Plane crashes into vehicles just short of KWHP (Los Angeles)

mr_happyland

mr_happyland

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Los Angeles
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mr_happyland
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KWHP
This just happened about an hour ago at my home airport. Doesn't look good at all. Appears to have crashed just short of runway 12 into vehicles on a residential street.

Listeing on LiveATC, it appears to be a CAP 182 lost power on final, enroute from Bakersfield.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N939CP

I found the audio and cut it down to the relevant parts. but I can't get it to upload for some reason. He talks about losing power and trying to stretch the glide and later says he might not make it.

EDIT: he ended up about 20 yards short of the threshold.

Ugh.
 
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This picture shows just how close he was to making the displaced threshold. Very, very sad. RIP.

whp crash.jpg
 
SoCal 182 Driver said:
I just listened to the LiveATC feed. Apparently he clipped a wire as he was getting close. Very sad.
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The loss of engine on final is very curious. Lack of fuel doesn't seem to be the issue. 2015 fuel-injected 182...likely not carb ice.

Here's a picture of those wires. Right past the fence is the threshold. I've flown over them hundreds of times. Very tragic.
Screen Shot 2020-11-12 at 6.02.21 PM.jpg
 
Thought the tower did an excellent job clearing him for the landing with little distraction or unnecessary questions. I’ve landed there once and agree there is little room for error, it certainly got my attention landing and taking off.
 
Every time I visit WHP made me unease when approach RWY12. There are so many poles and wires along the narrow Sutter Ave. I often focus my attention on the runway threshold while flying along the Sutter Ave and not gonna clip the wires during the descend. I did not have chance to observe the alternate landing spot in surrounding. This tragic accident made me inspect the Google Map tonight. Look like the railroad on the right next to the San Fernando Road provides a ground for the emergency landing. Is that right? (see Google map link below).

https://goo.gl/maps/nEpqbuBdjqe4fL2y9

RIP to the diseased fellow pilot.
 
I learned to fly there too. I'm glad I did, the training was excellent for learning small and confined airports when I later ventured out to new places. The property is surrounded by poles, wires and buildings. Makes most other airports seem vast and wide open after you get used to WHP. 1st time flyers on approach to the airport will sometimes ask the tower for help finding the runway, as the airport blends in with the city around it. RIP.
 
There's a video caught by a security camera on the news. it looks like the impact wasn't that bad at all but it immediately caught on fire.
 
Not that I would have done any better, but diving beneath wires is preferable to hitting them or stalling...
 
Local news now reporting there is a call to close the airport now:(
On another note, while I was having lunch at kcma yesterday I watched a guy in a Cessna taxi between a row of planes with MAYBE 18” of clearance from his wingtips to the parked aircraft. After maneuvering his way through that he made a turn and hit the fuel truck.
 
47PILOT said:
After maneuvering his way through that he made a turn and hit the fuel truck.
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Hopefully the cost of repairs will make this person think twice about how they handle ground operations
 
At my local airport there is a small creek just before the threshold of one runway. After being in operation for 50 years they were forced to put a bridge. Granted there's vehicles to contend with here, but if the lines weren't there, maybe...just maybe it doesn't end as tragically. Plane was manufactured in 2015, so yeah. I'd be really curious what caused the engine out.

With 600 aircraft on the field I really hope the calls to shut it down arent taken with any seriousness.
 
47PILOT said:
Local news now reporting there is a call to close the airport now:(
On another note, while I was having lunch at kcma yesterday I watched a guy in a Cessna taxi between a row of planes with MAYBE 18” of clearance from his wingtips to the parked aircraft. After maneuvering his way through that he made a turn and hit the fuel truck.
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No fuel truck, but a light pole. Came close to the twin though.
 
Racerx said:
With 600 aircraft on the field I really hope the calls to shut it down arent taken with any seriousness.
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I’ve been flying out of WHP for 12 years and this is the first time I’ve ever heard someone vocalizing to close that airport.

For better or worse, the neighborhood that it’s located in doesn’t have the same collective power that you would find a place such as Santa Monica.
 
mr_happyland said:
I’ve been flying out of WHP for 12 years and this is the first time I’ve ever heard someone vocalizing to close that airport.

For better or worse, the neighborhood that it’s located in doesn’t have the same collective power that you would find a place such as Santa Monica.
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  • My airport
mr_happyland said:
I’ve been flying out of WHP for 12 years and this is the first time I’ve ever heard someone vocalizing to close that airport.

For better or worse, the neighborhood that it’s located in doesn’t have the same collective power that you would find a place such as Santa Monica.
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My airport was in the middle of farm fields. Then the fields to the west were sold and it's a subdivision. Now a new school and public works facility/police station have been built in the last 15 years. It's nowhere near as nice as WHP and still privately owned. Owned by an older gentleman that has little interest in aviation other than making money off hangar rent. I always fear the pressure from residents as well as the possible land value that it's days are numbered. Theres signs on the way in to "please fly quietly". Never fully understood what that meant. The airport was here long before you chose to live here. Being so close to KCGX (Meigs) and 5K6 I get a little sensitive about calls to shut down airports because its happened too close to home.
 
I don’t know about KWHP but I’m sure some groups will use this tragedy as a reason to get rid of their local airports. Don’t let a misfortune go to waste is their thinking.
 
Zeldman said:
Why isn't there orange balls on the wires.??
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dam straight. The wires shouldn’t be there in the first place and it may or may not have helped the accident pilot but at the very least those balls should be there.
 
Zeldman said:
Why isn't there orange balls on the wires.??
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woodchucker said:
dam straight. The wires shouldn’t be there in the first place and it may or may not have helped the accident pilot but at the very least those balls should be there.
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Honest question. In this scenario, power loss, and that low — what’s he going to do when he spots some orange balls?

Doesn’t look like he’d have anywhere to go anyway.

I think the orange balls work well for helipads with nearby obstacles and high tension wires crossing large open spans where helis operate down low, but I don’t see much use here at a fixed wing runway threshold down super low.

Give ya maybe an extra second or two to know you’re probably about to be dead?

How high are those poles? Are those even high enough to be an “FAA standard 50’ Obstacle(TM)”? That street level shot doesn’t look like it. You’re down there in a fixed wing you’re already in big trouble.

Which, sadly, I’m guessing this pilot already knew.

I guess one could argue he could have maybe tried to go ***under*** them if he saw orange balls, but that’s getting a bit wishful.

Some could pull it off. Some would just freeze. Some would pull up and stall and crash just beyond them.

Also just as a point of practicality, those look like power lines. If you have access to power, right there, and you really want those poles marked, use lights. They’ll work better in limited visibility day or night.

But that’s just me being an engineer. Might as well steal a little juice, and install das blinkenlights... if the obstacle itself is an electricity pole.

I’ve seen lit orange balls too, but they’re usually out in the middle of an aerial span far from the support towers or poles.
 
mr_happyland said:
...He talks about losing power and trying to stretch the glide and later says he might not make it....
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Announcing that he is going to try to stretch the glide is like announcing that he's going to try to violate the laws of physics. :rolleyes:

It would be interesting to know if he tried pulling out the prop control, since that actually does improve glide performance.
 
Very sad :( RIP. You can tell how shaken the controller was after that
 
Palmpilot said:
It would be interesting to know if he tried pulling out the prop control, since that actually does improve glide performance.
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True. I would show that to the newbies while training in the C-206/7 in Alaska. Most of them were fresh out of flight instructing and had never heard of that.
 
Also, one CAP check pilot advised me to add ten degrees of flaps in a 182. It did seem to help the glide when I tried it.
 
I would guess that the top wire is about 30 feet up on the West side of the street and 20 on the East side. I'm also guessing that a gliding 182 that can't clear those wires would not clear the 9-foot perimeter fence either. The wires really aren't the issue. He just came up 10-20 feet short on altitude. I'm also not sure the distance between the two poles exceeds the wingspan of a 182. Under the wires was not going to happen, even with an insane stunt-pilot.
 
Agreed, hitting the fence is more likely survivable that having the wires flip you over. I'm certain they never saw the powerlines, by the time they were close enough the wires and probably even the poles would have been obscured by the cowling.

I would think (wrongly) that any city or airport engineer would not allow a powerline crossing the extended approach path right on centerline. But then again, I wouldn't think they would allow the houses and buildings either.

Condolences to the family.
 
To be contrary, you SHOULD see stuff like that on final and if you dove to duck under, you might actually have had the energy to clear the fence.
 
RyanShort1 said:
To be contrary, you SHOULD see stuff like that on final and if you dove to duck under, you might actually have had the energy to clear the fence.
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After having torn off both wings by hitting the power poles?
 
RyanShort1 said:
A wing can dissipate a LOT of energy. Seen it happen on a tree and the kid walked away with only a scratched thumb.
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You are correct. My father-in-law and many of his buddies found that tearing one or both wings off of a Waco CG-4 facilitated a speedy exit under fire during June of 1944.
 
PaulS said:
Why don't they bury those fricken wires near the airport?
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When I saw this accident, I thought of John Lane Field (Warren County Airport, Ohio, I68) and crossing the power lines at the end of 1. It did have a displaced threshold, which we routinely ignored. Looking at Google Earth, since the last time I flew there, they've "undisplaced" the threshold, and buried the power lines. This, in a podunk rural airport.
 
So, just how far out on final should there be no obstacles exactly? I'm confused by this thread.
 
Stevel said:
I would guess that the top wire is about 30 feet up on the West side of the street and 20 on the East side. I'm also guessing that a gliding 182 that can't clear those wires would not clear the 9-foot perimeter fence either. The wires really aren't the issue. He just came up 10-20 feet short on altitude. I'm also not sure the distance between the two poles exceeds the wingspan of a 182. Under the wires was not going to happen, even with an insane stunt-pilot.
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Interesting. Really impossible to tell distances in the photo but a standard road, even a one-lane, is wider than a 182 wingspan, so the brain says “looks doable” at first glance of an online photo with no distance context.
 
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