Crash at 06C, Tried to land BUT HE CRASHED!

mikea

mikea

Touchdown! Greaser!
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iWin
That's what they just said on the local news. "He tried to make a landing on the Elgin O'Hare expressway, but it turned into A CRASH!" Well, Doh!

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/plane19.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060219crash,1,4502649.story?coll=chi-news-hed

I don't need to have the news on. Mom calls and then Jann calls. No it wasn't me.

It was a 62 year old instructor and a 19 year old student from Northwest Aviation at Schaumburg. Took off on 29 in a Warrior and ended up on the expressway. They quote the student saying he told the instructor the engine wasn't running right. It looks like they hit a street light pole. The student walked away. The instructor has a head laceration was released from the hospital.

This is the same TV station which began the local news half hour after the hours of Olympics coverage with a special 3 minute report on the Olympics. In the meantime we had dangerous cold and a fire at a power substation killing power for a densly populated area of the city. That news came after the Olympics update. :dunno:
 
smigaldi said:
What direction was he taking off?
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Sounds like they flew west-northwest from 29.
The student says the engine quit at 300-400 feet AGL. The CFI began a turn back. There's is nothing but bad stuff - endless shopping centers - straight ahead, but there are the Metra train tracks to the south.

I think they began a right turn back and had to stay clear of the baseball stadium on the departure end. That he made the expressway is a sign of some good piloting.

A good report in the Sun-Times:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-plane20.html
 
mikea said:
Sounds like they flew west-northwest from 29.
The student says the engine quit at 300-400 feet AGL. The CFI began a turn back. There's is nothing but bad stuff - endless shopping centers - straight ahead, but there are the Metra train tracks to the south.

I think they began a right turn back and had to stay clear of the baseball stadium on the departure end. That he made the expressway is a sign of some good piloting.

A good report in the Sun-Times:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-plane20.html
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That is a very good report. As a retired Air Force member and current Coast Guard Aux pilot all I could see is that other than the student wanting to join the Navy he sounds unharmed form his expirience.

As for the CFI I am sure I have met him before and know a few people that have flown with him. That is one airport where there are not a lot of outs, but I think I might have gone closer to the railroad or the Schaumburg Flyers baseball parking lot. Hard to say and I should not second guess them.
 

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smigaldi said:
That is a very good report. As a retired Air Force member and current Coast Guard Aux pilot all I could see is that other than the student wanting to join the Navy he sounds unharmed form his expirience.

As for the CFI I am sure I have met him before and know a few people that have flown with him. That is one airport where there are not a lot of outs, but I think I might have gone closer to the railroad or the Schaumburg Flyers baseball parking lot. Hard to say and I should not second guess them.
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I agree. The second or third thing I want to hear, after how they're doing, is whether the student said, "Never again." He sounds like a good, smart kid. I think we got one.

Now that I see the map, I guess he did end up straight ahead. The reports said the crash was at Springsguth Road, which is almost directly off the end of the runway. I don't know which way he was going when he hit the road, but I'll bet there wasn't much of a turn. There usually isn't much of a chance to make a turn back.

You could always email the reporter(s) and give them an attaboy for once. I've done that to the Sun-Times reporters have have gotten an answer. I gotta figure they get a lotta spam with their addresses being right there on the site.
 
mikea said:
You could always email the reporter(s) and give them an attaboy for once. I've done that to the Sun-Times reporters have have gotten an answer. I gotta figure they get a lotta spam with their addresses being right there on the site.
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That is a good idea and I will do it
 
Quoted is my letter to the guys who wrote the article and their response. It seems that letters of praise are rare for these guys.

From : Fusco, Chris <cfusco@suntimes.com>
Sent : Monday, February 20, 2006 5:39 PM
To : K9PO@amsat.org
Subject : RE: Article about Schaumburg Plane crash

thank you for reading. nice to get a note like this after a rough night
working a story.


-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Migaldi [mailto:smigaldi@hotmail.com]
Sent: Mon 2/20/2006 11:16 AM
To: lrackl@suntimes.com; cfusco@suntimes.com
Subject: Article about Schaumburg Plane crash

I just finished reading your article about the recent crash near Schaumburg
airport. Normally when I read such articles or see them reported in the
video media there is significant hype, hysteria, and factual errors
associated with the article. It was quite refreshing to read a well written,

balanced report about an aviation mishap. Yes, small planes crash, yes
people get hurt or die, and yes it is still news. But over, all aviation is
very safe. Thank you for reporting the accident in such a fashion.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott F. Migaldi, K9PO
MI-150972
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CP-ASEL-IA
 
smigaldi said:
Quoted is my letter to the guys who wrote the article and their response. It seems that letters of praise are rare for these guys.

CP-ASEL-IA
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Way to go! Wouldn't it be great to reverse the long standing trend?

I'll be sending him a similar note as well, for his benefit and maybe somehow for ours too.
 
Uh, oh. They just reported on ABC 7 news that the CFI is saying he had plenty of fuel. Huh? The FBO is saying the plane ran out of fuel.

Oh, I see. They were responding to this "exclusive" from earlier. So much for the good reporting....

The plane that crashed is a 21-year old Piper Warrior. It has two fuel tanks, one in each wing, which one is used manually selected by the pilot. Sunday at Schaumburg Airport, veteran flight instructor John Vashko was responsible for checking fuel tank levels before taking up student pilot Casey Mattuck. But the fuel gauge is in front of where the student pilot was seated and the tank selection switch was located down below the student pilot. [Horrors!!!... and the guy in the right seat can't see it?]

FAA investigators will be looking at whether that contributed to Sunday's crash landing on the eastbound Elgin-O'Hare Expressway shortly after takeoff from Schaumburg. There may have been some fuel in the wing that remained attached to the fuselage, but for some reason, that fuel tank did not appear to have been in use at the time of the crash.
...
But the owner tells us he didn't know about a 1992 accident that the very same plane had been in, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The accident occurred at the Lake in the Hills Airport the day after Christmas, 1992. At the controls was a student pilot attempting his second solo landing. The accident report obtained by the I-Team reveals that the plane ran off the runway; the landing gear collapsed and the damage to the plane was reported as "substantial."

Whether that history played any role in Sunday's dramatic expressway landing is something that the FAA will also examine.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=3925776
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Even though he is known for sensationalism like this, I guess we could give Chuck Goudie a pass. His Dad (Yeah. It's Curt) just died.
 
Last edited:
So much for the exclusive. There's another good report in the Sun-Times:

Pilot trainer to return to the air on Wednesday

A Schaumburg flight instructor who crash-landed a four-seater plane upside down on the Elgin-O'Hare Expy. was nursing a bump on the head, but planned to be back at work -- and back in the air -- by midweek, his boss said Monday.

"No way" is John Vashko, a 35-year flying veteran, worried about flying again after Sunday's emergency landing, said Mark Clements, owner of Northwest Aviation.

...

"He told us that when the airplane departed, he had a feeling it wasn't climbing as strongly as it normally does, and another feeling that the engine might not be producing the same amount of power as expected," Clements said Monday.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-crash21.html
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Wha happened to the company that was saying he didn't have any fuel? :dunno:
 
mikea said:
You could always email the reporter(s) and give them an attaboy for once. I've done that to the Sun-Times reporters have have gotten an answer. I gotta figure they get a lotta spam with their addresses being right there on the site.
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I sent a note to Lori, with cc: to Chris Fusco. Today, came the following responses.

Thanks very much for the nice note. Luckily, Chris Fusco used to cover the transportation beat so he has experience with the aviation world. Certainly helps when writing breaking stories about crashes.

Best,
Lori

Thanks. I'm a former transportation reporter, so I made plenty of mistakes along the way to learning how to do it right.

Chris



HR
 
Lawreston said:
I sent a note to Lori, with cc: to Chris Fusco. Today, came the following responses.

Thanks very much for the nice note. Luckily, Chris Fusco used to cover the transportation beat so he has experience with the aviation world. Certainly helps when writing breaking stories about crashes.

Best,
Lori

Thanks. I'm a former transportation reporter, so I made plenty of mistakes along the way to learning how to do it right.

Chris
Click to expand...
HR
Click to expand...

I got an identical one in reply.
Hope it starts a positive trend.
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sent a similar note and got a similar reply as well.
 
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