KWVI Watsonville MId Air, Multiple Fatalities

The C152 (N49931) even calls that he's going to do a go-around as N740WJ is coming up behind him fast. (~25 minutes in).

I was wondering if N740WJ saw N391SH below and got confused on what/who/where was responding until it was too late.

The C152 doesn't show up in an ADSB track from what I'm seeing yet.

25:30 - accident called out on CTAF.
 
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Glancing at the history of that C340, it looks like every time it flew into WVI it was a straight in approach to that runway. Don’t know the weather each time, nor if it mattered.
 
What do BMW drivers and twin pilots have in common? No regard for rules or common procedures. Twin pilots (and cirrus) all too often have no regard for traffic patterns in my experience. It seems like this time someone's blatant disregard backfired and unfortunately took out an innocent pilot who couldn't even get out of the way fast enough...

RIP
 
TrueCourse said:
Glancing at the history of that C340, it looks like every time it flew into WVI it was a straight in approach to that runway. Don’t know the weather each time, nor if it mattered.
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Based on the news report, the accident happened just before 2200Z, so it looks like the weather this time was clear, with wind at 210 at 9 kts. (It's common for the marine later to evaporate in the afternoon.)

Data at: 0123 UTC 19 Aug 2022

KWVI 190107Z AUTO 17007KT 10SM OVC005 15/12 A2994 RMK AO2 T01500122
KWVI 190053Z AUTO 18007KT 10SM BKN006 15/12 A2995 RMK AO2 SLP140 T01500122
KWVI 190051Z AUTO 17006KT 10SM BKN006 15/12 A2995 RMK AO2
KWVI 190011Z AUTO 19005KT 10SM FEW006 16/13 A2995 RMK AO2 T01610128
KWVI 182353Z AUTO 19009KT 10SM CLR 17/13 A2995 RMK AO2 SLP142 T01670128 10244 20167 57002
KWVI 182253Z AUTO 22009KT 10SM CLR 19/13 A2995 RMK AO2 SLP142 T01890128
KWVI 182153Z AUTO 21009KT 10SM CLR 21/13 A2996 RMK AO2 SLP144 T02110133
KWVI 182053Z AUTO 24008KT 10SM CLR 24/13 A2996 RMK AO2 SLP143 T02390133 56009
KWVI 181953Z AUTO 28005KT 10SM CLR 22/14 A2997 RMK AO2 SLP147 T02170139
KWVI 181853Z AUTO 18005KT 10SM CLR 22/14 A2997 RMK AO2 SLP148 T02170139
KWVI 181753Z AUTO VRB04KT 10SM CLR 19/13 A2998 RMK AO2 SLP153 T01940133 10194 20122 58002
KWVI 181711Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM SCT010 18/13 A2999 RMK AO2 T01780128
KWVI 181653Z AUTO VRB03KT 10SM OVC009 17/13 A2999 RMK AO2 SLP156 T01670128
KWVI 181631Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM OVC007 15/12 A2999 RMK AO2 CIG 004V009 T01500122
KWVI 181553Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM OVC005 13/13 A2999 RMK AO2 SLP156 T01330128
KWVI 181549Z AUTO 22003KT 10SM OVC005 13/13 A2999 RMK AO2
KWVI 181453Z AUTO 00000KT 9SM OVC003 13/13 A2998 RMK AO2 SLP153 T01280128 53010
KWVI 181403Z AUTO 00000KT 3SM BR OVC002 12/12 A2998 RMK AO2 T01220122
KWVI 181353Z AUTO 00000KT 1 3/4SM BR OVC003 12/12 A2998 RMK AO2 SLP150 T01220122​
 
Make the first call three miles out on final?? What the heck!!
 
benyflyguy said:
Make the first call three miles out on final?? What the heck!!
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He actually said a little earlier on that he was descending from somewhere 10 miles out and was going to make the straight-in from there.

This is terrible. Gotta feel for the guy in the 152. Doing pattern work and some clown decides to do a straight-in with several planes in the pattern. He tells you how fast the twin was moving in how quickly he went from 3 miles out to just 1
 
SepticTank said:
What do BMW drivers and twin pilots have in common? No regard for rules or common procedures. Twin pilots (and cirrus) all too often have no regard for traffic patterns in my experience. It seems like this time someone's blatant disregard backfired and unfortunately took out an innocent pilot who couldn't even get out of the way fast enough...

RIP
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I have both of those, so I guess the tendency canceled out. :D

Weird to clobber a plane when you have this much panel. Makes you wonder at what point can you say he should have known the plane was there and this was just negligent manslaughter or even homicide?

http://www.elpasoaero.com/?x-portfolio=cessna-340a-installation

Shame. WVI is not an airport to cowboy into like that.
 
Watsonville is a steady full pattern for the entirety of calls from 20 minutes until the crash on the ATC recording. There were different planes calling finals, bases, and downwinds until this.

22:05
Cessna 340 N740WJ calls 10 miles to the east for a straight in.

22:26 Cessna 152 N49931
Calls left crosswind

22:58 Cessna 152 N49931
Calls left downwind

24:07 Cessna 340 N740WJ
Called a 3 mile straight in

24:17 Cessna 152 N49931
Called a left base with 1 mile to go (immediately after the 3 mile call by the 340)

24:37 Cessna 340 N740WJ
Called a 1 mile final and looking for traffic that just called left base.

24:48 Cessna 152 N49931
"Yeah I see you. You are behind me"

25:00 Cessna 152 N49931
"I'm going to go around then, because you are coming at me pretty quick man."

25:28 ATC or another pilot
"Everybody please be advised there is an accident towards the runway 2-0 Watsonville."

Lot's of WTF here. If I know the pattern is full I wouldn't be screaming in at 180k and if I call a 3 mile and it's followed by a plane that has called a base I'm probably going to not continue in to land. I think the 152 deserves a little blame as well as he calls a left base after the 3 mile final. If I got a 3 mile final called and the last I had called was downwind, I am also not turning into the path a plane on final. Plenty of head scratching but the twin seemed like he was coming in no matter what and expected everyone else to change their flight paths. Awful.
 
SepticTank said:
What do BMW drivers and twin pilots have in common? No regard for rules or common procedures. Twin pilots (and cirrus) all too often have no regard for traffic patterns in my experience. It seems like this time someone's blatant disregard backfired and unfortunately took out an innocent pilot who couldn't even get out of the way fast enough...

RIP
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The rules say that the lower traffic has the right-of-way, but "shall not take advantage of this rule to cut in front of another which is on final approach to land...." Unfortunately, the FAA has muddied the waters with some of their non-regulatory guidance. The safest thing in this situation, in addition to what others have said, is to not assume that the other pilot will yield, even when you think you have the right-of-way.
 
The corporate big iron that comes around at times have more common sense and communication at our place. This guy wasn’t communicating he was merely announcing. Sad
 
benyflyguy said:
The corporate big iron that comes around at times have more common sense and communication at our place. This guy wasn’t communicating he was merely announcing. Sad
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This unfortunately is commonplace at KWVI especially IFR traffic on VMC days which has an opposite approach of typical VFR pattern. Tool that was barging straight in had zero situational awareness of the traffic in the pattern and should have broke off and done a proper pattern entry which is easy peasy at KWVI. There is no IFR approach from that end so it both pilots were VFR.
 
Shawn said:
This unfortunately is commonplace at KWVI especially IFR traffic on VMC days which has an opposite approach of typical VFR pattern. Tool that was barging straight in had zero situational awareness of the traffic in the pattern and should have broke off and done a proper pattern entry which is easy peasy at KWVI. There is no IFR approach from that end so it both pilots were VFR.
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I don’t miss flying at WVI. It’s a zoo and way too many stupid pilot tricks. I could never figure out why Salinas had a tower, as slow as it is there, but Watsonville didn’t.
 
Sounds to me like the twin decided to just fly straight in, and ignore anyone else. Sounds like the 152 was trying to coordinate around him, and missed.

I'll probably get yelled at for this, but there is a simple fix - recognize that an aircraft on downwind or base at an uncontrolled field is in the pattern, and require that other part 91 aircraft on a straight in approach sequence behind them. I will admit that part of my reasoning for this is the belief that there are a lot of pilots flying out there that either cannot or are too scared to fly a normal pattern. Maybe because of the dreaded "base final" turn? I really think it's more incompetence than self-importance on the straight in thing, for the non-corporate flyers. The charters/corporate guys always seem pretty friendly and safety forward, as Ben mentioned above.

If you can only fly straight in approaches, do what the big guys do and land where there are towers.
 
nrm2430 said:
This is terrible. Gotta feel for the guy in the 152. Doing pattern work and some clown decides to do a straight-in with several planes in the pattern. He tells you how fast the twin was moving in how quickly he went from 3 miles out to just 1
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We get transient Cirrus aircraft doing this on a weekly basis at my field. We generally have 1-5 students in the pattern, and sky diving south of the field. We've talked to them on the ground after landing as they a cause complete cluster fudge, especially if the CFIs are not on board (am surprised no one has had an incident). Every single time, the Cirrus pilots couldn't give two poops and often state that they had the right of way according to the FARs:(
 
danhagan said:
We get transient Cirrus aircraft doing this on a weekly basis at my field. We generally have 1-5 students in the pattern, and sky diving south of the field. We've talked to them on the ground after landing as they a cause complete cluster fudge, especially if the CFIs are not on board (am surprised no one has had an incident). Every single time, the Cirrus pilots couldn't give two poops and often state that they had the right of way according to the FARs:(
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That’s what sucks. We operate on the honor system. We get trained on the rules and regulations to get the ratings but once we’re up there on our own, it’s up to each pilot to self govern how they fly. Some make the choice the not follow recommended procedures and nothing really comes of it unless an accident occurs or airspace gets busted.
 
This is all on the C-340. His estate will be in litigation soon. The C-340 should have broken off as soon as he realized that there was a plane on base and should have climbed and entered an upwind and synched in with existing traffic, to include dropping out of warp. 1/4 impulse should have been adequate.
 
with the information we have so far, it's hard to put much blame anywhere other than the twin. he was coming in way faster than the 152 should have expected. i just can't understand the 180+ kts on the entire length of the approach. that was absurdly reckless coming in double the approach speed to a busy uncontrolled field and ignoring the pattern. if you look at the twin's previous flight into the same field, he was like 130kts on final which is at least predictable when you have a bunch of other airplanes doing 60kts

i think the 152 could have easily avoided this by waiting to turn behind the obviously faster airplane but i don't know that any "blame" goes his way
 
bbchien said:
Wow just wow.
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How I feel. Wow. Even if you are on IFR plan. Its VFR man and the pattern is full. Slow down and dont cut in line. I have told flights on long straight ins to get in line. The 152 Pilot was so polite just trying to do his training. RIP. Its such a basic violation of our code…. to save five mins at the expense of others. Tsk Tsk. Having a plane that has a pattern speed of 130 does not get you a first in line. On the other hand how do you fly a full pattern that fast? The Saratoga I fly is in the pattern at 100 and its a bit fast also for all the guys training in the pattern in their C162s at 60kts. For the guys flying fast planes into slow busy uncontrolled airports how do you do it?
 
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schmookeeg said:
Equally?

Curious why you'd fault the 152 driver. He tried to GTFO when he figured out it wasn't gonna work out. Got plowed for his troubles by a 180kt straight-in twin.
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situational awareness. The 152 pilot misunderstood the approach speed of the aircraft on final, even it the aircraft was using the proper approach speed of 90 knots the 152 pilot should not have turned in front of the faster traffic on final. A simple break out was in order for the 152 because the scenario was unsafe.
You can argue the 152 had the right of way if you want, but he was dead right.

Likewise the other aircraft should have turned right to join the upwind and avoid the 152 instead of continuing the approach behind a much slower aircraft he didn’t see.
 
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I do not see what rule was violated here, other than the 152 not yielding to the aircraft on final.

as usual, I will be corrected. That is welcomed.
 
readytocopy995 said:
i think the 152 could have easily avoided this by waiting to turn behind the obviously faster airplane but i don't know that any "blame" goes his way
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Thats assuming that everyone in the pattern knows what a C340 is or that he is doing warp 4. I may change my habits but Im just listening to where you are around the field and not exact plane type while I am busy getting ready to land. If I hear Cessna gonna tune out the rest. Cirrus yeah a bit faster Columbia and few others sure Ill know. I think the 152 was too polite and should have told the C340 to get into pattern.
 
TrueCourse said:
Glancing at the history of that C340, it looks like every time it flew into WVI it was a straight in approach to that runway. Don’t know the weather each time, nor if it mattered.
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I've flown into KWVI many times from KMOD and the straight in approach works for us most of the time. the key is to listen to CTAF to see if there's traffic in the pattern. More than once, i've had to make a half-circle to enter down wind on the 45. the Twin clearly announced his position, but as several have mentioned, he was coming in hot. That the 152 announced that he had the twin in sight meant that he was aware, but mistaken about the twin's speed and possible trajectory. Listening to the audio is so sad, knowing that the 152 realized too late that he had to get out of the way.
 
This is my field. It needs to be a towered field. Here's a map where both planes rested. The C340 stopped over 3000' beyond the crash after plowing through a steel hangar wall and completely disappearing into the hangar row. No idea how far it penetrated.

The X is the point of collision according to witnesses.


EB55EFE2-44EF-4651-A47C-B9802BCD530F.png
 
schmookeeg said:
Equally?

Curious why you'd fault the 152 driver. He tried to GTFO when he figured out it wasn't gonna work out. Got plowed for his troubles by a 180kt straight-in twin.
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I don’t know about equally, but both pilots had a responsibility to avoid.

The 152 turned base knowing that the 340 was on a 3 mile final. That was a fatal mistake.

The 340 was being an idiot trying to force the straight in while ignoring everyone else in the pattern, but had I been in the 152, there is no way I would have turned (or remained) on base knowing there was a 340 on a 3 mile final.
 
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