Twin down in OKC - Fatality Reported.

Wow. Upside down with the flaps and gear down, and wings intact? Suggests it may have rolled inverted while still airborne?
RIP.
 
Amazing considering the perfect CAVU weather we’ve had for several days. Not hardly any wind at all, which is always a bit unique in Okie-land.
 
Two deceased, both respected pilots.

"According to OKCFD investigators, 60-year-old Doug Durning and 43-year-old Britton Lee were trying to land the aircraft when it crashed off the runway at Sundance Airport."
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Could wind shear flip it?
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I suppose it's possible, but it wasn't much windier in OKC than it was in Tulsa over the weekend, which was pretty much dead calm (Weather Underground basically shows average wind of 7mph in OKC around 3pm of 3/19). I don't know what would have generated the wind shear. Sundance only has a 5K' runway, and isn't the most heavily trafficked by any means, so I wouldn't think they would have caught anything from a previous aircraft but who knows.
 
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I was on my way back to Sundance from Louisiana yesterday in a 421 when this happened. We ended up diverting to Wiley Post.

Wind was basically calm. Just a few knots (which is really rare here). The air was fairly bumpy, due to thermal activity I suppose, but nothing unusual. No noticeable wind shear.

Sundance can get pretty busy at time, but not much goes in there that would create much wake turbulence.

I did notice the thrust reverser looks deployed, which could certainly create this scenario, but it's way too early to know whether that was the cause, or broken loose on impact.

I knew both Britton and Doug. Talked with Doug a few times, nice guy. Seemed to be always flying. Britton did my last Flight Review and was a new DPE. She just did a checkride for a Private student of mine a couple weeks ago.
 
RussR said:
I was on my way back to Sundance from Louisiana yesterday in a 421 when this happened. We ended up diverting to Wiley Post.

Wind was basically calm. Just a few knots (which is really rare here). The air was fairly bumpy, due to thermal activity I suppose, but nothing unusual. No noticeable wind shear.

Sundance can get pretty busy at time, but not much goes in there that would create much wake turbulence.

I did notice the thrust reverser looks deployed, which could certainly create this scenario, but it's way too early to know whether that was the cause, or broken loose on impact.

I knew both Britton and Doug. Talked with Doug a few times, nice guy. Seemed to be always flying. Britton did my last Flight Review and was a new DPE. She just did a checkride for a Private student of mine a couple weeks ago.
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I remember having more difficulty lining up the C172 on my first calm wind landings (which came late in my Private training) than I did with the usual 10-12kts + gusts that is more typical of OK weather. It was one of those "How do you land without being in a slip" kind of moments.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I remember having more difficulty lining up the C172 on my first calm wind landings (which came late in my Private training) than I did with the usual 10-12kts + gusts that is more typical of OK weather. It was one of those "How do you land without being in a slip" kind of moments.
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When it's calm here I often see lots of people, including myself and my students, landing long or making go-arounds. In fact, just yesterday on final at PWA I remarked how "I'm more than a bit too high" and then realized, oh yeah, calm winds.
 
To echo the last 2 posts- I did my check-out ride in my new-to-me 260SE when I picked it up in El Dorado, KS almost 2 years ago. Winds were pretty crazy to me. Did a bunch of flying including a ton of T&Gs. When we finally finished up about 4 hours later, we flew to Columbia, MO and I floated and bounced the plane down the runway and needed to use the final turn-off. I had never flown the thing in calm winds. Never woulda thunk it.
 
Was this a check flight of some type ?
 
It looks for sure like it flipped over nose first, rather than rolled over. The forces needed to break off everything forward of the wing appear to have been vertical and only one wing tip is damaged.

That fits the scenario of running off the end of the runway and digging the nose into the sod and flipping over...

..Just a guess.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I remember having more difficulty lining up the C172 on my first calm wind landings (which came late in my Private training) than I did with the usual 10-12kts + gusts that is more typical of OK weather. It was one of those "How do you land without being in a slip" kind of moments.
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Same here. I have a tendency to use crosswind correction even when there is no crosswind.


I hate losing more good pilots. May they rest in peace. :(
 
IK04 said:
It looks for sure like it flipped over nose first, rather than rolled over. The forces needed to break off everything forward of the wing appear to have been vertical and only one wing tip is damaged.

That fits the scenario of running off the end of the runway and digging the nose into the sod and flipping over...

..Just a guess.
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Or snagging a wingtip and doing a cartwheel. I can't see a Westwind doing an "endo" due to a stuck nose gear—it would just wipe the gear off the plane.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Or snagging a wingtip and doing a cartwheel. I can't see a Westwind doing an "endo" due to a stuck nose gear—it would just wipe the gear off the plane.
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Is that not a ground scar aft of the tail showing that it had slid upside down? I also think that a cart wheel would have caused more wing damage than just a tweaked tip tank. It looks to me like it flipped upside down in the air. Wake turbulence like (or critical engine issue, which shouldn’t be as much a factor on that plane)...but it’s already been said there’s not that kind of traffic there.

Got me speculating and I hate it...but now that I have, RIP to those involved.
 
Looks like that landing gear never hit the ground.
I see a rut behind the port wing that looks like the tip tank dug in and may be why it is snapped.
The trail behind the plane seems to match with the engines.

Based on the photos alone, I wonder if this thing didn't make contact with the ground, already inverted.
The underside of the plane is in pretty good shape.
 
Yeah, maybe a botched go-around? I'm sure the possibility of an inadvertent thrust-reverser deployment on one engine could still be in play.
 
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