Cessna Citation down in Penn Cove, WA

jacjohn wrote:

Read in the newspaper today that a Cessna Citation went down in Penn Cove,
WA yesterday. Crazy thing is I can see Penn Cove from my house, though I
never heard or saw anything. The 3 occupants (2 people 1 dog) were rescued
immediately with no injuries, the plane quickly sank and should be
recovered.

John,

I heard several accounts of this incident and later saw some footage on the
Seattle TV news - a Citation, flown by an owner-pilot(?) who claimed to be a
retired airline pilot. En route from Victoria to Idaho. On board were just
him, his wife, and their dog. He reported unspecified "problems with the
controls" and was going to land it at Coupeville but said he "couldn't make the
runway" so he decided to ditch in Penn Cove. (hunh?) After the splashdown,
the plane sank in about 60 feet of water, all in view of people on the marina,
who promptly went out in boats to fish them out.

Witnesses reported that the guy seemd amzingly non-plussed by the whole thing,
and he certainly seemed remarkably sanguine about it all in the footage I saw
of him - he was all smiles and "no big deal, we're fine, no problem!" They
said a chartered jet picked them up later on Whidbey Island (where exactly?
certainly not at Lupien - or Langley!) and flew them home to Idaho. I got the
impression that putting down a Citation in the drink and watching it sink to
the bottom of a bay seemed pretty routine to this fellow. Call me old
fashioned, but I would have been a little shaken by the experience (if only
financially!).

David H
Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, WA
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Yea, tell me about it. Heh, I should grab some SCUBA gear.... Anybody wanna
buy a slightly waterlogged Citation? I dunno about his charter flight out of
Whidbey though. The biggest I've seen at Lupien (which is only 2 mins from
my house) is a Pilatus PC-12, which stops by every now and then.

John Y.
PP-ASEL

"jacjohn" wrote in message
...
Yea, tell me about it. Heh, I should grab some SCUBA gear.... Anybody
wanna
buy a slightly waterlogged Citation? I dunno about his charter flight out
of
Whidbey though. The biggest I've seen at Lupien (which is only 2 mins from
my house) is a Pilatus PC-12, which stops by every now and then.

Oak Harbor/Lupien is over 3000', plenty long for a variety of light jets,
especially given the utter lack of obstructions at either end (which is
definitely not the case for Langley ).

Alternatively, maybe they got permission to fly out of Coupeville.

If not Coupeville or Oak Harbor, I can't imagine he'd fly out of anywhere
other than Paine Field. PAE is great for jets, and not far at all, even
including the ferry ride. It's entirely possible the witnesses who said he
took a charter jet from Whidbey Island didn't know what they were talking
about.

Pete

True. I don't know much about light jet ops, is a 25' wide runway wide
enough?

John Y.
PP-ASEL

jacjohn wrote in message I don't know much about light jet ops, is a 25'
wide runway wide enough?

It's wide enough, but the length (3000') is a little short for anything but
the straight wing Citations (considering accelerate/stop distance).

D.

"jacjohn" wrote in message
...
True. I don't know much about light jet ops, is a 25' wide runway wide
enough?

I saw a jet parked at Roche Harbor once. Longer runway, but obstructed at
both ends too.

Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the witnesses were mistaken and
the guy's ride picked him up at Paine. But it's theoretically possible for
a chartered jet to have gotten him at Oak Harbor.

Pete

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message ...
His biggest concern in that respect will be arguing with the
insurance company about whether dumping the plane in the water was the best
decision. Hopefully his insurance company will be better than that, but
I've heard plenty of horror stories about getting claims paid.


I hear comments like this a lot and I wonder where they come from.
The purpose of insurance is to pay for your damages, whether or not
you screwed something up. I've yet to see an insurance policy that
says, "We won't pay if you didn't make the best decision about the
site of your crash". I can't see an insurance company "arguing" with
a policy holder about this.

I've heard horror stories about claims not being paid promptly, but
it was always the result of incompetent management.

If you happen to crash while doing something contrary to your policy
(like drinking or commiting crimes), that's another story altogether.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

"John Galban" wrote in message
om...
I hear comments like this a lot and I wonder where they come from.
The purpose of insurance is to pay for your damages, whether or not
you screwed something up.

My policy has an explicit exclusion for violations of FARs. Each policy is
different, of course, but I doubt that my policy is unique.

In this particular situation, I can easily imagine an insurance company
finding that the pilot violated some regulation such as fuel reserves or
other preflight action that would have prevented the accident had he
complied with it. Of course, until the NTSB decides what caused the
accident, we won't really know whether the pilot was potentially in
violation of any FARs.

I don't mean to imply that fighting with the insurance company is
commonplace. As far as I know, claims are almost always paid out just as
they ought to be. But there are enough instances of an insurance company
looking for an exclusion (perfectly legal, of course) in the policy and
interpreting things in their favor that one should not just assume there
will be no trouble.

Pete

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message ...
"John Galban" wrote in message
om...
I hear comments like this a lot and I wonder where they come from.
The purpose of insurance is to pay for your damages, whether or not
you screwed something up.

My policy has an explicit exclusion for violations of FARs. Each policy is
different, of course, but I doubt that my policy is unique.

Oddly enough, when I got my policy, I went hunting for these kind of exclusions
(including also things like restrictions to public airports or hard surfaces).
Oddly, enough, mine while it goes to great lengths to cover things like nuclear
war, really just says that I have to be operating the aircraft for my personal use.

"Ron Natalie" wrote in message
m...
Oddly enough, when I got my policy, I went hunting for these kind of
exclusions
(including also things like restrictions to public airports or hard
surfaces).
Oddly, enough, mine while it goes to great lengths to cover things like
nuclear
war, really just says that I have to be operating the aircraft for my
personal use.

Well, like I said, each policy is different.