Posted on 05/23/2025 5:59:52 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The runway lights were out, a weather alert system wasn’t working and there was heavy fog at a San Diego airport when a pilot who had flown across the country made the decision to proceed with landing but came up short and crashed into a neighborhood, killing all six aboard the aircraft, investigators said Friday.
Investigator Dan Baker of the National Transportation Safety Board said officials will work over the next year to determine what caused the Cessna 550 Citation to crash just before 4 a.m. local time Thursday. The jet was carrying a music executive and five others.
No one in the neighborhood of U.S. Navy housing died, but eight people were treated for smoke inhalation...
The pilot acknowledged the weather conditions for landing at the small airport were not ideal and debated diverting to a different airport while discussing the visibility with an air traffic controller at a regional Federal Aviation Administration control tower, according to audio of the conversation posted by LiveATC.net.
The Federal Aviation Administration had posted an official notice for pilots that the lights were out of service, but it’s not known whether the pilot had checked it.
He didn’t discuss the lights being out with air traffic control, but was aware that the airport’s weather alert system was inoperable. Ultimately, the pilot is heard saying that he’ll stick with the plan to land at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport.
“Doesn’t sound great but we’ll give it a go,” he told the air traffic controller.
The plane crashed about 2 miles from the airport. Baker said a power surge knocked out the weather system at the airport but the pilot was aware of the fog and an air traffic controller gave him weather information from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, about 4 miles north.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The Captain Steve you tube guy had some things to say. It appears that they flying below the minimums when they crashed. The approach itself was illegal for that plane. It appears that pilots did not know about the lights being out because they clicked the radio to turn the lights up full right before they crashed. It was very foggy. Visibility was really bad.
Based on the acknowledged conditions and info as we know it, this is 100% on the dead pilot.
Final Countdown
50 years ago
You are correct but I wonder how much time and approaches this pilot had in real IFR conditions though he was rated for IFR?
I have flown into Montgomery on an IFR flight plan though it was VFR. IFR is safer as you have positive control from the ground. I would have never attempted to fly into Montgomery at night with the runway lights out. I suspect the pilot did not check the NOTAMS, "notice to airmen." Without doubt he busted minimums and did not execute a go around when he hit minimums. I suspect he was thinking," just 50 more feet and I will see the approach lights. He would have been on the ILS (instrument landing system) and sure of where he was but he was not. The pertinent question is why he did not know?
“Lots of holes in the “Swiss cheese” he flew through. “
My boss used to call those “sucker holes” “They suck you in and then they sucker in on you.”
I forgot to add this. It is possible that he did not reset his altimeter to the local setting but extremely unlikely. ATC would have given him the local setting. It is just automatic for the pilot to reset his altimeter for such. I would think he did and perhaps set it wrong and thought he was higher on the approach than he actually was. What is not explained is why he went below the ILS glide slope which gives him definite safe altitude?
There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. There are no old, bold pilots.
Hit it.
““Doesn’t sound great but we’ll give it a go,”
Oh my”
He won’t be doing THAT again!
I used to think... “the pilot and co-pilot don’t want to die either. So I’M SAFE”. Actually, not so much.
When I was flying a “sucker hole” referred to a small hole in an overcast sky that VFR pilots would fly into and get trapped in IMC.
Pilot was stupid. If something isn’t appearing right, it probably isn’t. He was less than 11 miles from San Diego International and should have been monitoring 121.5 and he’d have know what the problem levied and made the decision to go to the big airport or at least checked with them. The problem wasn’t that he couldn’t land the aircraft. He just didn’t have the tools on the ground where he wanted to go and tried it anyway. The list of things he did wrong is long. But mixed into this site is the radio transmissions to and from his aircraft. Pilot was a moron.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sJcOPwDclA
But don’t be surprised if they blame this on Trump anyway.
wy69
The DailyMail has had multiple “famous drummer” (who? and from a band I’ve never heard of) headlines, and now this one as well. Weird.
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