Plane down in FL keys - 2 dead, 2 missing

[grantrobarts]

This plane crashed at night and crashed in the ocean. I am not a person who is big on speculating but I am thinking Black Hole Effect.

Sounds like a Kennedy.

 

[Publishers]

there is no question that the Keys and Everglades are difficult to fly in non moon lite nights for non instrument rated pilots. Coming up it always amazed me the number of non horizon situations that exists that are techinically VFR.

 

[MSNFlier]

Personal thoughts and Key West Citizen article...

[font=Times New Roman, Arial]Godspeed to the pilot and passengers.

You know, I'm not sure why, but over time here and there when my friends or family ask me about aircraft crashes (since I'm a pilot, I assume), I have made it clear to them that if one day it happens to me, take what comfort you can from knowing I passed doing the thing I loved to do more than anything else.

I've seen too many people die after suffering from the ravages of diseases like cancer (including my Dad at the way too young age of 60 from prostate cancer - GET YOUR PSA CHECKED NOW - EVEN IF YOU'RE ONLY 35 - to establish a baseline), that when my number comes up hopefully I will go happily and without hurting anyone else.

Fly safe.

From the Key West Citizen at www.keysnews.com

Plane wreckage found, two bodies recovered[/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]BY SCOTT FUSARO [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]Citizen Staff[/font]
​

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]The wreckage of a small plane that crashed shortly after takeoff from Key West International Airport Saturday night was discovered Tuesday in 28 feet of water off Boca Chica Key with one body still inside. [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]The body of a second missing occupant was recovered Tuesday in Cow Key Channel, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office reported, two days after the bodies of the other two people aboard the single-engine Cessna 172 and pieces of the wreckage were recovered. [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]A commercial fisherman using a depth finder found the plane when his device registered a large bump that he did not recognize on the bottom of the ocean, according to Sheriff's spokeswoman Deputy Becky Herrin. [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]Sheriff's divers recovered the body from the plane Tuesday afternoon, and turned the investigation of the crash over to the National Transportation Safety Board. The plane wreckage remains on the bottom of the ocean. [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]"The NTSB is not in the recovery business, so we already told [the plane owner's insurance company] to recover it, and the NTSB plans on being present when it comes out of the water. It will be secured, and then we will start our investigation," said Tim Monville, senior air safety investigator in the agency's Miami office. [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]Raising the submerged wreckage could occur as soon as today, he said, and the investigation will examine factors such as the aircraft itself, its engine and various systems, the pilot's skills and experience, and weather conditions to determine the cause of the crash. [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]While the cause of the crash remains unknown, experienced pilots familiar with Key West say the vault of darkness that quickly envelopes air and ocean at night can cause spatial disorientation. [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]The plane took off shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday night with the pilot, identified as 21-year-old Krystal Koch of Edgewater, navigating by sight to Marathon. Koch was a junior at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, she was licensed to fly passengers for hire in single-engine planes and she was certified to navigate by reading a plane's instrument panel which is required for flying in inclement weather. [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]A body believed to be Koch's was discovered Tuesday morning near Cow Key Channel, in the same area where a man's body was recovered Sunday. A second man's body washed up Sunday near Smathers Beach and a limb was pulled from the water near the White Street Pier Monday, Herrin reported. [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]The Coast Guard identified one of the bodies as Egon Sussmann, 31, whom the Sheriff's Office reported to be from Deland, although a relative listed his home as Cape Town, South Africa. The other two aboard the plane have been identified as Piers Littleford, 31, of Deland and Bruno Asmann, 37 of Port Orange. [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]Confusion enveloped the plane's whereabouts almost from the moment it took off Saturday night. Although the private aircraft flying by visual flight rules was not required to maintain contact with air traffic controllers, Koch reportedly twice contacted the air tower at Naval Air Station Key West, whose controllers manage Key West airspace at night, requesting a transponder code so the plane could be tracked. [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]The plane never appeared on the controller's computer screen, however, setting off a flurry of phone calls to the Key West, Marathon and Miami airports. Firefighters at the Key West airport and the owner of the aviation services provider Paradise Air at the Marathon airport checked for the plane on the ramps at the airfields, but it was not in either location. [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]About the same time, the Sheriff's Office received a call of a possible plane crash off the Lower Keys, and relayed the information to the Coast Guard which dispatched a crew to investigate. Not finding any indications of a crash and unable to verify that it had occurred, the Coast Guard crew ended its search. [/font]

[font=Arial, Times New Roman]It was not until the following morning when a boater discovered a section of wing floating near the Boca Chica Bridge that a full search was launched. [/font]



[font=Arial, Times New Roman]The Associated Press contributed to this report [/font]

 

[cforst513]

can someone tell me what the black hole effect is?

 

[transpondersoff]

The black hole effect is when you are flying over water for example, and there are not lights to help you determine your attitude in relationship to the horizon. This happens on a moonless night or when the clouds obscure the stars. Over open water there usually are no light on the surface to help you tell which way is up and which way is down.

If you depart from a runway over open water or depart over land which has no lights on the surface beware of this effect.

 

[cforst513]

so basically the only way around this is to keep your eyes inside of the cockpit and scan like you would in IFR conditions?

 

[Rich Tillery]

Thats correct. You have to treat it exactly as if you are an instrument rated pilot because there is no horizon.

 

[V-STALL]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-82keyscrash,0,6581708.story?coll=sfla-news-sfla

gkrangers, did you know the pilot? they named all four victims in this story. i thought she was a Riddle grad, but I guess that she is a current student.

Here is a link for you guys at Riddle who knew the pilot. http://www.relativeworkshop.com/Memorial/tribute_page.html

 

[FN FAL]

can someone tell me what the black hole effect is?

Dude, If you weren't spending so much time stalking your neighbor with the loud stereo, you have time to be studying up on things like black hole and other flight illusions.

 

[FlynChick]

how is epic doing?

For any current Epic CFIs....I used to work at Epic, how are things after 65982?

 

[cforst513]

a few meetings occurred behind closed doors for the CFI's (of which i am not), so i dunno if there were any policy changes or not. but as for my instructor, i have noticed no change in the approach to my training.

 

[El Cóndor]

Here is a link for you guys at Riddle who knew the pilot. http://www.relativeworkshop.com/Memorial/tribute_page.html

Outstanding web page. What an amazing way to pay tribute to the lives of these guys! They give us a perfect example of what it's like to live life to its fullest, and touch the lives of so many people in the process. My condolences to the families of these great human beings and let them be proud of the accomplishments of their loved ones who were sadly lost in this accident.

 

[TDTURBO]

All four of them were in a 172? I guess it could handle it if it had the 200hp+ engine. Then again?

Nice tribute though, too bad, what a loss.

 

[C601]

Anyone know how many hours she had ?

 

[cforst513]

the aircraft had a 180hp engine. it was a standard SP

 

[TDTURBO]

So can a 172 like that legally fly with that much weight? Those dudes in the tribute looked pretty big.

 

[cforst513]

that was my initial thought. i first heard it was 4 women, then heard it was 3 guys and a gal. the useful load on this aircraft was about 835lbs. figure they also had luggage, and who knows what the aircraft was acting like? though it's not my place to speculate, my initial thoughts were they were overloaded. i'm interested to see what the NTSB final report will say. how long do accident reports typically take to come out? 6 months about average?

that tribute webpage was incredible. i wanted to sign it just to say i was sorry, but i really couldn't find the right words to say.