There's one King Air that won't fly again...

TangoWhiskey

TangoWhiskey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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3Green
My wife told me about this last night; happened a few days ago here on my side of DFW. I've been so busy at work, I didn't even hear about it.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...ories/wfaa091606_wz_planecrash.1eeb94184.html

The slideshow link has some frame grabs from the Chopper 8... the ground markings make it look like they went through that pond before ending up on dry land. No idea where the other wing is.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
My wife told me about this last night; happened a few days ago here on my side of DFW. I've been so busy at work, I didn't even hear about it.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...ories/wfaa091606_wz_planecrash.1eeb94184.html

The slideshow link has some frame grabs from the Chopper 8... the ground markings make it look like they went through that pond before ending up on dry land. No idea where the other wing is.
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Both engines failed, huh?

It would be just way too ironic if it were fuel exhaustion, seeing as though it's registered to a petroleum company...


Trapper John
 
Trapper John said:
Both engines failed, huh?

It would be just way too ironic if it were fuel exhaustion, seeing as though it's registered to a petroleum company...


Trapper John
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That kinda looks like fuel oil floating on the lake from the pics. I've also heard the sheriff reported fuel was everywhere at the crash site.
 
Why else do they both fail at the same time on a King Air?
Trapper John said:
Both engines failed, huh?

It would be just way too ironic if it were fuel exhaustion, seeing as though it's registered to a petroleum company...


Trapper John
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Unlikely. You could conjure up a way it might happen in some of them (older airplanes with nacelle fillers, etc.) but it is a stretch.

TangoWhiskey said:
Fuel starvation instead of exhaustion?
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MikePapa said:
Perhaps bad fuel.
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man.

Fuel has to be pretty darned bad to not burn in a PT-6... and after that long a flight?


I will look forward to this report very much.
 
SCCutler said:
man.

Fuel has to be pretty darned bad to not burn in a PT-6... and after that long a flight?


I will look forward to this report very much.
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I'm thinking more along the lines of water in the fuel freezing, although I've never heard of that before in such a plane. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the NTSB.
 
MikePapa said:
I'm thinking more along the lines of water in the fuel freezing, although I've never heard of that before in such a plane. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the NTSB.
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Not last Wednesday in Texas at 4000' on approach to Meacham!
 
MikePapa said:
Perhaps bad fuel.
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After takeoff, maybe. After flying from OKC to DFW? And at the same time?

"Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth . . . "
 
It's been a few years since I flew a King Air series plane and I owned a A90 at one time, but if I remember correctly the engines are feed from hopper tanks in the nacelle and fuel from the wing is pumped up into the hopper tanks. There are annunciation lights that come on when the hopper tanks are less than full.

With that said there is a way to flame out the engines if the pumps are turned off to the hopper tanks. I'll try to find one of my KingAir books and look it up.
 
King Air fuel systems have evolved over time. Early 90-model fuel control panels required that the pilot move several (5) switches to control electric pumps and system controls (boost pumps, transfer pumps, crossfeed control). Later systems were automated to the point that the pilot doesn't touch anything on the panel during normal ops. The engines feed from the nacelle tanks, which have the only fuel pickup point in the system. In the old airplanes, the failure of both transfer pumps could potentially isolate the last 28 gallons of fuel on each side (fuel in the wing tanks that would not gravity feed into the nacelle tank.) The 100 series planes were made somewhere along the automation process. So without remembering exactly which system was in place at the time, it strains credibility to think that both pumps failed at the same time, with exactly the same amount of fuel in each tank. Could it happen one time out of X-thousand? Sure. Did it happen this week just north of FTW? Hell no. How do 8:5 odds sound? Any takers?

Rotor&Wing said:
It's been a few years since I flew a King Air series plane and I owned a A90 at one time, but if I remember correctly the engines are feed from hopper tanks in the nacelle and fuel from the wing is pumped up into the hopper tanks. There are annunciation lights that come on when the hopper tanks are less than full.

With that said there is a way to flame out the engines if the pumps are turned off to the hopper tanks. I'll try to find one of my KingAir books and look it up.
Click to expand...
 
wabower said:
King Air fuel systems have evolved over time. Early 90-model fuel control panels required that the pilot move several (5) switches to control electric pumps and system controls (boost pumps, transfer pumps, crossfeed control). Later systems were automated to the point that the pilot doesn't touch anything on the panel during normal ops. The engines feed from the nacelle tanks, which have the only fuel pickup point in the system. In the old airplanes, the failure of both transfer pumps could potentially isolate the last 28 gallons of fuel on each side (fuel in the wing tanks that would not gravity feed into the nacelle tank.) The 100 series planes were made somewhere along the automation process. So without remembering exactly which system was in place at the time, it strains credibility to think that both pumps failed at the same time, with exactly the same amount of fuel in each tank. Could it happen one time out of X-thousand? Sure. Did it happen this week just north of FTW? Hell no. How do 8:5 odds sound? Any takers?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update, like I said it's been awhile. The airplane that crashed was a B100 with the Garrett's and that's one version I haven't flown so I'm not sure of the fuel system configuration.
 
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