Second ditching in two years...

[flint4xx]

Pilot survives plunge into ocean for 2nd time in 2 years

By Jaime Hernandez
Staff Writer
Posted October 22 2004

[font=Verdana,Arial, Helvetica]A pilot who crashed a small plane off the Florida Keys last year escaped serious injury Thursday when he ditched a twin-engine airplane into the ocean 11 miles off Hillsboro Inlet, officials said.

Denis Guillermo Murphy, 49, of Sunrise, was flying a Piper Navajo Chieftain from Freeport, Bahamas, to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport when the plane began experiencing mechanical trouble, Coast Guard and Federal Aviation Administration officials said. Murphy radioed air traffic controllers in Fort Lauderdale around 5:40 p.m. to tell them about the problem and that he was going to crash-land the plane.

The FAA notified the Coast Guard, which dispatched a surveillance jet to the area, Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Anastasia Burns said. After the crash, Murphy put on a lifejacket and escaped the sinking plane with a flare gun, which he fired several times to attract the approaching Coast Guard jet.

The jet and a Broward Sheriff's Office helicopter circled over Murphy for several minutes until a Coast Guard helicopter arrived and pulled Murphy out of the sea, Burns said. Two small Coast Guard patrol boats were also on the scene.

Murphy was the only person aboard the Piper.

Coast Guard Lt. Michael Dean, the rescue helicopter's pilot, said the Piper had sunk when his crew arrived and that Murphy did not appear to be seriously injured.

"He was in good condition for what he had gone through," Dean said. "He was just tired of swimming."

The Coast Guard took Murphy to Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines. He was later moved to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, where he was in stable condition late Thursday, Burns said.

Records show the Piper was owned by Twin Town Leasing Company Inc., in Fort Lauderdale. The company's owner, Clay Gamber, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The aircraft was one of seven Pipers that the company charters, records show. The plane that crashed Thursday was built in 1974.

On Feb. 20, 2003, Murphy suffered head and neck injuries when a plane he was flying to Miami International Airport from Havana crashed into the Gulf of Mexico about 10 miles southwest of Marathon. Murphy's plane for that flight, a twin-engine Cessna 402B, also experienced mechanical problems.

Murphy, a Cuban-born U.S. citizen, was returning from a charter flight to Cuba during that trip. Officials did not know why Murphy was returning from the Bahamas on Thursday.

Murphy's brother, Miguel Murphy, of Lauderdale Lakes, said Denis Murphy has a wife and daughter, and has been a pilot "for a long time."

Miguel Murphy said he often tries to get his brother to quit flying.

"It's not a very safe profession to do," Miguel Murphy said. "But he says when crashes happen, that mostly it's not the pilot's fault, that it's the airplane."

Staff researcher Bill Lucey contributed to this report.

Jaime Hernandez can be reached at [email protected] or 954-356-4631. [/font]

 

[FN FAL]

"It's not a very safe profession to do," Miguel Murphy said. "But he says when crashes happen, that mostly it's not the pilot's fault, that it's the airplane."

Hahaha...looks like we found another Democrat.

 

[Falconjet]

Sounds like an insurance job to me. Either that or something spooked him and he decided it was better to put the "evidence" at the bottom of the ocean rather than attempt to bring it into the US. Just another one of those things that makes you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

 

[LJDRVR]

World's unluckiest pilot?

or

Criminal activity

I vote for criminal activity.

 

[FracCapt]

Hmmmm....if anybody gets some GPS coords in where the plane is located....and if it's shallower than 350'..............well, I'll cut ya in on the take..

 

[minitour]

Sounds like an insurance job to me. Either that or something spooked him and he decided it was better to put the "evidence" at the bottom of the ocean rather than attempt to bring it into the US. Just another one of those things that makes you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Maybe he's just practicing his emergency procedures....

You know....so that when the day comes that he has a real emergency, he knows what to expect?

Two times in two years? Can someone say 709 ride?

-mini

 

[Axel]

Maybe he's just practicing his emergency procedures....

Like Orr in Catch-22

 

[flint4xx]

Anybody with any 402 and Navajo experience care to comment on the ability to hold altitude with "low manifold pressure", and only one person on board? This smells bad to me on several levels.

 

[Lead Sled]

The pilot's statement to the Coast Guard: "Navajo??? Wasn't that a Widgeon?"

 

[stingray]

I was actualy flying that day on my second flying job. Anyways we where in a 402 flying FLL to EYW. I heard this guy from his first call of declareing an emergency to when he ditched in the atlantic. I heard coast Guard being dispacted and being vectored to the ditch site, they where giving the last coridanites over MIA center. I can't remember them, find a good hypnotist and maybe they could make me remember. The ditch site is approx. 15 east of FLL that i remember the MIA center controller telling someone.

This guy was saying about every minute or so that he was having manifold problems and that he thought he was not going to make it. He was in a constint descent, from what MIA CEN was saying to the coast guard. Everytime the controller gave him some direction to fly, he stated "I'm not going to make it". he never actually came out and said over the freq that he had lost an engine. As i listen to the hole conversation, it sounded like both engines where spining with one obviously loseing power, i also remember him saying he had a hard time turning the plane in one direction, he never attempted to secure the failing engine from my take of it.

The feeling I got from listening to the hole thing unfold is that there was a questionable pilot flying a plane that had some engine problem. "Of course I was not in the plane so this is just my opinion from listening first hand to the situation unfold"

I've had a friend loose an engine on a 402 with a full load up out of beantown. (a full load is 9 paxs 1 pilot and all their crap bags and fuel).
He secured the engine leveled off and made it back to BOS though it was about 15 degrees cooler up there in BOS then it was on this day, of course there is an advantage to that. We also had one pilot expierence an engine seize due to an internal part failure could not feather the engine she returned with the 5paxs. We also do engine failures in training and the 6 month checks year round, the engine is secured with the prop feathered. then we start it in the air. The plane flys fine in the air on one engine with 2 onboard and maintains altitude. The navajoe i do not have much time in, but if there was just one on board, don't know about possible cargo, it makes you wonder what was going on if he could not make it to a airport.
At least no one died or was seriously injured in this.

 

[snowman]

Stingray my man, you cannot spell.
Nice info though..
snowman

 

[FracCapt]

Anybody with any 402 and Navajo experience care to comment on the ability to hold altitude with "low manifold pressure", and only one person on board? This smells bad to me on several levels.

Having flown both in the past, they will both fly fine single engine. Low mp on one engine but the other running fine would still be ok, as long as the mp doesn't drop below about 15" or so(this is a "zero thrust" estimate, it's been many many years since I've flown these types). Having one engine out, but still windmilling, will put you in a world of hurt on both these airplanes. Low mp could mean that an engine had failed(and the mp indication dropped to the ambient pressure), and he failed to recognize that fact and secure the engine. I've experienced this firsthand on the Chieftain when I lost an engine in cruise and took my time troubleshooting and securing it. It would not maintain 7,000ft with the prop windmilling(descending about 500-700fpm), but it would climb with that prop feathered(just myself and very light fuel, ground temps in the mid to upper 80's).

Then again...if he ran out of fuel..and both engines quite...they would both indicate roughly ambient pressure on the mp gauges.... It all smells fishy to me, but maybe it's just a case of a severely incompetent pilot.

 

[stingray]

my spelling was never any good

 

[vetteracer]

As mentioned either will fly OK on a SE. IF you get the offending engine feathered or have it produce at least partial power. Even with the critical engine out, and I take it low on fuel (last part of trip) you could hold altitude fine, say up to 6K feet. Go a step further and put 1000 lbs. of cargo on. You could probably fly the thing in ground effect off the water for quite a ways.

Some people loose all composure when it hit the fan. He probably panicked.

As mentioned, he probably did not recognize a dead windmilling engine vs. an engine that was producing partial power.

In any event, I still smell insurance scam here.



Mark

 

[PaulThomas]

I remember reading about this guy in the paper last year (seems like it was more than a year though).

I'm sure law enforcement is going to seriously look into it. If I remember right, he's commercially rated, which if pilot error is involved make it unacceptable. He should know the procedure as he had the same thing happen in a 402.

Stingray, I remember reading that you live in Naples, I do too.