PA-28 down just outside KPWK

[VampyreGTX]

My friend was leaving work a few minutes ago and called me when he saw a Piper curled up in a bunch of trees at the exit of his parking lot. The police were just starting to secure the scene and he says that they didn't appear to be trying to help anyone in the plane which most likely means it's a fatal wreck. He got close enough to get the N number which is how I know the plane. It was registered out of Evansville, In. I'll leave the N-Number off for now for respect of the pilot and any passengers. It was only about a 2 mile final for the runway and it looks like it was on approach from the angle and remains of the aircraft. It almost looks like he was trying to land on the road and his wing impacted two trees in the median and then head on into a third tree. I'll post up more as soon as my friend sees or hears anything else or once the story breaks on the news.

ADDED LINK:

http://www.nbc5.com/news/3871435/detail.html?z=dp&dpswid=2265994&dppid=65172

 

[Donsa320]

It was not fatal, except for the airplane. WGN Chicago reports.

 

[mmmdonut]

EMP gun?

 

[Flying Illini]

I don't know about the WX up there, but down here it's another dense fog night.

 

[VampyreGTX]

Yeah, the pilot survived with minor injuries. By the time he got out of work they had already left the scene with him. Since he saw some paramedics still there not working on anyone he figured it was fatal. The pilot only suffered a broken leg.

What happened was he departed from KPWK and reported a loss of power and requested a return. He then stated he couldn't make the airport and attempted a landing in the industrial park where my friend's office is. He struck the trees after turning to avoid striking a car on the road and hit a tree with his wing, hit the ground hard, struck the second tree with the other wing and spun around, striking the third tree sideways and 'wrapping' the plane around the tree. This was all from the pilot himself.

As for ignoring the NTSB report, I'll ignore that except for the fact that my friend was less than 100' from the impact site and sw the wreckage, if you saw the pics, you'd think it was a fatal wreck too. I'm not saying he had it figured out (he's not a pilot, he was not making any comments on HOW the accident happened, just what he was seeing in the aftermath.)

As for weather, 1500 broken, 5 miles in haze/fog

 

[Metro752]

really bad fog at C09 60sm SW of Chicago Loop.

 

[VampyreGTX]

The info from the pilot was given to the news crews by the fire cheif on the scene that spoke with the pilot. As for the comments on final, I fly out of there and I know the area. It's directly on the approach path for 16 into KPWK, I implied byt the way the street runs and that the plane was facing back to the airport that he was trying to head to KPWK. I also implied the damage from the trees and plane damage as he described it to me. Came close suprisingly though!

I'm just glad the pilot is okay, talk about pure luck (and probably some skill.) Given the moisture level in the air, I wonder if it was water contamination of the fuel as he did take on 8 gallons just prior to departing.

 

[mattfish42]

crankshaft failure

I helped recover the plane; it's now sitting in the corner of the hangar, roped off until the FAA guys are done inspecting it. At first, I thought of carb ice since the weather was perfect for it and the carb heat knob is still pushed in. Now that the cowl's off, though, a huge crack in the crankcase is clearly visible above cylinder #3 and when the prop was turned only the front two pistons moved. Broken crankshaft.

The plane is such a wreck it's amazing he wasn't hurt any worse. Good thing he didn't have any passengers.

 

[mattfish42]

Haven't worked on enough pipers to really know what's the usual on older models, but this ones' carb heat control is a knob.

 

[bigD]

The Cherokees prior to 1968 (pretty sure that was the year) had the push/pull throttles you see in Cessna singles. These all had the carb heat knob instead of the lever.