Citation crash in Utah

[Everskyward]

Could it be he did not think that through? I'd imagine his stress level was a bit high.

Who know what he was thinking, but I'm guessing his intentions at that point were not to lose control of the airplane, and the last thing he wanted to think about was coming up with an alternate destination.

 

[Dr. O]

Just a random thought given he was ATP rated and 'should' have been capable of hand flying the ship - idly wondering if he was hypoxic.

 

[N747JB]

Just a random thought given he was ATP rated and 'should' have been capable of hand flying the ship - idly wondering if he was hypoxic.

Yes, he should have been able to hand fly the airplane. In this case he had some system failures, including autopilot, FMS and gyro/glass panel. Should have been able to handle partial panel in IFR, even with compounding issues, but sometimes things can overwhelm us.
I've got about 700 hours of single pilot time in a Citation II S/P and it's an easy airplane to fly, but when stuff starts breaking, like in the sim, it gets to be a handful pretty quickly. Most jets are flown with the Flight Director engaged about 95% of the time and with the autopilot engaged 90+% of the time, especially single pilot. Lot's to still uncover, did he have icing issues, pitot heat off?, spatial disorientation? We may never know the reason he couldn't handle it, but he couldn't. Very sad situation. RIP

 

[dtuuri]

All the flight controls were accounted for at the accident site. The left engine is missing. Where did that go? When did it go? What systems might have been affected when it went? Just sayin'..

dtuuri

 

[MauleSkinner]

Yes, he should have been able to hand fly the airplane. In this case he had some system failures, including autopilot, FMS and gyro/glass panel. Should have been able to handle partial panel in IFR, even with compounding issues, but sometimes things can overwhelm us.

I'll leave it for the NTSB to determine, but it's entirely possible for a frozen static port to make it SEEM like the autopilot, other instruments, and the FMS are malfunctioning.

If you select a reversionary Air Data mode, it may be that the autopilot is just not looking at the same information you are.

Of course, a frozen static port will affect airspeed as well, and when one or two instruments give false indications it's an easy trip to thinking other instruments/systems are malfunctioning, especially when you're trying to maintain basic control of an airplane. Confusion is a terrible thing.

Compound that with the fact that many pilots haven't gotten pitot/static systems in jets to an "application" level of learning, and you'll find many of them deciding that the bad system is actually the good one, which WILL be catastrophic.

 

[3393RP]

Yes, he should have been able to hand fly the airplane. In this case he had some system failures, including autopilot, FMS and gyro/glass panel. Should have been able to handle partial panel in IFR, even with compounding issues, but sometimes things can overwhelm us.
I've got about 700 hours of single pilot time in a Citation II S/P and it's an easy airplane to fly, but when stuff starts breaking, like in the sim, it gets to be a handful pretty quickly. Most jets are flown with the Flight Director engaged about 95% of the time and with the autopilot engaged 90+% of the time, especially single pilot. Lot's to still uncover, did he have icing issues, pitot heat off?, spatial disorientation? We may never know the reason he couldn't handle it, but he couldn't. Very sad situation. RIP

I was hoping you would comment on this accident since you had significant seat time in a very similar aircraft. Thanks for the insight.