MU-2 Crash in Hillsboro

[Swass]

MU-2's have been known to just fall out of the sky. If you don't watch your arse, they have a bite that can do you in, no second chance in a lot of instances.

 

[Flechas]

You're right, nothing new here.....it's been known as a deathtrap for years....

But it's not the only death trap out there...

 

[mayday1]

MU-2's have been known to just fall out of the sky. If you don't watch your arse, they have a bite that can do you in, no second chance in a lot of instances.

can you give an example of what you mean.. to someone unfamiliar with the MU-2?

 

[VampyreGTX]

can you give an example of what you mean.. to someone unfamiliar with the MU-2?

Go to this site:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/query.asp

leave everything the way it is and just type MU-2 in the aircraft type section and search, it'll pull up all the MU-2 accidents/incidents since 2000, more than 50% of which are fatal. You can read the reports there on the accidents and causes.

 

[Swass]

I'll have to research the exact accident, but the short version is two high timers in an MU-2 went down with little evidence as to why. They are a very hard airplane to control under single engine conditions at rotation (like many other twins, but the problem is really exasperated in the MU-2). You can't fly this plane slow, it has to be treated as though it were a jet, even more so than any other T-Prop.

I'll let some other guys with more experience flying them chime in with specifics, I have only spent a few hours in them.

Search this site , we lost a frequent poster not to long ago in an MU-2 accident, his wife and father still post in his memory.

 

[Kingairrick]

Back in 89 or 90, one of the mags did a story on MU-2s and Aerostars as being "Doctor Killers." Their opinion was that these airplanes should be flown by professionals who do it every day. They are not for the occasional pilot. As our friend Paul demonstrated, even then they can bite you. But most of the fatals are owner flown accidents.

 

[bigD]

I think you're seeing a case where the MU-2 is very very cheap to obtain compared to its performance, and thus you get a lot of owner pilots buying them while having no business being in one. I personally know one guy that bought one cash because the insurance company told him that he wasn't insurable in it (he had 500 hours TT). That's just an accident waiting to happen.

If the MU-2 had a market value of say, 1.5 million, you wouldn't be seeing the accidents, I bet.

 

[WNRHD17]

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=44426
This is the thread mentioned above by Swass, the one about the frequent poster on flightinfo and the MU-2. That was my brother, Paul. I know very little about flying and probably no specifics at all about the MU-2, all I know is I hate that plane. Changed my family's lives in ways you cannot imagine.

 

[User546]

leave everything the way it is and just type MU-2 in the aircraft type section and search, it'll pull up all the MU-2 accidents/incidents since 2000, more than 50% of which are fatal. You can read the reports there on the accidents and causes.

Wow, I knew the MU-2 was a monster, but the amount of accident reports speak for themselves!

Since 1968, there has been 168 accidents, 77 of which were fatal, of which 244 people lost their lives.

I don't know how that stacks up against other aircraft, but that's still sobering to see that many reports listed, and that many fatalities!

 

[Swass]

The thing is, you can't screw up too terribly bad in that airframe and live to tell about it.

When things go wrong in an MU-2, they go really wrong. Often to the point that you can't correct it.

I've heard talk that the MU-2 was Japan's way of getting back at us for WWII. I wouldn't go that far.....