A/C crash

[Jmmccutc]

i was just wondering if anyone has ever been eye witnes to an A/C crash? i saw one yesterday, i was on short final glanced at the pannel and when i looked back the A/C infront of me was doing cartwheels. it shook me up a bit, but i guess it shows how bad the consequences are for messing up in this career, or having amental lapse or what ever happened...i'm not sure so i'm not gonna speculate... and one other question, the FEDs were also flying in the pattern and asked if i would give a witness statement...is the mandatory? or volentary?

 

[urflyingme?!]

I saw one too, yesterday actually.
I was holding short for landing traffic when a plane lost control after touchdown. He got sideways and took out some taxiway lights, then went offroading. I was facing into the final approach so i didn't see it happen, but when i got turned around while for my position and hold clearance i saw a bunch of dust and a plane where one shouldn't be.

I've also been the last person to fly a plane before somewone else took it and it crashed...

 

[rettofly]

I watched a Navion stall and crash just short of the active once. He was a CAP member arriving for an exercise that included a free top-off. Ran out of gas on final.

Same airport, same runway. Some guy ballooned a taildragger big time off a normal approach. Stalled, pitched down about 30 degrees. Slid to a stop in about 10 ft. Drunk as a skunk at 11 AM on a Saturday morning.

 

[Immelman]

Saw an airshow pilot in an F-86 miscalculate a split-S and put it into the runway, another 200-300 ft of altitude was necessary at a minimum. This was at El Toro in the early 90s. It killed him...

 

[TWA Dude]

I witnessed one from the terminal. It took about five minutes for the CFR to show up. NTSB Link

 

[Snakum]

I was standing in a parking lot at Ramstien AFB in 1988, visiting friends from K-town on a break from BNCOC. You all probably know the story. Heard a loud noise during a formation pass (I didn't know which team it was). Huge fireball seconds later.

Bad stuff ...

Minh

 

[flyifrvfr]

I was at the Martin State Airshow in Maryland and witnessed the crash of a F 117 Stealth Fighter. It made two passes over the runway about 300 knots and 100 feet. On the third pass about airshow center the left wing began to delaminate. The pilot pulled up to about 1,000 feet to sort things out when the wing failed completely.Within seconds the fighter was on its back and falling towards the water and towards pleasure boats which anchored for the airshow. Somehow the plane righted itself around 200 feet and the pilot ejected. This sent the airplane into a falling leaf descent and impacted an unoccuppied house below. The falling plane missed a group of 100 picnicers by 50 feet. You may be able to find a video of it by doing a search, there were many videos taken of the spectacular crash.Nobody injured or killed in this accident which was attributed to a missing wing bolt.

 

[flyifrvfr]

i was just wondering if anyone has ever been eye witnes to an A/C crash? i saw one yesterday, i was on short final glanced at the pannel and when i looked back the A/C infront of me was doing cartwheels. it shook me up a bit, but i guess it shows how bad the consequences are for messing up in this career, or having amental lapse or what ever happened...i'm not sure so i'm not gonna speculate... and one other question, the FEDs were also flying in the pattern and asked if i would give a witness statement...is the mandatory? or volentary?

Where did this accident happen? Did anyone get hurt? What type of plane was it?

 

[learflyer]

I was at Boca Raton airport getting ready to launch to MSP when that Lear 55 collided with that aerobatic acft. I had just seen the crew minutes earlier at the desk paying for there gas. I said high to them. I believe they were just going to stuart or somewhere like that for acft mx. 10 minutes later I'm walking out of MY lear 55 back into boca aviaiton and was almost trampled by people yelling "plane crash", "plane crash"! I just thought it might of been a cessna or something off the side of the rwy, but I looked in the direction everyone was running, and that is when I saw the smoke plume. I hadn't even realized they departed yet. It happened that fast.

Very sad, indeed. I still think about that one till this day.

 

[TR4A]

Was at the 1983 Plainview TX Airshow.

NTSB Identification: FTW83FA424
Accident Occurred Sunday, September 11, 1983 In Plainview, TX
Aircraft: Partenavia P68c, Registration: N29561
Injuries: 1 Fatal.

The plt was executing a high speed pass over the rwy at about 250 ft agl. The plt then began a rapid pull-up & both wings separated just outboard of the eng nacelles. Reconstruction of the sequence from a videotape revealed that the acft's speed at the time of the wing separations was 220 kts. Vne for the acft is 193 kts. It was calculated that, at 220 kts & an 8 deg nose-up pitch, the 'g' load at the time of the wing separations would have been 8.3 g's.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
In-flight planning/decision..improper..pilot in command
Overconfidence in aircraft's ability..pilot in command
Airspeed..exceeded..pilot in command
Wing..overload
Design stress limits of aircraft..exceeded..pilot in command


Contributing factors

Wing..failure,total
Wing..separation

 

[TOGA]

Luckily, the worst I've witnessed was a skydive fatality. Like an idiot, I ran over to the guy . . . like I could help him or something. I wish I'd never seen that.

 

[Snakum]

Speaking of ... skydive fatalities: I was participating in the 4th of July ceremony on main post at Benning in '85 when the last guy out from the Ranger jump team got a streamer, then all rolled up in his reserve. You could see him shilouetted against the sky when he dropped his harness and went spread eagle. Most amazing thing I've ever seen, and not in a good way. They all wore those purple smoke thingees and when he came thru the rather sparse trees just off the parade field you could see a streak of purple then a cloud.

The Drill Sergents tried to play macho ... "F@ck'n AIRBORNE son!" but they, too, were visibly shaken. The guy's wife and kids were in the stands, too.

Minh

 

[low-n-slow]

Saw one first hand from inside the cockpit.

After a long day of ag work and while taking off for my last load of the day after missing the mudhole near the departure end of the runway I finally hit the thing, it slowed and yawed the airplane just enough to not clear the rising terrain/wheat field ripping the PT6 completely in half at the power section and then doing a forever lasting slow roll landing inverted in the middle of the wheat field.
I unfastened my safety belts, kicked out the side glass and made a quick dash out of there a little bloodied and battered but none for the worse.
Funny how the mind works, during the roll I remember thinking why in the ph uuck is that engine putting out so much white smoke.

I've seen a couple of ag accidents and a gyrocopter that splattered from about 150 feet, that wasn't fun.

 

[Easyrider]

Saw a C-421 do a Vmc rollover at KJEF several years ago.
The guy was on base to final and his last radio tx was that he
had lost an engine. the impact area was very small, the engines
had to be dug out with a backhoe. Four people died.
At the time I was a new C-310 driver and that crash really
got my attention.

 

[Jmmccutc]

Luckily, the worst I've witnessed was a skydive fatality. Like an idiot, I ran over to the guy . . . like I could help him or something. I wish I'd never seen that.

being a voulenteer fireman i once had to dig my two best friends form HS out of a jeep wrangler, they were both dead, i broke down and couldn't move, i was devistated...there are some things like you say that you just don't want to see and like you also said it seem like it's your responsibility to help (or job in that case).

the accident was at 29G in OH. there were no fatalies, and the pilot was alright. the prelim investigation lists it as an incident. it just seemed odd that this struck me the way that it did, pulling people out of cars and all...

linky to report

 

[EatSleepFly]

Originally posted by Jmmccutc

the accident was at 29G in OH.

linky to report [/B]

No way...I was flying back to AKR with my student in an Arrow, looked down as we were passing over 29G and thought, "WTF is that airplane sideways on the runway for?!" Then I saw the trucks out there. They must have just finished pulling it back onto the runway. Small world I guess....

Were you the Cessna doing ground ref. east of 29G?

 

[Jmmccutc]

nope not me...was doing touch and goes...

 

[LewisU_Pilot]

Took off out of ARR was at about 300agl runway heading when tower called us with traffic below us. Strange call from tower..never herd that one before at such a low altitude. Looked down and sure enough the a/c that just departed was now in a bean field. We circled for what felt like 10-20 min. Was probably only a couple. Finally the door opened and the pilot jumped out. Here is the NTSB report.


The pilot/mechanic performed a forced landing on a bean field after a total loss of engine power during departure from the airport. The pilot/mechanic reported that he was performing a maintenance test flight when the engine quit at approximately 500 feet agl. He reported that the no fuel leaks were noted during a ground test run and no anomalies were noted during a run up prior to departure. The main fuel line to the flow divider was reported to have backed off.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:

the inadequate maintenance inspection and the unsuitable terrain encountered by the pilot mechanic. The fuel system leak was a contributing factor.