Yet another A36 crash

Here's the link but you might be redirected to the front page.
http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=20088

Here's the pic.
http://www.rep-am.com/frontpix/a1pix.jpg

Here's the story:

Pilot walks away from Southbury plane crash

Thursday, April 21, 2005

By Marrecca Fiore

Copyright © 2005 Republican-American

SOUTHBURY -- A single-engine airplane crashed into a wooded area off of
Route 67 on Wednesday afternoon, knocking down power lines and igniting
brush fires near a senior citizen housing complex.

John Thorp, 52, was the pilot, according to The Associated Press. He walked
away from the crash with what appeared to be minor injuries, officials and
witnesses said. Thorp was alone in the plane, which was a 1980 six-seater,
fixed-wing Beech A36TC registered to Jest Air LLC of Willoughby, Ohio.

Shortly after the 4 p.m. crash, the wreckage of the small plane was
nose-down and burning in the woods.

Thick, black power lines, hanging like an upside down horseshoe on the road,
were shooting sparks into a wooded area near the Grace Meadows housing
complex igniting the dry brush. Flames were still shooting out of the brush
several hours later and firefighters had set up staging along the perimeter
to protect the senior housing.

First Selectman Mark Cooper, who lives within walking distance of the crash
site, said he arrived at the scene within minutes of the crash and the pilot
seemed fine but "shaken." He was taken to Waterbury Hospital by ambulance as
a precaution, according to Southbury Fire Chief Tim Baldwin.

Michael O'Donnell, manager of Waterbury-Oxford Airport, which is about four
miles by air from the crash site, said the airport received a distress call
from the pilot just before 4 p.m.

"He said he had a serious engine problem and possibly threw a rod," he said.

The plane was en route from Ohio to Rhode Island, O'Donnell said. "He tried
to make it to Oxford, but wasn't able to," he said.

Airport officials were inspecting the scene, but it was not clear when the
National Transportation Safety Board would begin its investigation. Calls to
the Federal Aviation Administration were not returned Wednesday.

The crash sent residents of Roxbury Road, also known as Route 67, and nearby
neighborhoods, as well as motorists and people fishing in the Pomperaug
River at O&G Industries Trap Rock Quarry scurrying to the scene. Although
police had Roxbury Road blocked off at both ends that didn't stop people,
many with cameras in hand, from cutting through private yards to catch a
glimpse of the downed airplane.

Firefighters worked through the muggy evening and night extinguishing
flames, which could be seen billowing up through the trees around the wooded
area of the plane crash.

Waterbury resident Richard Colicchia was driving down Roxbury Road toward
Main Street North, or Route 6, when the airplane seemed to come out of
nowhere.

"I looked up and there it was right in the way of my windshield," said
Colicchia, explaining how close the plane crashed to his car. "It sort of
came across the street, clipped the wires and went into the woods."

Colicchia said the downed wires exploded shortly after the crash. He stopped
to check on the occupants when he saw the pilot walking down the road.

"He was sitting on the curb after," he said. "His chin was bleeding and
there was blood on his knee. Other than that he seemed to be alright. We
asked him and he said he was."

Fire and rescue personnel from Southbury, Southford, Oxford and Woodbury
responded to the scene. Waterbury-Oxford Airport fire personnel also helped
fight the flames. The Department of Environmental Protection was on the
scene checking for spilled fuel. Baldwin said the river was secured to
minimize fuel runoff immediately after firefighters arrived on the scene.

The crash cut off some power to the area and Connecticut Light & Power had
to turn off all power in the area for the safety of firefighters. It took
the power company several hours to ensure all power had been turned off in
the area of the crash. As of 8:30 p.m. about 1,262 Southbury residents and
955 Woodbury residents were without power. CL&P spokesman Frank Poirot said
he was not sure if the Woodbury and Southbury outages were connected. He
said it was also possible that some Middlebury customers were without power.

Southbury firefighters and airport officials left the scene just before 10
p.m. Baldwin said state police were still at the site, along with CL&P
workers trying to restore power.

All flames around Grace Meadows were extinguished by the time Southbury
firefighters left the scene, Baldwin said.

Southbury resident Dennis Dwyer was fishing with his son, Peter when the two
heard of loud crash.

"It scared the crap out us," he said. "I thought it was one of the trucks
from O&G at first. The minute we ran up, we saw the flames."

New Milford resident Richard Guido was out for a relaxing motorcycle ride
when he was startled by the sight of the crashing plane.

"It was a scary thing," he said. "I looked up and saw this plane hit the
power lines and sort of wing over. I was stopped at the stop light or I
probably would have been right under it."

Not sure what you mean by "yet another" A36... Last month there were 56
GA plane crashes... The A36 crash record is better than average -
probably due to several reasons such as:
Newer airframes and engines
Owners maintain them well in order to keep their resale value up
Majority of new owners go through the A36 flight school as opposed to
just write the check and go flying
Majority are flown IFR by pilots who get recurrent training

If I were to buy a single, the A36 would be high on my list...

denny

Ahaaa, now I find "another" A36 crash further down the listings, so I
understand the context of the heading "yet another"...
I stand by my comments despite the crash of this new A36... On the new
A36 crash there is not enough information to form an opinion... How
about, "he had a stroke."?

denny

"H.P." wrote:

snip
Colicchia said the downed wires exploded shortly after the crash.

Apparently this article was written by yet another journalist who would
rather be a paperback novel author.

--
Peter


















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"Denny" wrote:
The A36 crash record is better than average -

?

Since 1/1/03 there have been 25 A36 fatals in the U. S. In the same
period, there were 20 C-210 fatals and 16 PA-32R fatals. The 210 fleet
is larger than the A36 fleet, I believe.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

"Denny" wrote in message
ups.com...
.. The A36 crash record is better than average -
denny

I don't think so.

"Dan Luke" writes:

"Denny" wrote:
The A36 crash record is better than average -

?

Since 1/1/03 there have been 25 A36 fatals in the U. S. In the same
period, there were 20 C-210 fatals and 16 PA-32R fatals. The 210 fleet
is larger than the A36 fleet, I believe.

It's quite possible to be "better than average" and still be worse
than some other models. Also, these numbers are small enough that I'm
not sure how big a difference is necessary to be statistically
significant; ones intuition isn't very reliable for that (you see the
same thing when people talk about changes in murder rates from year to
year, when the total count is in small double digits).
--
David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
RKBA: http://noguns-nomoney.com/ http://www.dd-b.net/carry/
Pics: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/
Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/

"David Dyer-Bennet" wrote:
"Denny" wrote:
The A36 crash record is better than average -

?

Since 1/1/03 there have been 25 A36 fatals in the U. S. In the same
period, there were 20 C-210 fatals and 16 PA-32R fatals. The 210 fleet
is larger than the A36 fleet, I believe.

It's quite possible to be "better than average" and still be worse
than some other models.

I doubt that the A36 is better than average, either, since "average" would
include a lot of docile, fixed-gear singles with much better records than the
models mentioned.

Also, these numbers are small enough that I'm
not sure how big a difference is necessary to be statistically
significant;

It's enough, I believe, to argue against Denny's assertion.

ones intuition isn't very reliable for that (you see the
same thing when people talk about changes in murder rates from year to
year, when the total count is in small double digits).

I wasn't using intuition.
--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM

Dan has point that needs investigating on the ratio between A36 and
P210, as these are comparable aircraft flying similar missions... You
can't measure an A36 against Skyhawks, Cherokee's, etc., apples and
oranges... The 'average' I was referring to are other complex, high
power singles...I will attempt to remember to do some digging on this
when I get back from our air tour of the deep south and if I'm wrong,
cheerfully eat crow... It may be impossible to pin down - look at the
long running debate over twins versus singles (yet I persist in flying
one of those killer twins)...

Leaving tomorrow afternoon, but the weather is starting to look ugly
with threats of thunderstorms preceeded by freezing rain and snow... Ya
gotta love the Great Lakes and mid west...

denny

"Denny" wrote:

Leaving tomorrow afternoon, but the weather is starting to look ugly
with threats of thunderstorms preceeded by freezing rain and snow...
Ya
gotta love the Great Lakes and mid west...


Be careful.

Why don't you come on down to P'ville next month and let everybody pet
Fat Albert?
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM