Fatal plane crash mystery

Mobile Register ^ | 04/14/04 | joe danborn

[My Dog Likes Me]

Federal investigators have determined that a single-engine delivery plane that crashed into Big Bateau Bay on Oct. 23, 2002, slammed into something 3,000 feet above the Mobile-Tensaw Delta moments earlier - they're just not sure what it was.

The highly unusual NTSB account points to unidentified red marks on the severely damaged nose and front belly of the plane as evidence that it hit another object in the air...

[My Dog Likes Me]

This is a very weird mishap. I wonder what happened?

(Can someone post the entire article here for me? I still haven't figured out how to do so...)

[leadpenny]

From the NTSB site:

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On October 23, 2002, at 1945, central daylight time, a Cessna 208B, N76U, call sign Night Ship 282, registered to Atlantic Aero, Inc., and operated by Mid Atlantic Freight, Inc. collided in-flight with an unknown object at 3,000 feet MSL and descended uncontrolled into swampy water in the Big Bateau Bay in Spanish Fort, Alabama, shortly after takeoff from the Mobile Downtown Airport, in Mobile, Alabama. The cargo flight was operated under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 135, and instrument flight rules. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed and an IFR flight plan was filed. The commercial pilot sustained fatal injuries and the airplane was destroyed. The flight originated from the Mobile Downtown Airport, in Mobile, Alabama on October 23, 2002 at 1940

[leadpenny]

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1081934216102960.xml

Try this link. I had to give them my zip code and year of birth before I could read the story, however.

[leadpenny]

They conducted extensive tests on the paint. Nothing matches. Doesn't look like anything from the FedEx DC-10, that the pilot acknowledged seeing, either.

[My Dog Likes Me]

This is just really weird. Were terroists aiming a SAM at the DC-10 and hit this plane instead? Is our military screwing up and hiding something? Or did it just smack into a red water tower on the way down?

I've just never seen the NTSB report something like this.

[leadpenny]

The pilot did see something because of his frantic last call. I'm thinking of a glowing piece of space junk re-entering the atomosphere?

Additionally, investigators were unable to identify the source of "a small piece of what appeared to be black anodized aluminum, which was found embedded in the left wing" near the fuselage, the report states.

[leadpenny]

A mystery!

[Boot Hill]

"The highly unusual NTSB account points to unidentified red marks on the severely damaged nose and front belly of the plane as evidence that it hit another object in the air."

Ping for Santa Claus!

--Boot Hill

[Aeronaut]

[My Dog Likes Me]

Yes, a real mystery! I emailed the entire article from the Mobile Register to the New York Post city editor, since the pilot is former NYPD. I'm sure his former colleagues in NYC still mourn his passing, and wonder "What the heck happened?" Also, this was a local "staff report," from the Mobile Register, and not a national Associated Press release.

I think I saw a TV program years back, where drug dealers get really close to large aircraft in order to mask themselves on air traffic control radar, then when they are low enough, they break off and speed to their own secret runways.

But even with that, I can't rationalize what happened here. FedEx flies out of Memphis, mostly, if not exclusively, which is NORTH of Mobile. I think the drugs come from the SOUTH.

[JennysCool]

Good evening, everyone!

[Waco]

Maybe a DEA/FED/GOV plane was "involved" and the feds ain't talking??

[My Dog Likes Me]

Oh My!

From the high desert plains! Hi Art, indeed!

That's an old picture, me thinks.

Seriously, what fascinates me is that the NTSB has no clue.

[Lokibob]

Here is the NTSB full report:
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?ev_id=20021029X05400&ntsbno=ATL03FA008&akey=1

Reading it, I think they know it was a UAV, but the AF didn't fess up.

[rabidralph]

You can search for lots of aviation info, including NTSB reports
at Landings dot com. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Search. Here is the NTSB search feature.

[snopercod]

If he was IFR, then ATC should have seen the mystery craft on radar, right?

[MikeJ]

Reading it, I think they know it was a UAV, but the AF didn't fess up.

Perhaps I misread it, but it looked to me like the mystery red paint did not match the UAV sample they mentioned.

Some sort of UAV is nontheless an obvious candidate. Whatever it was, it was heavy, painted, and hanging out at 3000 feet. Space junk seems unlikely, because it would have had to be massive enough to cause all that damage, yet not hot enough to be noticed at night (or burn away its paint). It was also small enough (or stealthy enough) to be invisible to radar.

Personally, I wouldn't expect much red paint on a US military UAV...

[Lokibob]

I tend to agree, but my suspicion was based on the fact that they sent the sample to Wright Patterson AFB (I know, the UFO center) but also the UAV development center.

I wasn't sure where the cargo bag came from. I read it as a Predator cargo bag.

I'm not a UFO person, however, by defination, this was a UFO. They cant ID it, it was flying, and an object it was.

[leadpenny]

You'd think so.