Seneca Crash at OUN

[MFRskyknight]

What a world. I live in Norman and was up at OUN yesterday about 2 hours before this happened. Saw it on the news. Man, that's sad.

 

[JonJohn82]

It is crazy. I just happened to not be teaching that day.

 

[hotwings402]

Gol-dang, will an apache climb on one in any conditions? Nice job.

hey, is there an 'I survived an engine failure on T-O club"?

Yea it'll climb if you do EVERYTHING right and your not too heavy. I flew one (regular engines 150hp) with long range tanks which was like 108 gallons of fuel. When checked up by a old timer he pulled the mixture on take off at 50 feet and I had to bring it around the pattern, it'll do it but very carefully. Thats two people. Have the long range tanks full and 3-4 people in the thing and you could be screwed (four you are for sure). Its not nearly as good as a seneca or even a seminole. The apache also has a low high VMC that could kill you, its like 20 mph above stall speed.

 

[JeffG]

Yeah, I was actually AT the airport about two office rooms down from the wall that the plane hit. Me, as well as two assitant chief instructors were just sitting around talking about random things when we heard the plane and looked out the open window and saw the shadow pass from left ot right over the parking lot. Then we saw some stuff fly off from the right and we heard a low crash. One of the chiefs said, "Somebody's crashing into our building!" and so we ran the opposite way and turned down a hallway. Ppl came from everywhere with fire extinguishers. Some guys ran out of the FBO saying, "Its Bob!"

Well I went out the side doors and a handful of people were gathering at the site. I couldn't see the plane because he was behind the wall, but I saw debris the looks on the peoples faces. As I rounded the corner I saw the Seneca upright, nose into the ground. Tree branches down all around it, and the most disturbing was the pilot hanging by his seatbelt...arms limp in front of him and head down. The cockpit was completely destroyed and wide open. Almost half of his body was in plain view.

Some people were screaming 911, others were yelling for towels, it was like an out of body experience.

Anyways, by the time the paramedics got there..he was already dead. NTSB has been out here quite a bit lately, and I think they are ready to get the plane out of there. The cause is starting to get a little more clear. Originally, people thought he lost an engine on takeoff. But the NTSB found 22 prop strikes on the runway that he was landing on. So my unofficial guess is, he hit the nosewheel first...kind of wheel barrowed onto the right main and struck the prop. Maybe he kinda panicked and went full power with both engines. Right engine was giving him nothing and went yawing and rolling to the right. He was heading straight for our restaurant in the terminal building, but pulled up over it...stalled out above hit, rolled to the right and his right wing hit the corner of the building I was in. Then he went nose down just east of the wall. About 10 feet from the sidewalk people walk on everyday, 5 feet (or less) from the building, and right on top of the table that our secretaries sit and smoke on their breaks.

A miracle that no one on the ground was hurt, and i'm glad he at least pulled up to save the many ppl inside of the restaurant.

NTSB will have a prelim report in about 3 days I think.

 

[User546]

We dropped some passengers off at OUN this evening, so I took a few minutes to visit the crash site and pay a silent tribute to our brother in flight who had tragically left us.

As I stood there, I noticed on a table that was just a few feet from the main impact, there was a pair of broken glasses laying there.

The "personal-ness" of the glasses really gave me a heavy heart, so I took a photo and I wanted to share it with you all. We always need to remember after an accident like this where people are quick to blame the pilot and talk bad about his decisions - right or wrong, a fellow pilot still lost his life, and that's the far greater thing.

http://www.bartnet.net/~jmt/pict0183.jpg

 

[JeffG]

Yes, I flew this morning and saw them as we were walking to the plane. The just moved the plane yesterday I think. Very sad.

 

[User546]

I posted a photo late last nite (see couple posts up) and I wanted to bump this up once when more people could see it. RIP to our fellow aviator.