A Cessna 208 Paradrop plane, registration D-FLIC, has crashed west of the Saentis mountain on a flight from Siegen (Germany) probably to a skydiving school near Rome, Italy.
The aircraft operated under VFR and entered Switzerland near Konstanz at 6000 ft (ADSB-Altitude) and started a climb to roughly 7200 ft overhead Herisau. It crashed while attempting to cross the Saentis chain at a smaller peak called “Silberplatten”, which has roughly 7150 ft elevation. The area was in IMC at the time. QNH at LSZR was 1002, so 11 hPa below standard.
The aircraft is totally destroyed and the single pilot presumed diseased.
VFR > IMC > Cumulugranitus. Nothing to see here….
Very sad!
Webcam (marked in red) showing the area at the time (viewing direction SE towards Säntis).
Here is a timelapse of the other webcam, viewing in direction NW.
172driver wrote:
VFR > IMC > Cumulugranitus. Nothing to see here
That is the obvious and sad outcome but there is still something special about risk profile of paradrop planes & pilots going long cross-country and ending up VFR inside IMC
- Pilots are typically not IR rated and IMC current but always happy with tricky missions: VFR in IMC to FL150 with +/-2kfpm up/down is not an issue in DZ
- Aircraft are not IFR equipped and the few with gadgets are shaken up until AI & TXB gets tilted, going into clouds with such gear is death sentence
This one was not operating in DZ and probably was on ferry flight, anyway careful when ‘PRO VFR’ go to fly long cross-country, especially in wrong aircraft (PRO VFR pilot refer to someone with more than 1000h in glider tugging, banner towing, parachute dropping, crop dusters, local instruction, tailwheel circuits, aerobatic championships…)
Not guessing the causes of the accident and I have never done para-droppoing and I have no idea about the pilot but I can see how the risks could blow up on missions like these ones
Ibra wrote:
Pilots are typically not IR rated and IMC current but always happy with tricky missions: VFR in IMC to FL150 with +/-2kfpm up/down is not an issue in DZ
- Aircraft are not IFR equipped and the few with gadgets are shaken up until AI & TXB gets tilted, going into clouds with such gear is death sentence
I’m not sure about that. A friend of mine flies exactly this kind of missions in a C208 and that airplane most definitely is IR equipped (he’s also a DPE), in fact I doubt there are any C208 non-IFR planes out there. Now, if the pilot was able to use the equipment is a different matter, that I agree. As an side, we don’t yet know the pilot’s qualifications.
Regardless of the above, what I don’t understand is the attitude by some lowland pilots: you fly towards a mountain range, cannot see the tops as they are in cloud and happily carry on right into a wall of rock. Looking at the pics posted by @Snoopy the wx was perfectly clear below the cloudbase, so a 180 would have been no problem. Anyway, RIP.
172driver wrote:
I’m not sure about that. A friend of mine flies exactly this kind of missions in a C208 and that airplane most definitely is IR equipped (he’s also a DPE)
Well you are talking about the ‘US situation’ as CFI/DPE will always have an IR and likely CPL to get paid paradropping work
If I take ‘average paradropper’ in UK, he is likely to be the club member, he holds PPL with SEP without IR (maybe holds an IMCR, if they need VFR in Class A with some club LOA), the ones who fly C208 will have 500h TT and SET is done under VFR without IR attached to it…the pilots are usually very skilled and good, just not the right aircraft/pilot/mission matches for long distance flights….remember Sala pilot, he was a very skilled paradropper pilot but definitely not the right guy for night in IMC
Anyway ratings are irrelevant what matter is long cross-country experience in weather and having the right aircraft, most DZ flying is very ’local’…
Ibra wrote:
Well you are talking about the ‘US situation’ as CFI/DPE will always have an IR and likely CPL to get paid paradropping work
Nope, that guys flies in the Alps.
The rest of your post I tend to agree with.
A CFI has a CPL but may not have an IR (that would be a CFII).
Not sure where paradropping is relevant to this.
This looks like a flying in IMC accident, because nobody is going to fly into a rock in VMC. Winds in the area are very light, too.
Peter wrote:
A CFI has a CPL but may not have an IR (that would be a CFII).
Not quite. A CFII is someone who can teach IR. You need CPL/IR to become a CFI (in the US).
