Lear crash in Connecticut

[Timebuilder]

Do you have any info on this? CNBC just reported it.

Anything on TV in the Connecticut local stations?

 

[puddlejumper]

From the 135 Section, Another Loss

From AAPvtPilot's Post in the FAR 135 Section:

Another loss.....
Two dead in small plane crash
Monday, August 4, 2003 Posted: 9:32 AM EDT (1332 GMT)

A fire started by the plane crash is put out near a home in Groton, Connecticut.


GROTON, Connecticut (CNN) -- A private jet crashed through a home while attempting to land at a small airport in Groton early Monday, killing both people aboard, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Authorities had no word of anyone killed or injured in the house.

The FAA said the plane slammed through the home one-half mile from the airport and ended up in the nearby Poquonock River.

The aircraft had departed Farmingdale, Long Island, en route to Groton, where it was making a "visual approach" to a runway and crashed at 6:40 a.m., the FAA said.

The accident will be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Melissa Lowry, who lives near the site of the crash, said she heard the crash and stepped outside to see very high flames and huge plumes of smoke rising from a residential area. At least two homes appeared to be on fire, she said.

And in the river, there was "a huge mess of floating debris on fire," Lowry said.

Firefighters were on the scene, as well as city, state, and federal officials.

According to the FAA, the aircraft was registered to JetPro LLC in New Hyde Park, New York.



Thoughts and prayers to the families

 

[Timebuilder]

I found this page.

So sad.

http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=1387394&nav=0RdeHGQM

 

[JJay]

Wow. I know this Lear. It's N135PT. It's out of Air East at Republic Airport (FRG). I know a CFI that flies right seat in that plane occasionally. I hope it wasn't him. Very sad indeed.

 

[mike1mc]

They have not released the names of the pilots/passengers as of yet, but our thoughts go out to them. I have spoken to the operator a few times this morning, but no information is being released. I have also heard one news stroy that they were attempting an emergency landing. No idea why or if it is even true.

 

[mike1mc]

NBAA just release this:

All, Early this morning a Lear 35 crashed on approach to Groton-New London
GRN airport. The aircraft was operated by NBAA member company AirEast out
of Republic Airport Farmingdale, NY. The 2 pilots where lost, there were no
passengers on board. The aircraft struck several homes setting two on fire.
There were no serious injuries on the ground. Press reports can be found at
on the following websites

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/08/04/plane.crash/index.html
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liplane0804,0,2799835.story?
coll=ny-top-span-headlines

 

[TurboS7]

I guess now is a good time to make a point, putting aside the loss of I am sure two great pilots. A visual approach is the most difficult approach to accomplish in a jet. Over and over again I find captains and first officers that do not know how to accomplish a visual correctly and essentially are hanging it out and they don't even reconize it.

1) Know the terrain and the area. I use WAC charts every where I go to get familiar with the terrain and the antennas that might be lurking nearby.
2) Put the end of the runway on your FMC or your GPS or the airport and use a 3 to 1 ratio off of it for altitude guidance. If you are 3.0 miles from the airport you should be at 900 feet AGL.
3)Always use raw data for an instrument approach as a back up.
4)If the runway has a PAPI or VASI use it.
5)At night or in hazy conditions only shoot a visual to a runway that has an ILS, VASI, PAPI or some other condition.
6)If it is a short runway be stabilized by 1000AGL/500AGL for a normal runway. Always land on the first 1500 feet reguardless of touchdown quality.
7) On final be looking for traffic, have the PNF call out A/S(ref+10 etc.) and rate of decent from 500 feet till touchdown.
8)Always be aware of terrain and how it will effect wind/shear/ and turbulence.
9)Reconize that the convience of that short little GA airport just doesn't cut it all the time-divert.
10)Accept the fact that no matter what you do you will be critized and strutinized by your fellow crewmember, chief pilot, marketing, and the customer. Remember the secret is to stay alive and usually it is just a few seconds between life and death.Screw the sideliners, you are in the airplane they aren't-EXPECT a BASHING and TAKE IT.
11) A Lear 35 is a very nice and easy machine to fly, unfortuantly something bad happened, my reguards to the families.

 

[Immelman]

Turbo,

I, as a spam-can driver who prefers seat-of-pants flying, have a question for you. I've ridden around in corporate jets a few times and can understand how things really need to be planned ahead, the vitality of understanding systems, etc... but... is it really THAT bad to do a visual in a jet? Is there that much reliance on things inside the cockpit for VFR flying?

Was one of the guys in the Lear 25 that passed above me by 500' yesterday scanning for traffic, or were both of them completely engrossed in before-landing checks (I took my fiancee on a sightseeing flight, cruising northwestbound at 4500' about 5nm from class C airspace *monitoring* approach freq).

Do you think this applies for someone like an ex-fighter driver who is used to doing seat-of-pants flying in a jet??

I, as someone who really prefers to fly solely visually (but am instrument rated), am interested to know what jet crews are doing below FL180 in clear skies....

 

[TurboS7]

When I do a visual and I do a bunch of them I clik all the FD's and all the distractions off and and look at the airport and for traffic. My goal is to be stabilized about 2.0 to 3.0 miles out. Yes I look for traffic like crazy, with us we have TCAS which helps a bunch. But TCAS only helps if
the other guys has his transponder on, if they forget to turn it on we don't see anything, so we much look, look, look and look some more. Of course shooting an ILS approach in VFR conditions doesn't excempt you from looking, you still must LOOK>

 

[fatburger]

Anyone know if they have released the names of the crewmembers? I used to work up at that airport.

R.I.P,

fatburger

 

[JJay]

Anyone know if they have released the names of the crewmembers? I used to work up at that airport.

R.I.P,

fatburger

Yes, they did identify the pilots. I sent you a PM with their names.

JJay

 

[groundpointsix]

According to the local news tonight, Newsday released the names of the two pilots, but the names have not been confirmed by the FAA (as of 11pm local) You might check Newsday's website or just wait till the FAA releases the names tomorrow.

 

[AviateYou]

Our friends and former coworkers...

We're sorry Jerrod and Kenneth...Take care brothers.

I didn't know Kenneth Hutchinson, I knew Jerrod and he was a careful and skilled pilot. I had flown with him as a first officer in Houston and with all his skill he didn't make it through this time. He was our friend and for those of you that knew Kenneth I am sure he was your friend and much more. Jerrod was always demanding your very best when you flew with him and would offer praise and advice often and without hesitation. He was concerned about you, his aircraft, and his passengers as any good Captain should be. He was the quintessential Captain always concerned about the quality of his job performance and commanded that from who ever flew with him. In that they along with him strive for excellence. I can't for the life of me fathom the feelings of grief that his family must feel right now over the loss of their son and Elgin's loss of his brother. Our prayers extend out for you all and we will never forget the time we shared flying together. High Flight and So Long Jerrod and Kenneth...

 

[Charles Rice]

Hey Chris you remember when Jarrod spilled a coke on the circuit breaker panel, fried it and grounded the Learjet? I thought Ray was gonna rip him a new one. LOL!! I anointed him "Captain Sippy Cup," he hated that name. We gave each other "sh*t" all the time and would go at it on my PS2 when we were on layovers. You're right, he was a good pilot, I'm curious as to what happened? Elgin must be sick. The two brothers flew together a bunch in Houston. I remember him wiping out on the wakeboard on your boat one time, we thought he was toast. I told him smashing face first wouldn't hurt his looks, he was as ugly as you could get already. I'll spill one for him when I'm off call, not a whole one cause knowing him he wouldn't waste an entire beer on me. LOL!!!

RIP Jerrod!!

 

[enigma]

I guess now is a good time to make a point, putting aside the loss of I am sure two great pilots. A visual approach is the most difficult approach to accomplish in a jet. Over and over again I find captains and first officers that do not know how to accomplish a visual correctly and essentially are hanging it out and they don't even reconize it.

1) Know the terrain and the area. I use WAC charts every where I go to get familiar with the terrain and the antennas that might be lurking nearby.
2) Put the end of the runway on your FMC or your GPS or the airport and use a 3 to 1 ratio off of it for altitude guidance. If you are 3.0 miles from the airport you should be at 900 feet AGL.
3)Always use raw data for an instrument approach as a back up.
4)If the runway has a PAPI or VASI use it.
5)At night or in hazy conditions only shoot a visual to a runway that has an ILS, VASI, PAPI or some other condition.
6)If it is a short runway be stabilized by 1000AGL/500AGL for a normal runway. Always land on the first 1500 feet reguardless of touchdown quality.
7) On final be looking for traffic, have the PNF call out A/S(ref+10 etc.) and rate of decent from 500 feet till touchdown.
8)Always be aware of terrain and how it will effect wind/shear/ and turbulence.
9)Reconize that the convience of that short little GA airport just doesn't cut it all the time-divert.
10)Accept the fact that no matter what you do you will be critized and strutinized by your fellow crewmember, chief pilot, marketing, and the customer. Remember the secret is to stay alive and usually it is just a few seconds between life and death.Screw the sideliners, you are in the airplane they aren't-EXPECT a BASHING and TAKE IT.
11) A Lear 35 is a very nice and easy machine to fly, unfortuantly something bad happened, my reguards to the families.

My Prayers to Friends and family,

Good Points Turbo. My experience (lots of visual approaches in 35's and 55's) is that visuals out of a standard pattern are no harder than approaches in a 172. It is the straight in approaches that will really bite you. For those pesky straight ins, I learned the hard way ( I landed long once, reeeeeeaaaaaaal long) to be stabilized using the same parameters that you use.

For all of you who aspire to fly jets, save Turbos list. Those parameters WILL keep your behind out of trouble.

Regards,
Enigma

 

[HEAVY HOG]

Turbo,

With the exception of the WAC chart stuff, I do all of the same. Particularly the 3 to 1 slope. Also, some places (such as ROA) will report the wind calm at night to use the preferred runway (like 33), when in reality ther may be a 5 knot quartering tailwind blowing (from 200 degrees in the case of ROA).

Plan for the slight performance increasing gust or bump down in ground effect especialy when the wind is reported as light and variable, or calm.

Plus all that stuff he said...it might just save your bacon somenight....

HH

 

[AviateYou]

Lets not make assumptions, instruct, or speculate other than the fact that something went wrong, let the NTSB and the FAA do their job. We might all learn something from this. The reports didn't even get the fuel capacity right if thats any indication of how sketchy everything is at this point. We do not know what caused this terrible tragedy other than the fact that the aircraft was on a visual and hit short of the runway. So let's give it some time. Then we can offer corrections.

 

[WrightAvia]

A guy could assume he stalled it or a wing fell off. What do you think? Anybody care to speculate?

 

[banned username 2]

A guy could assume he stalled it or a wing fell off.

"A wing fell off"???

Yeah, THAT happens all the time in Lears...

 

[furlough-boy]

"A wing fell off"???

Yeah, THAT happens all the time in Lears...

They said a 747 center fuel tank couldn't blow up either. Until TWA 800.

I think it was a missle though.