Piper PA-32 N39965 down SE of KCRW, 2 Fatalities

RV10flyer

RV10flyer

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RV10flyer
KAKR-KSPA. The crash site is east of me 75 miles. We had a very slow moving cold front move in with a long line of thunderstorms and lightning from 1 to 3 PM EDT here. He departed just after 3 PM. Flying south terrain begins to rise near the crash site.

AFD just before departure...

"FRONTAL SYSTEM HAS BEEN GRADUALLY PUSHING SOUTHEAST INTO THE
FORECAST AREA TODAY. AS OF 18Z IT STRETCHES FROM ROUGHLY HUNTINGTON TO CLARKSBURG. THUNDERSTORMS HAVE BEEN FORMING ALONG THE BOUNDARY GIVING IT SOME PSEUDO SQUALL LINE CHARACTERISTICS BUT NOT EXPECTING ANYTHING ALL THAT STRONG OUT OF IT. THE FRONTAL SYSTEM WILL STALL OVER THE FORECAST AREA THIS EVENING AND THEN DISSIPATE OVERNIGHT AS THE SUPPORTING UPPER LEVEL SHORTWAVE OUTPACES IT OFF TO THE EAST."

Metar near time of crash...

METAR KCRW 112054Z 00000KT 8SM BKN070 OVC095 15/14 A3002 RMK AO2 RAB01E31B48E52 TSE23 SLP161 TS MOVD E VLY FG P0001 60020 T01500139 55005

Note winds slowed then later shifted from northwest to southeast. Stalling front.

Tops were forecast to be around 20,000'. I noted some tops at 28,000' when I checked wx around 3 PM.

http://www.wsaz.com/news/wvnews/hea...nawha-County-WVa-254959331.html?device=tablet

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N39965

It looked liked he made the 180 that I have made twice in my short vfr flying career, but then possibly found a way through. He started descending in the turn to the NE. If caught in a down draft, that would have been the time to head back north a little ways and land to wait it out. Really sad seeing this track.

Be careful with those fronts. It seems every time one passes through, we read about an accident.
 
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Looks like the plane may have been caught in a thunderstorm. Looking at the track.may they RIP.
 
tmyers said:
That's sad, looks like an hour delay would have made a huge difference.
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Absolutely. I'm about 45NM from CRW, probably 60nm from where this went down. The wind was gusting all day and a few TS until about 1600 local. Skies cleared up and wind was less than 10 kts.

If you look at the graph on Flightaware his ground speed is all over the place along with altitude. Sad to read through.


RIP
 
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I flew about 50 miles west of that area about the same time at 9000. I had just a little light turbulence.
 
Hanrahan said:
I flew about 50 miles west of that area about the same time at 9000. I had just a little light turbulence.
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Welcome to POA.

Just a few miles or hours can make all of the difference. The day after the accident, the wx was vfr.
 
Almost sounds like disorientation in IMC?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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