Posted on 10/30/2009 12:13:34 PM PDT by Blueflag
About an hour ago a twin engine Cessna general aviation aircraft crashed into a home about three miles (straight line) from our house. The sole occupant of the home (friend of a friend) died in the home. Unknown yet about how many souls were on the plane.
I was working at home today and heard/felt the 'boom'.
Weather is overcast, light rain, winds 10 miles or less from the east, 65 degrees.
Probably not more than 5 miles north of the airport. I guess the plane would have departed to the east, made a left hand turn. Should have been cleaned up and climbing by the time he was this far over Lawrencevile/ Suwanee.
Plane had just departed from Briscoe field in Lawrenceville, Ga and had turned north to head to Tennessee.
Prayers for all involved and affected.
It was the second house on right (just south of the turn) from the 90 degree left turn of Walker road. 3550 Walker I believe.
CONJECTURE: since there is considerable open ground just 100 feet to the east of this home, I can only guess the pilot was not able to guide the plaen to the ground.
House is a total loss/ burned.
Again, prayers for all involved/ affected/lost.
Very sorry to hear the news. It must indeed be a great shock to you. Prayers for all concerned.
Uh-oh Georgia is playing Tennessee Saturday
Sorry to hear the news. My daughter and her new husband live just outside of Alpharetta so I was a little nervous at first.
This Briscoe Field airport serves Athens and east-suburban Atlanta. Too small a plane to be a ‘team’ plane; holds a max of 5 I think with luggage a full fuel load. Reportedly headed to Sparta, TN though.
Cessna 310 is an ‘old reliable’ kinda plane. Been around a long time.
They are playing Florida this weekend
If the 310 was built before 1959 it was 5 passenger, after that it was 6 passenger. I got one and it is sweet flying.
This is about 1/4 to 1/2 mile from my house.
Last radar hit was at 2,800 ft MSL
LOTSA sirens earlier. Been quiet for over an hour now.
Camp Perrin Rd may be a zoo; betcha the news vultures are parked at the golf course lot kinda across the street there.
The ‘boom’ was really something. Our house is near Collins Hill High School, and still it sounded like a brief sonic boom, even at this distance. If you had any neighbors home, they’re probably pretty rattled by it all.
Plane was probably in IMC - statistics will tell you this is most likely an instrumentation problem leading to loss of orientation....
You can usually get about 4 months of flight data on a tail number. This plane doesn't have any flights listed past one week - meaning, it either hasn't flown or its been flying VFR without ATC assist.
The two flights that were completed this week were both VFR. Sounds like our pilot was not very current...
I haven’t checked the Wx, but I doubt he was out of the soup at 2800’ MSL. That’s only about 1700’ AGL there. 500 - 800’ ceilings +/- today.
Can’t imagine icing was involved. We’re quite warm (mid-60s’) today at ground level with an overriding warm air mass.
Just dunno.
If you ‘google earth’ 3550 walker rd, Lawrenceville, GA you’ll see the house that was hit. (right side/ east side of Walker road, just 2 houses before the 90 degree left hand turn). Note the open areas nearby. I have to CONJECTURE that this was not a controlled descent due to LOP.
Really sad.
BTW, It was pure IFR today though.
The FAA web site has already blocked all information regarding the registration and ownership of the tail number involved.
I will tell you that the reported “1 mile visibility” is a push. Really soupy today. Definitely IMC till he cleared the tops, if he could. We’re in warm front conditions ahead of a cold front and serious Wx approaching from the west. The real weather is 250 miles away though. Very gentle rain. Little convection today. (haven’t looked at the lapse rates and I doubt that there were any high cumulus. Just low trash and showers.)
Perfect day for me to stay in the hangar talking about flying. Ceiling is too low and unbroken to even do any scud runnin’.
The ‘low time’ and ‘not current’ concerns are what made me give up serious intentions of general aviation flying. I could never get enough time or frequency to get and stay good at instrument flying. I didn’t want to kill me or my family.
Keeps the lawyers and the senseless news hounds away from the families for a bit.
Briscoe field has a good number of twins hangared there. Most of the charters and the air taxi fly newer planes than the 310. It’ll be interesting to find out if the PIC was the owner or if this was a ‘rental.’
This website http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/N308J.html
lists the owners as Kmaviation Llc.
just FYI
More info:
from this hangar-flyers forum http://forums.jetcareers.com/general-topics/97483-plane-crash-near-lawrenceville-ga.html
Guy reports he saw it take off. 1 mile visibility 200’ ceilings. 1 soul on board.
Since I am no longer IFR, I couldn’t tell you the minimums there at Briscoe, but geesh, 200’ ceilings?!?!? I woulda put the chocks back on the wheels and bought a beer.
I would not have flown today under ANY circumstances, though. Bad day for flying.
My dad was lucky enough to be able to count his plane as a business expense, since he did a LOT of traveling to little towns all over the Southeast. He actually saved time and money flying himself direct to his destination instead of going commercial and having to change planes twice and then maybe rent a car . . . . but there was no way I could justify that since I hardly ever went out of the Atlanta metro.
Prayers for your friend, and for the pilot and passengers. I hope the news hounds give the families some peace.
I live about a mile and a half from the crash site.
I guess he was trying to make it to the golf course.
News says one dead on the plane and one dead in the house.
Here’s a more complete report.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/21477677/detail.html
Golf course is south of the crash, just south of Camp Perrin, so since he SHOULD have been headed north, I kinda doubt he was headed that way since his engine(s) were reported to be running.
One of my son’s friends lives just two doors down. Another friend 4 houses away. They can’t get home. Really shaken.
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