Scheduled carrier down near Nome, all safe

[alaskaflyer]

[FONT=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA, SANS-SERIF][SIZE=+1]

Plane found near Nome; all aboard safe[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA, SANS-SERIF][SIZE=-1]By JAMES HALPIN
jhalpin@adn.com

(02/19/09 21:08:30) [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA, SANS-SERIF][SIZE=-1]A commuter flight from Brevig Mission to Nome went down Thursday evening, spurring an extensive air and ground search that turned up the wreckage hours later and all those aboard alive, according to Alaska State Troopers. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA, SANS-SERIF][SIZE=-1] The downed airplane, Frontier Flying Service flight 8218, was located northeast of Nome after it crashed with five passengers and a pilot on board for reasons not immediately known, said Jim Hajdukovich, Frontier president.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA, SANS-SERIF][SIZE=-1] One person suffered minor injuries, he said.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA, SANS-SERIF][SIZE=-1] Families of the crew and passengers held their breath as they waited for word on the search, which was completed inside of three hours. "It was a real nervous time there for a while, but he put the plane down and must have put it down right, because only one bump on the head was reported," said Scott Mayfield, who identified himself as the son-in-law of the pilot. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA, SANS-SERIF][SIZE=-1] The people were being transported to Nome on a tracked vehicle for medical evaluation on Thursday night, Hajdukovich said. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA, SANS-SERIF][SIZE=-1] The pilot of the Piper PA-31-350 last made radio contact with the tower at about 6:30 p.m., but subsequently lost contact and failed to arrive in Nome at the flight's scheduled time, troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA, SANS-SERIF][SIZE=-1] It apparently went down more than seven miles northeast of Nome, near a spot called Newton Peak, Hajdukovich said.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA, SANS-SERIF][SIZE=-1] The aircraft deployed an emergency locator beacon, which searchers picked up on, said NTSB investigator Clint Johnson, who planned to interview the pilot and begin an investigation into the crash today.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA, SANS-SERIF][SIZE=-1] A state trooper, along with personnel from the Nome Fire Department and Nome Search and Rescue conducted what Peters characterized as "an extensive ground search" for the plane using snowmachines. Evergreen also launched a helicopter to assist in locating the flight, Peters said. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA, SANS-SERIF][SIZE=-1] Both Frontier Flying and troopers said they had no indication what might have caused the plane to go down or how the pilot managed to guide it in without additional injuries. [/SIZE][/FONT]

Also, the Air National Guard was enroute but was canceled when found.
[FONT=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA, SANS-SERIF][SIZE=-1][/SIZE][/FONT]

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Wow!

This will be another interesting one to watch... I'm particularly curious what kind of survival (ie warmth) gear a flight like that carries. It's cooooooold up there!

 

[alaskaflyer]

Wow!

This will be another interesting one to watch...

You've got that right!

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/v-printer/story/697442.html

The aircraft, a Piper PA-31-350 operated by Frontier Flying Service, had hit hard on the slope of Newton Peak. Despite the violence of the collision and the sudden stop, all aboard survived, according to Alaska State Troopers.
The pilot, Harland Hannon, last made contact with control in Nome at roughly 6:20 p.m., when he advised that flight 8218 was inbound and, because of the deteriorating weather, requested to be put in a holding pattern to land in turn.



During a brief interview, Hannon told Johnson he left Brevig Mission and initially reached about 5,500 feet, Johnson said. The flight to Nome is short, perhaps only a half-hour. But in that time, the weather thickened and the ceiling lowered, Johnson said. Soon Hannon was facing flat light and a white-out, he said.
"He said the next thing he knew, he was pretty much on the ground and the airplane had crashed -- didn't even see the ground coming," Johnson said.

These are single pilot part 121 IFR operations BTW.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

You've got that right!

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/v-printer/story/697442.html


These are single pilot part 121 IFR operations BTW.

121? Sounds more like scheduled 135 to me. I was gonna say "VFR" when I saw the 5500 feet thing, but it appears he was filed for 8000:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/FTA7CS/history/20090220/0310Z/PASH/PAOM

Using FlightAware and Skyvector, it appears to me that they departed runway 23 at Shishmaref and headed direct to Nome (OROCA 7100 feet, filed 8000), and about halfway there were cleared direct SPYVY, the IAF for the RNAV(GPS) RWY 10 approach into Nome and 14.2nm from the runway threshold. Minimum altitude in the hold is 3500 feet.

Going from the track log, it looks like he properly stayed at 8,000 until crossing SPYVY and entering the hold, then descended. The last radar hit is just inside PEEKO at 2500 feet. The approach plate calls for 2600 to HUBFU 10.1nm from the runway and 2100 to PEEKO 6.4 nm from the runway. So he was a bit high, inside PEEKO (FAF), and reading 180 knots groundspeed too!

Looking at the weather as reported below, visibility was a mile and a half, broken layers at 900 and 1600, overcast at 3200 (field elevation is only 37 feet, so these are pretty much the same MSL/AGL) he may have been in between the overcast layer and the lower broken layers and had some ground contact. He may have decided he could see enough to continue visually, and smacked the snowy mountain without seeing it due to flat light conditions.

I'm betting this one goes under "improper IFR."

********************************************************************************
** Report created 2/20/2009 Record 3 **
********************************************************************************

IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 41185 Make/Model: PA31 Description: PA-31/31P Navajo, Navajo Chieftain, Chie
Date: 02/20/2009 Time: 0816

Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Minor Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
City: NOME State: AK Country: US

DESCRIPTION
CRASHED ENROUTE, NOME, AK

INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
# Crew: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 1 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 5 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

WEATHER: SPECI OME 200302Z 25020G25KT 11/2SM R28/5500V P6000FT -SN BR BKN009 BKN016
OVC032 M04/04 A3006 RMK A0L PRESRR P000

OTHER DATA
Activity: Business Phase: Cruise Operation: Air Carrier


FAA FSDO: FAIRBANKS, AK (AL01) Entry date: 02/20/2009

 

[alaskaflyer]

They have both certificates but I was told on another site that this flight was likely under part 135, not 121.

Likely cancelled IFR and then was in a racetrack pattern waiting for a special VFR clearance. Maybe.

 

[Lawreston]

Wow; another aviation fortunate outcome for occupants. From a writer's viewpoint I just love this line from the story in the lead post: "was located northeast of Nome after it crashed with five passengers and a pilot on board for reasons not immediately known,"

One might assume there's a reason the passengers and pilot were on board; and if "for reasons not immediately known" were to be placed following "after it crashed" the sentence would be more in order. Reporters are an interesting group.

HR

 

[flyingcheesehead]

They have both certificates but I was told on another site that this flight was likely under part 135, not 121.

Yeah, I don't know why you'd bother with 121 for a Navajo.

Likely cancelled IFR and then was in a racetrack pattern waiting for a special VFR clearance. Maybe.

Doubtful. Weather was below VFR minimums, so I don't think there was a cancellation, and why would you cancel IFR to wait for a special VFR clearance? Also, you can see the racetrack on FlightAware, and he had clearly departed the holding pattern. What is odd, though, is that now that I look at where they crashed - It's north*east* of the airport (there's an RCO marked on the sectional as "Newton Peak").

So, another scenario: Pilot descends on the approach, with a crazy tailwind (winds on the ground were 250 at 20G25, and he was flying an approach to runway 10). I would think a Navajo would normally slow down and fly an approach at 120 knots (Category B) but unless the winds aloft were really whipping (40+ knots), this guy was actually flying category D. Circling minimums are 520-1 for B, 580-1 1/2 for C, and 800-2 1/2 for D. The most recent weather showed 900-1 1/2, which is good only for category C.

So he gets near the field and spots the field, and we can probably presume that he's wanting to circle to land on runway 28 which is facing most into the wind. Figure that if he was doing normal dive & drive he'd have seen it 1 1/2 miles out, or if using the normal calculated glideslope he'd have seen it at 473 MSL 1 1/2 miles out (already below circling minimums). So if he planned to circle, he'd have stayed at 520 feet and already been above the normal glideslope, but that's OK because he's circling anyway.

So he spots the airport a mile and a half out and breaks left to circle - Not sure why, since all runways are left traffic, but maybe there was more cloud cover over the water. Now he's probably still at Cat B minimum altitude of 520 MSL, has a wicked tailwind and a flat light situation, does not stay within the required protected area for circling, and smacks into the 1,096 foot MSL mountain still at 520 MSL (and 3-4 nm NE of the airport) without ever seeing it. (FWIW, Newton Peak is the 1152-foot obstacle on the approach plate, it must have a tower on it because this page gives the 1,096 foot elevation but also shows a topographic map marking it as 1152.)

The reason I think this is the scenario is that the miss for this approach is a simple straight-ahead climb to a point much further southeast, so he'd have had to SERIOUSLY botch the approach to get to where he ended up if he was doing something other than circling.

The lesson: Pay attention to your groundspeed on the approach.

 

[gismo]

Yeah, I don't know why you'd bother with 121 for a Navajo.

If you're offering scheduled service I don't think you have a choice.

Also, you can see the racetrack on FlightAware, and he had clearly departed the holding pattern. What is odd, though, is that now that I look at where they crashed - It's north*east* of the airport (there's an RCO marked on the sectional as "Newton Peak").

If the Navajo had an autopilot capable of flying a hold, I'd wonder if the AP was flying and went offline unnoticed by the pilot.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

If you're offering scheduled service I don't think you have a choice.

Though we tend to think of 135 as "charter" there is such a thing as scheduled 135. I don't know the benefits and requirements of one over the other though.

If the Navajo had an autopilot capable of flying a hold, I'd wonder if the AP was flying and went offline unnoticed by the pilot.

I don't think so - They were clearly in the HPILPT and stayed in the hold to lose altitude (enter at 8000 feet, leave at 3500), and then proceeded along the final approach course if you look at the radar track and the plate. The next hold they'd have entered would be the missed approach hold which is not anywhere near where they crashed, which is the 1152' obstacle just NE of the airport on the plate.

I suppose the autopilot could have gone offline after they were below radar contact on the final approach course, but I'd hope that the pilot would be paying attention at that point!