Plane down in NC

Apparently, his efforts saved many lives on the ground, according to the locals.

R.I.P.

-Rich
 
It's nice to see people honor a pilot for missing their houses instead of complaining about the dangers of planes.

RIP
 
It's nice that people attribute such noble thoughts to pilots but I'm skeptical about the reality of "taking one for the team" in such situations.
 
Sad to see that Happen. Does anyone know what kind of aircraft that was?
 
wabower said:
It's nice that people attribute such noble thoughts to pilots but I'm skeptical about the reality of "taking one for the team" in such situations.
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Agreed

However given a choice any pilot seeking self-preservation would rather aim for an open space of anything (big parking lot, soccer field) or treetops, than put it right into a bunch of houses.
 
It was a PC 12 owned by labcorp. They fly a lot of operations around here.

Given that it was 7.5 mi from the airport and it should have been an easy departure for a PC 12 with a pilot who flies it every day, i'm actually guessing mechanical failure.

The conditions were 500 broken 1500 overcast, light winds and no ice or turbulence in the clouds.
 
dell30rb said:
Given that it was 7.5 mi from the airport and it should have been an easy departure for a PC 12 with a pilot who flies it every day, i'm actually guessing mechanical failure.
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Yeah, something very bad happened on departure.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Yeah, something very bad happened on departure.
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We all know the validity of information provided by witnesses in airplane crashes is always suspect; but for what it's worth, this is from my local news station

Nearby homeowners said they saw the plane was on fire before it hit the ground.

"There was fire in it already," resident Clara Moore said. "I'm dialing 911 and next thing I know, it just dropped ... fire just went all over the place. I could see the pieces just flying up in the air. Heartbreaking, your heart was in your mouth because you couldn't do nothing."
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wabower said:
It's nice that people attribute such noble thoughts to pilots but I'm skeptical about the reality of "taking one for the team" in such situations.
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My exact thoughts. I doubt if he was trying to land it in a more favorable location, probably just hoping he'd land it in once piece.
 
I am not sure how many have had an engine out or loose parts from your airplane. But speaking for my self who has had 6 engine outs and one catastrophic failure, you want to live, you are looking for the safest spot to land with minumal damage to you, the plane, and those on the ground.

I have wread that one can put a bird down on top of tree's and still live. Stall above and pancake it in,so to speak. I hope I never have to try this.
 
It was before 6 AM, low clouds, dark still. What do you think he was able to see? I've flown up in that area. The only thing to look for is a lack of lights.
 
HerrGruyere said:
It's nice to see people honor a pilot for missing their houses instead of complaining about the dangers of planes.

RIP
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Ted DuPuis said:
It was before 6 AM, low clouds, dark still. What do you think he was able to see? I've flown up in that area. The only thing to look for is a lack of lights.
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Not sure as one witness said it circled a few times so if he was able to see that, well who knows. very sad.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
It was before 6 AM, low clouds, dark still. What do you think he was able to see? I've flown up in that area. The only thing to look for is a lack of lights.
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Ted is right. Even though I live here, somehow I forgot it was dark at 6am.

The articles I read did say shortly after 6am, but we don't start seeing any sunlight here until around 6:45
 
AdamZ said:
Not sure as one witness said it circled a few times so if he was able to see that, well who knows. very sad.
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Most likely trying to gain altitude to return to the airport.
 
1600vw said:
I am not sure how many have had an engine out or loose parts from your airplane. But speaking for my self who has had 6 engine outs and one catastrophic failure, you want to live, you are looking for the safest spot to land with minumal damage to you, the plane, and those on the ground.

I have wread that one can put a bird down on top of tree's and still live. Stall above and pancake it in,so to speak.
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7 engine failures? What are you flying, a land rover?
 
Ted DuPuis said:
It was before 6 AM, low clouds, dark still. What do you think he was able to see? I've flown up in that area. The only thing to look for is a lack of lights.
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There was also fog all over the place. Some airports were reporting it, some not but conditions can vary mile by mile.
 
1600vw said:
I am not sure how many have had an engine out or loose parts from your airplane. But speaking for my self who has had 6 engine outs and one catastrophic failure, you want to live, you are looking for the safest spot to land with minumal damage to you, the plane, and those on the ground.

I have wread that one can put a bird down on top of tree's and still live. Stall above and pancake it in,so to speak. I hope I never have to try this.
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I'm not sure a PC12 can do a tree top landing - it may be a little too hefty. Lighter aircraft can but it's a bit of a crap shoot. But if you do try it, don't stall it. The technique it to do it a minimum controllable airspeed, wings level and all that. Whether its ditching or tree tops or whatever, stalling it means that you may dip a wing and you never want to do that.
 
Yeah, I caught the 1600 VW as well. But those engines should be more reliable than that.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Most likely trying to gain altitude to return to the airport.
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Ted you bring up an interesting point. Lets say your at 1200' MSL and you need to be at 3000' to make it back to the airport and you experience engine trouble or some other situation but I think engine trouble is likely mmm I guess perhpas Ice.

Wouldn't it be prudent to head directly back to the airport rather than staying at the present location and trying to gain altitude to make it back? I'd think that if you have the time and power to climb you'd have the time and power to make it back. ( sorry for the thread creep)
 
I'd be pretty surprised if a PT-6 had an icing issue in those conditions.

There are many variables to your question, and not knowing the area, who knows. I'd rather try to gain altitude than hit a probable mountain, and remember sharp turns will hurt my airspeed and altitude. So it's hard to say.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I'd be pretty surprised if a PT-6 had an icing issue in those conditions.
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It would have taken some phenomenon like carb ice to bring the accident plane down in those conditions, and as far as I know there are no induction ice issues similar to carb ice in turboprop A/C. I posted a Skew-T of the conditions at the time of the crash in another thread. Basically there was an inversion up to about 5000 feet. Temp was near freezing at the ground and went all the way up to about 50 degrees @ 5k feet before cooling and the freezing level was about 12k with tops 13.500.
 

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The PT6A-42 has heated lip that requires no pilot activation, only control for severe icing conditions is a de-ice vane below the compressor intake that provides inertial separation. The vane is mounted below the compressor intake screen.
dell30rb said:
It would have taken some phenomenon like carb ice to bring the accident plane down in those conditions, and as far as I know there are no induction ice issues similar to carb ice in turboprop A/C. I posted a Skew-T of the conditions at the time of the crash in another thread. Basically there was an inversion up to about 5000 feet. Temp was near freezing at the ground and went all the way up to about 50 degrees @ 5k feet before cooling and the freezing level was about 12k with tops 13.500.
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Ted DuPuis said:
Yeah, I caught the 1600 VW as well. But those engines should be more reliable than that.
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I was flying behind two strokes. Since going to the vw or EAB I have had almost 100 trouble free hours.
I learned alot from those two strokes, the biggest lesson....don't fly behind a two stroke.
 
Let the locals believe what they like. We need heroes nowadays.

Personally, I would be looking for a place to land, too. But if that were impossible and I knew my time had come, I like to think that I'd try to avoid taking someone else down with me.

-Rich
 
How do you know where they are (or aren't) in the dark?

RJM62 said:
Let the locals believe what they like. We need heroes nowadays.

Personally, I would be looking for a place to land, too. But if that were impossible and I knew my time had come, I like to think that I'd try to avoid taking someone else down with me.

-Rich
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1600vw said:
I was flying behind two strokes. Since going to the vw or EAB I have had almost 100 trouble free hours.
I learned alot from those two strokes, the biggest lesson....don't fly behind a two stroke.
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:rofl:

From my 2-stroke experience, I wouldn't want to fly behind one.
 
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