Plane circling over the gulf of Mexico

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Well this isn't good. Just heard on news there is a private plane circling over the gulf. They said the pilot is not responsive and they are waiting for it to run out of gas and crash in the water. USCG is deploying assets.

Not good.
 
Hoping for a miracle.... Maybe the Coast Guard can grab the pilot before the plane sinks.. And... thank god it is over water and not a big city.
 
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Supposed to be running out of fuel right about now. Here's to a miracle, plane self-ditches and the USCG pulls the pilot out alive. Can happen.
 
What IAS does a 421 show at altitude? We can (maybe) assume it will hit the water at approximately that speed since it was trimmed for it. Hopefully a survivable speed.

Sorry to hear this too, it sounds like if the USCG was on scene there is a chance for survival. You are definitely unconscious at 25,000 feet, but not dead right. How long does it take for consciousness to regain once you glide down into altitudes with enough oxygen? If the descent was slow enough, possible that the pilot regained consciousness and was able to at least slow the plane before ditching?
 
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dell30rb said:
What IAS does a 421 show at altitude? We can (maybe) assume it will hit the water at approximately that speed since it was trimmed for it. Hopefully a survivable speed.

Sorry to hear this too, it sounds like if the USCG was on scene there is a chance for survival. You are definitely unconscious at 25,000 feet, but not dead right. How long does it take for consciousness to regain once you glide down into altitudes with enough oxygen? If the descent was slow enough, possible that the pilot regained consciousness and was able to at least slow the plane before ditching?
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Sometimes one doesn't wake up. If they are deprived of O2 long enough they can die.
 
Captain said:
Well this isn't good. Just heard on news there is a private plane circling over the gulf. They said the pilot is not responsive and they are waiting for it to run out of gas and crash in the water. USCG is deploying assets.

Not good.
Click to expand...

:confused: Pogee spotter?
 
One thing I read said that the aircraft was intercepted but the intercepting airplanes could not see inside due to ice/fog
 
Take a look at the flightaware track and try to match it with the speed graph. Very interesting but there's no corresponding altitude change until the end, which is surprising to me. I would expect a more substantial climb to correspond to a speed decrease during the spiral, and a descent to correspond with the speed increase. But until the last part, the altitude seems to increase with little descent.
 
I'm trying to withhold more journalistic sensationalism rants but I just can't ... bat rastards!!!

Headline: Private plane with 'incapacitated' pilot plummets into Gulf of Mexico

Lead in paragraph: A private plane that was spotted circling above the Gulf of Mexico with an apparently incapacitated pilot crashed into the water about 120 miles west of Tampa, Fla. just after noon on Thursday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

then finally actual details: The plane landed softly in the water and was intact, floating right side up...
 
Fascinating graph. Climbs slowly as it loses weight of fuel after the big level off at the filed altitude, but speed oscillates each time around 360 degrees.

Something's funky with that data.

The report that all the windows were iced over and USCG couldn't see inside didn't sound good.
 
denverpilot said:
Fascinating graph. Climbs slowly as it loses weight of fuel after the big level off at the filed altitude, but speed oscillates each time around 360 degrees.

Something's funky with that data.

The report that all the windows were iced over and USCG couldn't see inside didn't sound good.
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one report I read stated the plane was corkscrewing...would that be consistent with the speeds?
 
thanks Rusty.
 

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Can a cessna 421's pressurization system handle up to fl330? I had thought for most anything pressurized-piston the upper limit was usually FL250.
 
I think the ceiling of the 421 is FL300. The pressurization is probably not the limiting factor in that number.
 
On the FlightAware page, the aircraft leveled pretty sharply just above 25000 for a while. Then it starts to drift upward. (Or flew into a pressure change slowly without an altimeter setting change...)

4b94241c-71aa-1fdd.jpg


Looks like autopilot attitude capture and hold.

As Murphey pointed out, the weird part is dynamically neutral stability style oscillations in speed with no correlating change in altitude.

But you guys are right, that's probably groundspeed since it is not labeled. Groundspeed + Prevailing Wind would look like that at a roughly constant airspeed. And it's obviously getting blown downwind by the spirals over the ground.

I was thinking airspeed.

Slowly flying into the low pressure that's sucking him East explains both actually.

Yup. I'm sure this Low was further West earlier.

4b94241c-7155-7708.jpg


Sigh. Poor guy/gal.
 
Well, if thats measured as groundspeed it could be coming into a headwind/tailwind causing that much of a difference.
 
So is this looking to be a hypoxia incident or is there not enough info to make that call/guess?
 
Its certainly looking that way. But who knows... A slow decompression is noticeable in my opinion. I have felt hypoxic and had to grab the oxygen. There have been several cases where pilots have overcome issues like this, but unfortunately there are cases that ended up exactly like this.
 
Apache123 said:
Can a cessna 421's pressurization system handle up to fl330? I had thought for most anything pressurized-piston the upper limit was usually FL250.
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I think it's 30,000, but I don't go above 25,000, keeps cabin under 10K. I don't know too many people that fly 421's above 23,000 on a regular basis. Tough on engines, cabin altitude is high, I'm guessing, without looking it up that 27,000 gives a cabin altitude of 11,500-12,000:eek: that's pretty thin air for an old fat guy like me.:D
 
:yesnod:
dell30rb said:
One thing I read said that the aircraft was intercepted but the intercepting airplanes could not see inside due to ice/fog
Click to expand...

Pretty normal to have the heat off on takeoff and flying toward the sun would keep the cockpit warm for the climb out. Also, it's very common to turn the heat on and off as needed, that could explain how the windows were iced over. The other explanation is pressurization failure, but we'll probably never know.:(
 
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