Mooney drops into my backyard

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Peter Gottlieb" wrote in message
.net...

It is if there were a mechanical problem causing loss of power. Pop
out at 800 in the middle of a densely populated area and quick, find
a place to put it down. But we won't know until the investigation, if
then.


The prelim said it was his third attempt at the approach.


It is hard to conclusively deduce much from that. Although, there are quite
a number of crashes after missing one or two approaches and perhaps fatigue
or missing something on the checklist may have played a part in this.

"Peter Gottlieb" wrote in message
.net...
It is hard to conclusively deduce much from that. Although, there are
quite
a number of crashes after missing one or two approaches and perhaps
fatigue
or missing something on the checklist may have played a part in this.

Fuel starvation?

"Peter Gottlieb" wrote in message
.net...

It is hard to conclusively deduce much from that. Although, there
are quite a number of crashes after missing one or two approaches
and perhaps fatigue or missing something on the checklist may have
played a part in this.


It's hard to conclude anything at this point, but if he missed two
approaches with an 800' ceiling and 2 1/2 miles visibility a loss of engine
power wouldn't appear to be the primary cause.

"Otis Winslow" wrote in message
...

I know no one wants to speculate, but 2 1/2 and 800 doesn't
sound that bad.


Speculation is about all we can do.

"Trent Moorehead" wrote in message
...

Fuel starvation?


That's of course possible, but it wouldn't explain missing two approaches.

What type approach was in use?
800 and 2 miles is pretty good for an ILS.
If he missed twice, what were the actual conditions at the DH?

Thanks for the update Dave. I heard about this third hand (funny how fast
crash info circulates to local light plane pilots) but didn't watch the news
or anything. Glad you and yours were safe. Frankly, you represent one less
household that requires mental disaster relief - even if you are shaken.

Those are my home approaches for IFR arrivals when I can't get into
Lakeridge. Always makes you think when it's close to home.


"Dave Butler" wrote in message
...
This has special interest for me because I own a Mooney (that should
take care of the on-topicness). I guess I could put this in
r.a.piloting, but i don't know anyone over there, and I just wanted to
share this with some friends...

About 3:00 this afternoon, a Mooney M20M dropped out of a low overcast,
hit a tree, and ended up in a pond in my back yard. There are
conflicting reports about whether there are 1 or 2 fatalities. My
interpretation is that they recovered 1 body, but the flight plan says
there were 2 aboard.

The crash site is about 100 yards from my deck. The plane is completely
submerged, but I can guess its position by the location of the police
raft and divers that were in the area. I arrived home from work about
6:00 to find news helicopters overhead and crime-scene tape stretched
across my yard.

From the news reports and the visible damage to the tree, I estimate
that the flight path must have been directly toward my house. If it
hadn't gone into the pond, it might have gone into the house. Nobody
would have been home.

Apparently the pilot reported some kind of trouble. Given the weather,
he would have had to be on an instrument flight plan. I think the
ceilings were something below 1000 ft., so when he broke out, he
wouldn't have had much time to select a landing spot. Unfortunately, he
was over a fairly densely populated suburban area.

As I write this (10 PM) there are generator light stands lighting up the
whole area, but most of the rescue/recovery people have left. I think
the remaining crew are just guarding the scene overnight. They don't
seem to be looking for the second body, if there is one. My belief is
that they have concluded there was only one person aboard. I guess I'll
be serving coffee to the NTSB folks in the morning.

Sorry for the downer. I'd much rather be relating a story about my most
recent $100 hamburger.

Here are some news stories:
WRAL story: http://www.wral.com/news/3263882/detail.html
WTVD story and pictures:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/news/050...lanecrash.html
NBC 17 story: http://www.nbc17.com/news/3263998/detail.html
News & Observer story:
http://www.news-observer.com/front/s...-3165256c.html


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We had very changeable conditions here at that time. I was 10 miles north
of the accident site. 800 and 2 seems like about the worse we had during
that period. No fog from what I could see. Some rain and it looked a bit
turbulent/convective. But that is real speculation.

"EDR" wrote in message
...


What type approach was in use?
800 and 2 miles is pretty good for an ILS.
If he missed twice, what were the actual conditions at the DH?

also the news report said
"Mindy Hamlin, an airport spokeswoman, said the tower was aware of that the
plane "was having trouble getting to RDU" "

not engine trouble, just trouble getting to the airport.


"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

"Peter Gottlieb" wrote in message
.net...

It is if there were a mechanical problem causing loss of power. Pop
out at 800 in the middle of a densely populated area and quick, find
a place to put it down. But we won't know until the investigation, if
then.


The prelim said it was his third attempt at the approach.

I saw them carting away the pieces they had pulled out of the pond. The whole
pile of aluminum would have fit in the back of a pickup truck. There was that
pile, plus the engine, that was it. One of the news reports said they had not
found the fuselage, for whatever that's worth. Of course, the Mooney has that
steel cage around the cabin, so either that broke up along with everything else,
or else they haven't found it yet. They are continuing to drain the pond.

I wondered why I couldn't see any of the airplane in the pond, I know the pond
is not that deep. The answer, of course, is that there wasn't an airplane in
there, just a bunch of pieces.

They snapped off a couple of pretty substantial pine trees at about the 50 foot
high mark, then hit another tree at the edge of the pond at about 10 feet. My
guess is they must have been pretty much out of control after hitting the first
trees, otherwise they surely would have steered around the tree at the water's edge.

News reports that the occupants were a couple from Arizona. You probably don't
get much practice at 800 and 2 in Arizona, I don't know. I assume an ILS
approach was in use. The aircraft was being vectored for its third attempted
approach when it veered off the assigned heading and descended. So far I haven't
seen any info from the audio tapes.

Like Maule Driver, I'll be haunted while flying this approach for a while.

Dave

Jeff wrote:
also the news report said
"Mindy Hamlin, an airport spokeswoman, said the tower was aware of that the
plane "was having trouble getting to RDU" "

not engine trouble, just trouble getting to the airport.


"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:


"Peter Gottlieb" wrote in message
. cv.net...

It is if there were a mechanical problem causing loss of power. Pop
out at 800 in the middle of a densely populated area and quick, find
a place to put it down. But we won't know until the investigation, if
then.


The prelim said it was his third attempt at the approach.




--
Dave Butler, software engineer 919-392-4367