Fatal plane crash mystery

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

[Alas Babylon!]

This is your neck o' the woods. I don't remember even hearing about this. Do you?

[genefromjersey]

Off hand, I'd say a Big-ass Bird.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Some sort of UAV is nontheless an obvious candidate.

What is an "UAV"? Unmanned Aviation Vehicle?

[holden]

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.

I think that a UAV drone is the leading candidate, though we don't seeem to have dealt a quiet, perhaps non-transponder-using "recreational" VFR entirely off the plate. If it was a government-related drone, his family needs to be compensated. Perhaps there are some recovered, confiscated drug funds somewhere.

Controller errors may translate to radar anomalies and all that needs to be checked out thoroughly.

It could be a long time before one finds whatever he hit resting in some secluded 8-foot deep area of the bayou.

It could be interesting to note who goes a-lookin' for their missing goods.

HF

[blam]

"This is your neck o' the woods. I don't remember even hearing about this. Do you?

Yes, I read about it in the Mobile Register yesterday. It's a mystery. The only thing near was a FedEx jet and it was inspected and revealed no damage. I don't watch the local TV broadcasts so, I don't know the latest.

[NormsRevenge]

any weather balloons in the area? weird, indeed.

Thanks for the ping.

[VOA]

bump

[Cold Heat]

HMMMMMMMMMMMM............Red stuff?????

Just don't know?

[null and void]

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

Target drones are routinely painted red.

Protoypes are painted "ten mile orange" for the same reason black boxes are orange - it makes the easier to recover when something goes wrong...

[null and void]

Hmmmm. Red stuff? You mean like the red stuff on the seats of Flight 800?

[ampat]

The Coast Guard has an air training base out of the mobile airport. They have red stripes on their planes and helos. (Actually international orange, but looks kinda red).

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

It was a UFO! The small plane collided with an alien spacecraft. The can be no other possible explanation.

"Ha! Foolish humans! Your small aircraft are no match for our superior technology."

[jrushing]

I lived near Spanish Fort from 1993 thru 95 & I once read in the newspaper that the Navy test fires cruise missiles from the Gulf which fly over that area & return to the Gulf.

[New Perspective]

UAV's in Alabama.
http://www.neural-robotics.com

[ampat]

Having found the article dated October 23, 2002 I think the USCG would have realized they were missing an aircraft by now.

[ampat]

I find it hard to believe the Navy fires cruise missiles that fly over populated areas (except in Iraq). They usually "test" cruise missiles in desert areas.

[mikegi]

Very weird. Not being a pilot, I have a hard time understanding where on the plane the red "transfer" marks were found. Can someone give me a quick overview of their distribution? From what I can glean from the report, the marks are mainly on the left side but there is the "Top of right elevator adjacent to outboard hinge" marking. Any significance to the location of the markings?

The pilot's final transmission is "I needed to deviate...". Why the past tense? Is he asking permission to deviate from his flight plan because of the emergency?

[familyofman]

How close is the crash site to Arkansas?

[Moose4]

For what it's worth, a Cessna 208B is a high-winged, single-engined, fixed-gear turboprop that's used as a light cargo plane and small passenger hauler. Here is a link to Cessna's site on the 208B so you can see what it looks like.

As for that transmission...all I could think of is that maybe as the guy was riding the plane down, his thumb jammed the transmit button down and that was his version of the "Oh God oh God oh God" sometimes heard on CVRs?

}:-)4