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Almost saw someone crash
Yesterday the weather was miserable. There were low ceilings and a line of
strong thunderstorms that ran diagonally across the state. The preflight briefing and a look at the radar indicated that an early departure would get me to the destination ahead of the storms. I took my Baron (radar and stormscope equipped) to a nearby airport for some maintenance, and needed to get a clearance enroute due to low ceilings. There was lightning to the west and both the radar and stormscope showed a lot of activity. I landed just as the rain started. As we worked on the plane the rain became a downpour, and the sky was very dark with low clouds and ceilings. The wind was howling, and there was a lof of thunder and lightning. The hangar was shaking from the winds, and the lights went out for a few minutes from a lightning strike. After about fifteen minutes of this, we all heard a plane do a low approach over the airport, and we ran to the window to take a look. At this point it was clearly lower than the published minimums for the lowest approach, and we were all concerned about a pilot flying around in such terrible weather. We got a glimpse of a Bonanza, which then disappeared. I tuned 121.5 on my radios as well as the CTAF, and heard the FBO call the pilot and ask if they needed assistance. There were no calls or answers from the Bonanza, and we feared the worst, waiting for an ELT signal. However, after a few minutes the plane noises returned and the Bonanza landed and taxied to the FBO. We later met the pilot during a coffee break, who said she was going from a nearby metropolitan area to some property diagonally across the state (a route that clearly put her in the path of the long line of thunderstorms.) She said the weather was so bad that she couldn't even dial the GPS map to find the nearest airport, and her plan was to put the plane down in a field when she came across the airport! I asked myself why anyone would want to scud run ( it was lower than localizer approach minimums) across an entire state and try to fly through a line of thunderstorms enroute. Why not turn around and head east away from the storms when the weather went bad (she said she had hours worth of gas)? If this had happened to most people they would likely have been pretty scared and humbled by the experience, but she was very happy and chatty with the folks at the FBO, as if flying through thunderstorms, scud running, flying in IMC without a clearance, and contemplating a precautionary landing in a field were routine events. She did not seem at all concerned with how close she had come to a serious event, and in fact was very upbeat and carried on a number of light conversations. I departed IFR back to my local airport, and had to shoot an approach to ILS minimums due to some residual low clouds, and I later learned that as she prepared to depart she noticed that a wingtip and leading edge were damaged. Apparently she had struck a tree during her scud running, but had not noticed! Obviously, this episode showed a lot of poor judgment, like lack of preflight planning, as well as poor decision making in continuing on in IMC conditions through thunderstorms rather than turning around. (she was VFR). Amway, she clearly understood the possible implications of her actions, but was either obvlious or did not care how close she came to getting killed yesterday. As a fellow pilot, I was struck by how cavalier an attitude she had toward flying, and how close she had come to crashing. Would anyone have said anything further to her? She already had stated she knew about the weather but had decided to continue VFR, so what else could we do to help her without sounding critical? She clearly wasn't shaken or asking for any help or advice, so what more could be done? It was a very frustrating situation- she had nearly killed herself, apparently knew why it had happened, and seemed to think this was a normal activity of flying (let alone damaging her 1997 Bonanza A-36) I'd be interested in hearing how the group would have reacted to this situation. |
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