Orlando Crash Video

Cockpit Colin wrote:
I wondered the same thing - the other thing I found surprising is that
this
was a fatal accident - from the point at which the aircraft hits the wire
it
appears to come to a halt quickly and then drops vertically. Sure, nothing
I'd like to try in practice, but I didn't see anything that I would have
thought would have killed anyone, assuming they were belted in good and
tight.

The same could be said of the fatal Aryton Senna accident (for you Formula
One fans). OK, he was going substantially faster and hit a concrete wall,
but I don't think anyone was expecting anything bad at all - I still
remember watching the accident on TV - bummer he hit the wall, I guess he's
outa the race, that wasn't too bad, he'll just hop out once he's undone his
steering wheel, any minute now, anytime now, soon, gees I hope he's OK. I
think the conscensus afterwards was that his front-right wheel sheered off
and impacted his helmet (please correct me if I'm wrong). I guess sometimes
you get lucky, and sometimes you get unlucky.

A friend of mine once went to see his car after leaving the hospital. The
scrap metal owner refused to believe that anyone in the car had survived.

Y'all be careful out there.

Hilton
P.S.: I don't fly planes without a shoulder harness

Fatal plane crash sparks heroic acts
Witnesses rush to a downed Cessna at a College Park golf course; 1 of 2
aboard dies.





The plane was going down -- fast -- and the pilot seemed to be trying to
wrestle it onto the smooth grass of the 18th fairway.

Brandon "Bosco" Cashen could see the Cessna in his rearview mirror as he
was driving past Orlando's Dubsdread Golf Course late Tuesday afternoon.
Its wings were wobbling back and forth as it skimmed the treetops,
barely missing golfers and leaving College Park residents speechless.

Witnesses said the pilot seemed as though he might be able to land
safely, but at the last instant the right wing dipped too low, clipped
the ground and sent the plane flipping into a concrete electrical pole
by the 18th green.

Cashen barely had time to pull over. Everything was moving fast, but
then seemed to slow down. The broken power lines were arcing with
electricity, but Cashen didn't stop to think: He ran to the plane as
fast as he could.

Before the night was over, one person aboard the plane was dead, and
Cashen was being called a hero.

A solid 26-year-old general contractor, Cashen had hoisted himself onto
the wing of the plane's twisted wreckage.

Other witnesses said there were screams from inside the Cessna, someone
calling for help. Cashen doesn't remember.

"I just didn't think," he would say later. "I wanted to make sure
everybody was OK."

Cashen could see two men inside. Steve Schieber, a 26-year-old with a
commercial-pilot rating, was sitting in the left seat. Dan Lawlor, 33,
was in the right seat, unconscious. The two men were co-workers at
Showalter Flying Service in Orlando, friends who had rented the plane
for the day.

Cashen struggled desperately with Schieber's safety harness but couldn't
free him.

Should he wait for firefighters? But what was that smell?

Fuel.

Fuel was leaking from the plane, and the power lines still were sputtering.

People were pouring out of the Dubsdread restaurant. A crowd of 30 or
more onlookers stood back.

Cashen screamed for a knife, maybe a steak knife from inside the
restaurant, anything to cut the harness.

"Someone threw me a pocketknife, and I just started cutting through his
belt," he said.

He grabbed Schieber by the waist of his trousers, lifted him out and
lowered him into the uplifted arms of others on the ground.

Firefighters arrived and yelled for everyone to get back. The fuel could
go up at any second, or someone could get electrocuted.

"Smoke started coming out, so everyone backed away," said Magda I.
Torres, a reporter at nearby 1440 AM (WPRD) radio who saw the crash.

Cashen stayed atop the wreckage.

He tried to reach Lawlor, but Schieber's empty seat was in the way. He
kicked it, over and over, he doesn't remember how many times, until it
broke free. He tossed the seat out and reached for the other man.

The harness, again. The pocketknife, again.

Firefighters were there now, a group of them, holding a rescue basket
above their heads. Cashen lowered Lawlor into the basket as gently as he
could.

The crash site quickly took on a circuslike air, with more than 100
onlookers gathered around yellow crime-scene tape. Mothers pushed
strollers by as a medical helicopter landed on the fairway.

Lawlor died in surgery at Orlando Regional Medical Center. Schieber
remained in critical condition late Tuesday.

From his home in Phoenix, Dennis Lawlor choked back tears as he talked
about his son's love of flying, scuba diving and in-line skating.

"He was very active, very outgoing," Lawlor said. "He is going to be
missed."

Lawlor said his son grew up in Ohio and was in the Air Force from 1990
to 1994. He later attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in
Daytona Beach, graduating in 1997. Lawlor also said his son flew charter
planes for Showalter and passed the Air Force Reserve officer test with
flying colors. He planned to join the Reserve and dreamed of becoming a
commercial-airline pilot.

The Cessna was registered to James Grady, the owner of another small
plane that crashed into Lake Barton with a student pilot at the helm in
May. Grady is director of CAP Flying group, a private flying club based
at Orlando Executive Airport.

Grady wasn't aboard the plane Tuesday. Orlando Fire Department
administrators say the Cessna radioed the airport tower at 4:43 p.m. to
report a loss of oil pressure. It is a potentially fatal problem that
can cause an engine to seize, Assistant Fire Chief Greg Hoggatt said.
Witnesses reported the plane came in silently, with no engine noise.

Firefighters anticipated a crash and rushed to the airport.

"The pilot was stating that he did not feel he could make the field,"
Hoggatt said. "He was, in turn, looking for a field, looking for
someplace where he could attempt to land the plane away from buildings,
away from structures, away from citizens."

"He knew he was going down," Hoggatt said. "He's trying to bring in an
aircraft that's on bad oil pressure, the engine is failing, and he's
doing everything to keep it up."

At 4:47 p.m., the plane crashed near the 18th green, its last seconds
captured on video from a WKMG-Channel 6 news helicopter. The plane
temporarily knocked out power to about 900 homes and businesses.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation
Safety Board are investigating the crash.

"From what we can speculate, it looks like he was attempting to use the
18th fairway of the country club to try and land this plane in a short
distance," Hoggatt said. "He did an excellent job. This could have been
a catastrophe."

Tina Seller of Maitland was on the driving range when she saw the plane
flying low and floundering.

"It started to kind of circle and tried to come around. What it was
trying to do was land on the fairway, but it ended up on the . . .
pole," she said. "Those people who got him out, they were heroic."

Peter Duniho wrote:


For future reference, to you and whoever did the video capture from his
Tivo...

It makes no sense whatsoever to capture the video in slow motion. All that
does is add unnecessary frames. The end viewer can slow the video down if
they like (any decent media player will do that), and adding frames
proportionally expands the size of the file with NO benefit.

On the bright side, you were incorrect about the video being enlarged. It's
actually been reduced from NTSC size (DV capture is usually 640x480, once
the video's been resampled to make square pixels) down to 321x240 pixels,
effectively reducing the size of the file by 3/4ths.


IF you look at the Real Player size as it was on the web site
shorter link is: http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y2622114A
Jay's version has a larger viewing area.

Thanks Jay !

"Aardvark" wrote in message
. ..
IF you look at the Real Player size as it was on the web site
shorter link is: http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y2622114A
Jay's version has a larger viewing area.

Well, if the original was compressed to something even smaller, and then
blown up again, that's just dumb.

"Happy Dog" wrote in message .. .
"Blueskies" wrote in
You know, hindsight is always 20-20, but if they lost oil pressure and still had a running engine, why didn't they
try to land anywhere they could right now with what engine they had left rather that trying to nurse it to get to the
airport? I'm not sure what I would do now that I think of it; I would have to watch the other engine instruments to
see if the CHT was going high (if it was installed) thus confirming oil loss. Maybe need to make a decision right
here right now, on the ground, that if I see low or zero pressure I will land immediately...

IIRC, on the Cessna Lycoming, the Gauge and the Idiot Light are separate circuits. If one or the other remains in the
Oil Pressure OK state, and the temps don't rise, you have oil pressure. If they both indicate oil pressure loss, it
is over. Unless you need to travel some distance (over water, perhaps) perform a forced approach. Don't rely on the
fan for anything.

The video shows him way too high and fast for the fairway. And, if I read the Terraserver image correctly, that was
his only option at that point.

moo



It looks like they had almost 8 minutes from the time they reported loss of oil pressure to the time they crashed. They
had about 5 minutes from the time they reported loss of pressure to the time they reported the engine failed.

"Blueskies"
IIRC, on the Cessna Lycoming, the Gauge and the Idiot Light are separate
circuits. If one or the other remains in the Oil Pressure OK state, and
the temps don't rise, you have oil pressure. If they both indicate oil
pressure loss, it is over. Unless you need to travel some distance (over
water, perhaps) perform a forced approach. Don't rely on the fan for
anything.

The video shows him way too high and fast for the fairway. And, if I
read the Terraserver image correctly, that was his only option at that
point.

It looks like they had almost 8 minutes from the time they reported loss
of oil pressure to the time they crashed. They had about 5 minutes from
the time they reported loss of pressure to the time they reported the
engine failed.

I meant the only option at the point the video begins. I may be missing
some information. But the road was a terrible choice and I don't see any
other option but the fairway in his final flight path. And, depending on a
few extra minutes to get to a getter landing site isn't always wise. The
engine can fail unpredictably. If you're over wide open farmland, you might
as head for the longest flattest field and hope you make it. There's
usually lots of options underneath you all the time. Otherwise, pick a spot
and start the drill.

moo

Whether his decision to avoid the pickup truck was stupid or not, he gave
his life in missing it.

Jay, I never claimed anything the CFI did was "stupid".

I know.

But some have implied it was.

And, you know, maybe it was. But he had only a few seconds to make a
choice, and -- "there but for the grace of God" -- that could have been any
of us.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay's version has a larger viewing area.

Well, if the original was compressed to something even smaller, and then
blown up again, that's just dumb.

Like I said, I didn't dub the video -- it was sent to me by a fellow pilot
from this group.

I only uploaded it, and Jav Henderson (of this group) provides the server
space.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:iA0Hd.12014$OF5.2778@attbi_s52...
Like I said, I didn't dub the video -- it was sent to me by a fellow pilot
from this group.

Believe it or not, not EVERY post of mine is for the purpose of calling YOU
dumb.

Believe it or not, not EVERY post of mine is for the purpose of calling
YOU dumb.

Rats -- and here I thought that it was all about me.

You disappoint me.

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"