A PA46T, N5EQ, has crashed on approach to CYYR, about 3 NM before the runway. So far, one of the occupants has died, another is in hospital with serious injuries. Both occupants are Swiss.
The aircraft appears to be based in St.Gallen Altenrhein, but was flown to Vero Beach in September and was on the way back. One day before the crash it had been enroute from the US to Goose bay but diverted to Sept Isles airport.
The radio communication is public in a youtube video
Mooney_Driver wrote:
The radio communication is public in a youtube video
Not much info on the ATC recording – sounded like the pilot had it under control until ATC lost contact with the aircraft.
Always sad to hear. What stands out, if I heard that correctly, they were doing 70kts, which sounds very slow for a PA46 (3-4 miles out disclaimer: I’ve only been in this type as RHS pax).
We do not know what did happen but the low speed does not sound good. I did always wonder why our planes do not have some kind of digital assitant which tries to analyse the current state and configuration and then issues simple aural hints, especiall for single pilot ops. We just have crude stall wanring and check gear warnings but there is nothing which tries to at least analyse a little the context. It should not be so difficult to come up with a much more capable system. Like “you did just level off with the autopilot and did not add power”, “you are on a missed approach and loosing altitude”, " you are loosing 2kt per second, if you do nothing about it the stall warning will sound in 15 seconds", “you just lined up on a runway which is probably shorter than the take off distance required”, “you are about to touch down past the halfway mark”, “your takeoff acceleration is less than usual” and the list goes on.
always wonder why our planes do not have some kind of digital assistant
Don’t worry, sit back, relax and enjoy the flight as you’ll be flown by a drone in the near future, if that’s you wish for.
Luckily enough, I’ll be either definitely retired, or gone as a mere human being by then…
PS
All these years, and still saddened after reading about any aviation accident.
Sebastian_G wrote:
I did always wonder why our planes do not have some kind of digital assitant
They do have an analog assistant. It’s called the pilot.
172driver wrote:
What stands out, if I heard that correctly, they were doing 70kts, which sounds very slow for a PA46
But that must have been ground speed? The winds were strong, gusting 20+ kt.
Airborne_Again wrote:
But that must have been ground speed? The winds were strong, gusting 20+ kt.
Even assuming headwinds of 40kts at altitude, a resulting IAS of 110 at 3NM with this kind of aircraft would be very low in these conditions.
On the Jetprop I was taught 120 ktas at the FAF, drop gear and first stage flaps, with no change in power this translates very smoothly to 120 ktas on the glide slope. With second and then third stage of flaps this should give you 80 kts over the fence on very short final.
The other pilot reported cloud base at 900. I imagine up there it was pretty cold, so perhaps the tail stalled when they dropped the flaps? I flew in to Oxford the other day with 15 G 20 on the ground and it was 45 on short final at 500 ft – I guess wind sheer might be another factor..
