Sonex Down at OSH, Two Confirmed Fatalities

flightwriter

flightwriter

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Rob Finfrock
http://www.thenorthwestern.com/story/news/local/2015/06/02/plane-crash-oshkosh/28370861/

The accident aircraft is N123SX, registered to John Monnett Jr., the founder and president of Sonex Aircraft. No word as of 8:30 pm CDT on the identities of those onboard, but the sport aviation community fears the worst.

The accident occurred on takeoff. Photos appear to indicate the plane impacted flat on top of several Oshkosh industrial vehicles. No fire.
 
Holding my breath, I hope it is not John Monnett .

RIP to those who perished.
 
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Geico266 said:
Holding my breath, I hope it is not John Monnett .

RIP to those who perished.
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It was John. Very sad, indeed. :sad:

Edit: Correction....last word was Jeremy, John's son. Horrible news.
 
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What a loss. So many great designs, so much contribution to the GA community. Will leave a huge hole in the EXP movement. I feel terrible.
 
flightwriter said:
http://www.thenorthwestern.com/story/news/local/2015/06/02/plane-crash-oshkosh/28370861/

The accident aircraft is N123SX, registered to John Monnett Jr., the founder and president of Sonex Aircraft. No word as of 8:30 pm CDT on the identities of those onboard, but the sport aviation community fears the worst.

The accident occurred on takeoff. Photos appear to indicate the plane impacted flat on top of several Oshkosh industrial vehicles. No fire.
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I saw that on the local news tonight, and the first thing I said was that it looked like a Sonex.

RIP.
 
LDJones said:
Correction....I believe they said Jeremy. So very sad.
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Unfortunately, this makes more sense. Jeremy and Roger do most of the flying these days. The other shoe may drop and find out it was both. No matter the identity, it's going to hit the OSH and EAA community very hard.
 
Damn.

May the Monnet family and friends find peace, purpose, and solice in the days ahead.
 
Very sad .
I met Jeremy a a few weeks ago at their work shop. Great family and great young man . RIP
 
May they rest in peace ,very sad. Going to be a big loss to the exp community.
 
frfly172 said:
May they rest in peace ,very sad. Going to be a big loss to the exp community.
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Jeremy Monnet was the designer and driving force behind the Onex, the single seat jet version. A huge loss to the experimental kit family. So sad.
 
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Geico266 said:
Jeremy Monnet was the designer and driving force behind the Onex, the single seat jet version. A huge loss go the experimental kit family. So sad.
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The Onex is a single seat piston powered airplane. The sub-Sonex is the jet. As far as I have heard, his father John is actually more involved with the development of the jet. Jeremy ran the business and John runs the Hornet's Nest R&D.
 
Sonex has made a post on their website about it. It was Jeremy and Mike Clark that perrished in an accident while flying the Sonex Sport Acro with the turbochared Aerovee. No other details of what happened have been released.

http://sonexaircraft.com/


Keith
Sonex #554
 
That really sucks. Jeremy was a great guy from what I heard and I'm sure Mike was too. This is a big loss for the homebuilt and flying community, not just for Sonex

On the other hand though, maybe this will bring some attention to the Aerovee engine, even if it's unrelated to the accident. Sonex has always said there's no problems with the motor, but many people flying them say differently.
 
Turningfinal said:
On the other hand though, maybe this will bring some attention to the Aerovee engine, even if it's unrelated to the accident. Sonex has always said there's no problems with the motor, but many people flying them say differently.
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Too bad Sonex doesn't/won't support a Rotax 912 option.
 
One thing I read (if you believe anything the press says) was that is was a "runway accident", not in flight. Who knows, very sad, RIP.
 
RIP

Last year at the show I think it was a breezy crashed into those army looking trucks over there on the East side of 18 and it killed the pilot but can't remember if the passenger was hurt.

Evidentally if you run out of juice on 18 at OSH you're in deep doo doo.
 
retpd2001 said:
One thing I read (if you believe anything the press says) was that is was a "runway accident", not in flight. Who knows, very sad, RIP.
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I read that too...

Those Oshkosh vehicles are a LONG way to the east of the runway..:confused::confused::confused::confused:
 
Turningfinal said:
. Sonex has always said there's no problems with the motor, but many people flying them say differently.
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I am one of those flying behind an aerovee. It has been 30 hours of flying behind a very reliable running motor. A few know it alls and some competitors try to bash it but the data has never supported the claims.

Keith
Sonex #554
 
kmacht said:
I am one of those flying behind an aerovee. It has been 30 hours of flying behind a very reliable running motor. A few know it alls and some competitors try to bash it but the data has never supported the claims.

Keith
Sonex #554
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Not to bash the aerovee, but it is my understanding that this particular airplane had the new turbo aerovee engine installed. As with any new product there can be setbacks in development. One wonders if some sort of engine component failure could have been the start of a disasterous chain of events. We need to let the NTSB do their job to know the true cause.

Condolences to the families and to Sonex pilots/builders.
 
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kmacht said:
I am one of those flying behind an aerovee. It has been 30 hours of flying behind a very reliable running motor. A few know it alls and some competitors try to bash it but the data has never supported the claims.
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Not enough data to support... or disprove... the claims. My 1998-2013 database has only 29 Sonex accidents. And nearly half have engines other than the Aerovee. Can't really make an assessment based on 15 aircraft....

Ron Wanttaja
 
txflyer said:
RIP

Last year at the show I think it was a breezy crashed into those army looking trucks over there on the East side of 18 and it killed the pilot but can't remember if the passenger was hurt.

Evidentally if you run out of juice on 18 at OSH you're in deep doo doo.
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The passenger in the Breezy was hurt, but survived and (I believe) fully recovered.

Based on the archived LiveATC feed*, yesterday's accident occurred after N123SX was cleared to take off from runway 9 at the intersection with runway 13. They were cleared for a left turnout to depart to the west, and I think the accident site was in Oshkosh Corp's lot at the far NE corner of the airfield - not actually alongside 18 - corresponding to the left turnout.

The pictures published in the Northwestern seem to indicate that the plane came down on top of the trucks relatively flat(?)

*Relevant communications start at 18:20. It's hard to listen to - he sounds so happy to be going flying - but there isn't anything from the actual accident sequence on the recording. A second Sonex was approaching the field to land at the time, too.
 
flightwriter said:
The passenger in the Breezy was hurt, but survived and (I believe) fully recovered.

Based on the archived LiveATC feed*, yesterday's accident occurred after N123SX was cleared to take off from runway 9 at the intersection with runway 13. They were cleared for a left turnout to depart to the west, and I think the accident site was in Oshkosh Corp's lot at the far NE corner of the airfield - not actually alongside 18 - corresponding to the left turnout.

The pictures published in the Northwestern seem to indicate that the plane came down on top of the trucks relatively flat(?)

*Relevant communications start at 18:20. It's hard to listen to - he sounds so happy to be going flying - but there isn't anything from the actual accident sequence on the recording. A second Sonex was approaching the field to land at the time, too.
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I know the facts will come out, but.... I have been to OSH several times and even parked in GA parking.... That is located at the east side of the field on the north side, kinda next to the commercial terminal.... There was no Oshkosh vehicles over there, just a perimeter road and a neighborhood.

All the military stuff is south of 09 and a right turn out would have put him over the vehicles... A tight right turn would bring him back to the field faster and safer then a left turnout, That would have put him over the terminal and neighborhood..

Still a very sad deal for the aviation community...:sad::sad:
 
kmacht said:
I am one of those flying behind an aerovee. It has been 30 hours of flying behind a very reliable running motor. A few know it alls and some competitors try to bash it but the data has never supported the claims.

Keith
Sonex #554
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Sorry, but you'll have to fly a heckuva lot more hours before you have the right to claim it reliable. Even a Rotax 2-stroke can go a couple of hundred, and no one calls them reliable.
 
N801BH said:
I know the facts will come out, but.... I have been to OSH several times and even parked in GA parking.... That is located at the east side of the field on the north side, kinda next to the commercial terminal.... There was no Oshkosh vehicles over there, just a perimeter road and a neighborhood.

All the military stuff is south of 09 and a right turn out would have put him over the vehicles... A tight right turn would bring him back to the field faster and safer then a left turnout, That would have put him over the terminal and neighborhood..

Still a very sad deal for the aviation community...:sad::sad:
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Thanks for the info. (The original Northwestern article notes that police closed portions of Montana Rd. and West 23rd., roads adjacent to the north lot I'm thinking of.) I recall seeing trucks parked at both locations, but I haven't been to AirVenture since 2008 so I couldn't say where they're parked now.
 
N801BH said:
I know the facts will come out, but.... I have been to OSH several times and even parked in GA parking.... That is located at the east side of the field on the north side, kinda next to the commercial terminal.... There was no Oshkosh vehicles over there, just a perimeter road and a neighborhood.

All the military stuff is south of 09 and a right turn out would have put him over the vehicles... A tight right turn would bring him back to the field faster and safer then a left turnout, That would have put him over the terminal and neighborhood..

Still a very sad deal for the aviation community...:sad::sad:
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Actually, they park those vehicles all over the place when Airventure is not in session. I have even seen pictures of them parked at Aeroshell (or what ever the name du jour is) square and up and down the roads/walkways of the convention site. EAA must lease out parking to Oshkosh Truck or something. I'm sure it depends on the production rate of those things. The map of the crash site shows that it was just to the NE of the departure end of 09, with pictures showing the military vehicles.
 
painless said:
Actually, they park those vehicles all over the place when Airventure is not in session. I have even seen pictures of them parked at Aeroshell (or what ever the name du jour is) square and up and down the roads/walkways of the convention site. EAA must lease out parking to Oshkosh Truck or something. I'm sure it depends on the production rate of those things. The map of the crash site shows that it was just to the NE of the departure end of 09, with pictures showing the military vehicles.
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Makes sense now.... Thanks for the info...
 
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