote in message
ink.net...
> Based on the almost straight flight path from takeoff to impact, and it's
> reference to the weather line just to the left of the flight path, I'll be
> interested in seeing the results of the post mortem examination on his
body.

He died of cardiac arrest... One way or another...

--
"I don't wish to be argumentative, but I disagree with the Islamic belief
that I should be killed."

[Dudley Henriques]

"Grumman-581" > wrote in message
...
> "Dudley Henriques" > wrote in message
> ink.net...
>> Based on the almost straight flight path from takeoff to impact, and it's
>> reference to the weather line just to the left of the flight path, I'll
>> be
>> interested in seeing the results of the post mortem examination on his
> body.
>
> He died of cardiac arrest... One way or another...

I'm not a physician, but I believe it can be determined if death or any
incapacitation was pre impact. Either way, I'll be interested in seeing the
report.
Dudley Henriques

[Peter R.]

gwengler > wrote:

> I'm not sure if the weather shown is actual but it looks he flew right
> into a cell. Damn!

FlightAware's radar overlay is a current picture, not a snapshot of the
radar picture during the flight. IMO, this radar picture only works when
one is tracking a flight realtime.

For flights that have completed, they need to either remove the image all
together or do what LiveATC.net does with their archives and store/display
the radar image at the time of the flight.

This has been a minor nuisance to me since they added this, so when I have
a moment I am going to post the above recommendation in their forum.
FlightAware's web authors seem to be very responsive to comments about
their site.

--
Peter