Fatal RV-7 Crash - Broward, Florida

News said the flight was from KBCT to KOPF. Being overdue on a flight plan might have had Search out looking for him that evening instead of the next morning after being reported overdue by family after midnight.
 
luvflyin said:
News said the flight was from KBCT to KOPF. Being overdue on a flight plan might have had Search out looking for him that evening instead of the next morning after being reported overdue by family after midnight.
Click to expand...

bct D=> opf doesn't appear remote at all. from the news reports, the crash site does appear to be in a very remote section of the everglades. after the one and only flight I took going over the everglades, I told myself I would def file a flight plan the next time. only reason I didn't the first time is I went over my flight plan with the instructor who checked me out in the plane, and we were texting back and forth with takeoff times etc... with no ELT and no flight plan, that's asking for trouble.
 
They said he had the plane for a week. I wonder what he flew before?
 
Tragic.

As an aside, it's not too hard to cross the Everglades staying near Tamiami Trail or Alligator Alley.

Boca to Opa Locka can be done pretty much along the coast, or almost in a straight line if you dogleg just a bit west and stay under the FLL Class C. I guess they may have gone west to avoid airspace and to approach Opa Locka from the west. That could put you over some pretty swampy stuff.

28072486546_6b1cca0113_z.jpg
 
Last edited:
eman1200 said:
bct D=> opf doesn't appear remote at all. from the news reports, the crash site does appear to be in a very remote section of the everglades. after the one and only flight I took going over the everglades, I told myself I would def file a flight plan the next time. only reason I didn't the first time is I went over my flight plan with the instructor who checked me out in the plane, and we were texting back and forth with takeoff times etc... with no ELT and no flight plan, that's asking for trouble.
Click to expand...

Yeah. If he knows that he is "your flight plan" and will make the call if you're late that helps. A call from an FBO I would guess would get faster response than say a wife calling and saying "he ain't home yet." CAP guys??????
 
this pic doesn't really do the everglades justice, how sparse it is. other than this highway, which I wanted to be within gliding distance for as long as possible, there's simply nothing out there.......

deleteme2.jpg


and many people don't know, but the symbols that I highlited below........those are actually alligators with their big fat heads sticking out of the water, mouths wide open, just waiting for food to fall out of the sky. fact.

deleteme.jpg
 
I took a couple friends of the family out to the "Glades" because they wanted to see the area. They were underwhelmed. It's a whole lot of nothing out there. Just miles and miles of bad news. I would have stuck to the coast and stayed on FF the whole way. If you have to ditch, there's hundreds of tourists and boaters out that could fish you out. No idea why this guy thought flying over swampland was a great alternative.

RIP though :(
 
Not to be morbid, honest question, but how many people get eaten alive by alligators in S florida? Did the accident pilot in question die because he got eaten alive by the surrounding wildlife, or because he didn't survive trauma associated with the crash landing? It is my understanding alligators are not confrontational like crocs are, unless they have been socialized to associate humans with food catering. Crocs on the other hand, would stalk when inside their habitat.

I'm certainly not advocating treating remote crossings of any kind (mountains, ocean, forest) flippantly, but I'm trying to understand to what degree mythology permeates the discussion about with continental wildlife.
 
hindsight2020 said:
Not to be morbid, honest question, but how many people get eaten alive by alligators in S florida? Did the accident pilot in question die because he got eaten alive by the surrounding wildlife, or because he didn't survive trauma associated with the crash landing? It is my understanding alligators are not confrontational like crocs are, unless they have been socialized to associate humans with food catering. Crocs on the other hand, would stalk when inside their habitat.

I'm certainly not advocating treating remote crossings of any kind (mountains, ocean, forest) flippantly, but I'm trying to understand to what degree mythology permeates the discussion about with continental wildlife.
Click to expand...

from the pics, it looks like it had nothing to do with the gators.
 
I recall flying over that area in broad daylight thinking what would happen if the mill went south. Not a lot of good options. Probably should have been elsewhere myself, just didn't think about it in a timely fashion.
 
hindsight2020 said:
Not to be morbid, honest question, but how many people get eaten alive by alligators in S florida? Did the accident pilot in question die because he got eaten alive by the surrounding wildlife, or because he didn't survive trauma associated with the crash landing? It is my understanding alligators are not confrontational like crocs are, unless they have been socialized to associate humans with food catering. Crocs on the other hand, would stalk when inside their habitat.

I'm certainly not advocating treating remote crossings of any kind (mountains, ocean, forest) flippantly, but I'm trying to understand to what degree mythology permeates the discussion about with continental wildlife.
Click to expand...



In Alaska and other remote areas of the north and northwest, bears and other animals are usually the first responders to a crash. I helped investigate a crash in west Texas one time. It was obvious that critters had a easy meal after the crash.
 
hindsight2020 said:
Not to be morbid, honest question, but how many people get eaten alive by alligators in S florida? Did the accident pilot in question die because he got eaten alive by the surrounding wildlife, or because he didn't survive trauma associated with the crash landing? It is my understanding alligators are not confrontational like crocs are, unless they have been socialized to associate humans with food catering. Crocs on the other hand, would stalk when inside their habitat.

I'm certainly not advocating treating remote crossings of any kind (mountains, ocean, forest) flippantly, but I'm trying to understand to what degree mythology permeates the discussion about with continental wildlife.
Click to expand...

From the Florida Wildlife website:

Florida is averaging about seven unprovoked bites per year that are serious enough to require special medical treatment. The frequency of these serious bites is increasing at a rate of about 3 percent each year, or one additional bite every 4-5 years. However, the likelihood of a Florida resident being seriously injured during an unprovoked alligator incident in Florida is roughly only one in 2.4 million.

As of March 2015, the FWC has documented 595 alligator bites on humans, 373 of which were unprovoked and 220 were provoked. Twenty-two of these bites resulted in human fatalities.
 
luvflyin said:
Yeah. If he knows that he is "your flight plan" and will make the call if you're late that helps. A call from an FBO I would guess would get faster response than say a wife calling and saying "he ain't home yet." CAP guys??????
Click to expand...
I doubt it would make any difference. The important thing is to get the call to AFRCC made. Many missing airplanes go for hours without a report because no one knows they are overdue.

With no ELT, you aren't likely to be found at night unless you are on fire. Which means there must have been some really good info for a 6:30 AM sighting. Like radar to the ground.
 
However, the likelihood of a Florida resident being seriously injured during an unprovoked alligator incident in Florida is roughly only one in 2.4 million.
Click to expand...


Statistics like this are somewhat uninformative, because they are considering the entire population spread over the entire state. The probability of being bitten by a gator while shopping at WalMart is pretty darned low.

A more interesting statistic would be the probability of being bitten while in a pond, lake, or swamp. IOW, what are my odds of a gator attack while I'm wading and fishing for bass? Or if I've just crashed a plane in the Everglades?

Every water body bigger than a bathtub in this state seems to have a gator in it. As a kid, I grew up swimming in local lakes and never gave gators a thought. Today the damned things have made such a comeback that even sitting on a beach at Disney World isn't safe. I for one would like to see the gator population reduced significantly.

And gators aren't the only critter to worry about: http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_thi...e_largest_snake_in_the_world_has_invaded.html

Regardless, it seems to me that it would be wise to do flight planning with some attention to emergency landing sites. The 'glades isn't just bad in terms of places to ditch; even if you do set down okay it may be a long time before help can arrive. Access is difficult to say the least.
 
MAKG1 said:
Which means there must have been some really good info for a 6:30 AM sighting. Like radar to the ground.
Click to expand...

I don't know the exact location where it went down, but if he was anywhere near the Miami class Bravo airspace I'd buy their radar is pretty good.

@Half Fast oh yeah, no doubt there are worse problems then gators out there. Burmese Pythons are reproducing out there too from all the morons who want a snake when it's the size of a ruler but don't want it anymore when it's a size where it can eat you..so they just release them into the wild.

There was an article where one tried to actually eat a gator and 'sploded...
 
when i would fly across the glades i always filed a ifr flight plan. even then the engines would go autorough as soon as you were in the thick of it. if i had to do it now i would go I Follow Roads and use rt41 . yes i live on the edge of the glades and have for 18 years .not a place to fool with especially with a 7ac champ. and of course it would have to be a day trip . as a aside, i built a house for the lead attorney on that value jet crash in the mid to latter 90s .i got to see some photos of some of the remains who were part of gator buffet . at least all soles on board were doa after it went in.that poor woman pilot came so close to saving the day and got very close to making it to the dade collier airport {ktnt} .if i knew i was going retire here i would have never looked at those photos.
May the Dr in the rv.and all the soles on the value jet RIP
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top