BE-56 crash

Dave Siciliano

Final Approach
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Dave Siciliano
We've been following this on the Bonanza board. Very sad.

Dave

Aircraft crashes in Putnam

Plane veered off course during a flight from Montana to Minnesota; was shadowed by F-16s


By From staff, wire reports


A multi-engine airplane being tracked across the country by U.S. Air Force F-16s crashed and burned several miles northwest of Charleston on Friday night, federal officials said.

A fixed-wing Beech Baron 56TC crashed at about 10:30 p.m., said Holly Baker, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Search crews in Kanawha and Putnam counties were looking for the small plane that mysteriously veered off course from its destination in Minnesota after taking off from Montana.

No wreckage was found as of late Friday.

Putnam County officials were planning a news conference early today. A Putnam County 911 dispatcher said the aircraft had crashed in that county.

Officials at the Air Force, U.S. Homeland Security and the Yeager Airport tower notified county officials that the plane was off course in the area, Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said.

North American Aerospace Defense Command fighter aircraft escorted the plane, Col. John Young of the West Virginia Army National Guard said.

"They were estimating that its fuel would run out somewhere in West Virginia or Ohio," he said. "According to NORAD, it crashed 7 miles northwest of Charleston."

Homeland Security labeled the plane "an airborne target of interest," he said. Pilots in the escorting fighter jets could not contact the pilot by radio or see him or her in the cockpit since the cabin lights were out, Young said.

The Air Force was more concerned that the aircraft might crash into a metropolitan area than it was with a possible terrorist threat, since the pilot appeared to be disabled or worse, he said.

"The fighters were escorting it to see what would happen," he said.

When the plane crashed, "the escorting pilots saw fire," Young said.

Local officials got conflicting reports about whether one of the F-16s fired on the smaller aircraft, Carper said.

The Beech took off from the Dawson Community Airport in Glendive, Mont., at
3:43 p.m., according to FlightAware.com, a flight-tracking Web site. It was supposed to arrive an hour later in at St. Paul's Holman Field, but went hundreds of miles off course.

F-16s intercepted the aircraft over Madison, Wis., but were unable to make contact with the pilot, FAA officials told KARE-TV in Minneapolis. The last contact with the pilot, the only person aboard, was around 8 p.m., the station reported.

The owner of the 1968 model plane is William Cammack Jr. of St. Paul, Minn., according to Landings.com.

A woman who answered the phone at Cammack's home said he owned the plane, but declined further comment.



Just a little more info...

Here is a link to the flight information (textual) from this flight (N18LL).
The plane was really moving along (as might be expected of these birds) up until the last few minutes of the log, then the speed drops off pretty fast.
I won't speculate as to the reason for that decrease in airspeed. Frankly we've had enough depressing news on the list the last few weeks!

As has been mentioned before, some of the flight data that comes from flightaware can be off at times so I'm offering this only as something to look at and consider until some official word comes out.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N18LL/tracklog
 
Hm. Brings to mind this article by John Deakin on AvWeb, of his flight at FL270 in his TN V35B Bonanza. He was equipped with oxygen mask and pulse oximeter, and thought all was well until he realized his legs were going numb -- then made an emergency descent to thicker air.

-- Pilawt
 
Wow, that's sad. Notice on FA how often the airplane flew and not just a standard route, but all over the country. Besides that, it just flew to MT that morning w/o incident. Stay sharp out there.

And thanks for the link to that article about the V-Tail. Very insightful and useful info. That is so true about eating while flying. ATC always calls just as you take a bite.:yes:

Woohoo...I've made it to pre-flight status!
 
SkykingC310 said:
Wow, that's sad. Notice on FA how often the airplane flew and not just a standard route, but all over the country. Besides that, it just flew to MT that morning w/o incident. Stay sharp out there.

And thanks for the link to that article about the V-Tail. Very insightful and useful info. That is so true about eating while flying. ATC always calls just as you take a bite.:yes:

Woohoo...I've made it to pre-flight status!
When a pilot gets up that high, agressive pre-denitrogenation is very, very necessary. In Tweetie you use a Scott 2000 system and breathe 100% O2, sealed, from before spool-up. I doubt this pilot did so.
 
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