Today just after noon Pipistrel Virus crashed after takeoff from Pula airport. I don’t know much details except that both occupants (male and female – German citizens) perished in the accident.
I only have links to news in Croatian
https://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/u-puli-se-srusio-mali-avion-eksplodirala-kabina-poginuo-njemacki-bracni-par/2451309.aspx
https://dnevnik.hr/vijesti/crna-kronika/pao-avion-u-zracnoj-luci-pula—-774343.html
https://www.24sata.hr/news/prve-fotografije-s-mjesta-pada-aviona-u-puli-2-ljudi-poginulo-901242
METAR just few minutes before the accident:
METAR LDPL 311030Z 18011KT 140V250 9999 FEW010 SCT016 15/11 Q1014 NOSIG
So 11 kts of crosswind, LDPL is 09-27 but I guess they used RW27 because of wind variation. I don’t know if it influenced the accident because I don’t know how it affects Virus.
Hi Emir,
Thank you for sharing this. Looking at the photos from the article, this does not look like a Virus: https://www.24sata.hr/news/pao-sportski-avion-u-zracnoj-luci-u-puli-poginulo-je-dvoje-ljudi-901229 (Looking at the cover photo)
Zooming in on the rudder, I can see CTSW, and it matches the design of the CTSW. The virus has a T-shaped tail (horizontal stabiliser is high), where the CTSW has a low horizontal stabilizer.
Comparison:
Some reports also give a tail number that matches a Virus, but this photo seems to tell a different story? I fly a Virus myself, something seems inaccurate here based on the photos published on news portals. Let’s wait for the report.
Best regards,
Nebojsa
nmrmak wrote:
Zooming in on the rudder, I can see CTSW, and it matches the design of the CTSW.
You may be right, I just wrote what was written on different portals. However, a CAT pilot, who took off this morning from LDPL and saw parked aircraft, said the same as you. Let wait and see…
SW stands for Short Wing, a version of the CT aircraft.
Accident aircraft (apparently, per photos in the reports)
A CTSW photo plucked randomly from the net
I propose admin to change the title to “Ultralight crash at Pula LDPL” or “Flight Design CTSW crash at Pula LDPL” or something similar because it wasn’t Pipistrel Virus.
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/309917
[ done ]
The Croatian air crash investigation agency has posted this statement on their website where they mention the Pipistrel Virus: https://ain.hr/nesreca-zrakoplova-tipa-pipistrel-virus-sw-reg-oznake-dmvpp-zracna-luka-pula-31-ozujka-2023/
However, I believe I’ve found the source of the confusion. The accident aircraft is registered as D-MVPP.
For some reason, that registration indeed belonged to a Pipistrel Virus in 2015 when this photo was taken:
However, in 2019 this other photo was taken, belonging to a CTWS:
The other photo, especially the paint scheme and the horizontal stabilizer position, looks very much like the aircraft in the photos of the crash site above.
I am unfamiliar with German regulations, and whether this it is usual to have multiple airplanes registered with the same tail number, even when the registrations are separated in time by several years. I’d love to learn more about this.
nmrmak wrote:
I’d love to learn more about this
In principal there’s a register “Luftfahrzeugrolle” and you can check for any free registration. If a callsign is not in use or no longer used it’s free for anyone to be registered.
By the way, it’s the same way how car plates are treated over here. You get one and when you sell your car you, personally, may reserve it for two weeks to immatriculate another car on it. Other than that, any plate not in use is free to use for others.
I’m not aware that there has to be a time window in between two usages, but may be the case.
That’s why there’s practically no such business with special car plate numbers like in GB or other countries. There are ways to reserve a plane’s registration for a longer period of time without using it, e.g. in case of longer repairs so that you don’t have to use a new callsign.
Thank you for sharing this UdoR, great to learn something new!
