4 people dead.
Posted on 03/08/2023 8:20:32 AM PST by BenLurkin
Three of the four victims have been identified, including a flight instructor, a college student and a 67-year-old man.
Where the planes departed from and what caused the deadly collision remains unknown... the crash happened around 14:00 EST (19:00 GMT) near the Winter Haven Regional Airport & FBO.
After the collision, one of the planes was 21ft (6m) under water while the other was partially submerged.
One of the two planes involved was a Cherokee Piper 161. It carried Faith Irene Baker, 24, a flight instructor with Sunrise Aviation, and Zachary Jean Mace, 19, a student at Polk State College.
The Cherokee Piper 161, a fixed-wing aircraft, was being operated on behalf of Polk State College, local media reported.
Mr Judd said the other plane was a Piper J-3 Club, a float plane, that was carrying Randall Elbert Crawford, 67, and one other person
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
4 people dead.
Remember in Texas a B17 and a P63 crashed at an air show. The pilots not only had thousands of hours of flight time, but there was also an “ air boss’ ground controller at the show in contact with both of them. They unfortunately lost sight of each other at a critical time and collided. It’s situational awareness and many factors come into play, attitude of aircraft, speed of aircraft, time of day and weather ( aircraft obscured by the sun or clouds) , and cockpit distraction. Until the NTSB investigation determines which plane struck the other everyone is just guessing. It’s a tragedy.
“Some even have parachutes if you get lucky”
If you can’t get a car door at 60MPH open to jump out, then how are you going to get an aircraft door at 100+MPH open? Parachute jumps are done at low speed and often from a door at the rear of the plane designed to get open at speed or are not even on the aircraft when it departed. None of these conditions are likely to be met in a situation where they weren’t deliberately made to happen. You don’t want to jump out of the plane and turn into a very large bird-strike or lawn dart.
wy69
“Some even have parachutes if you get lucky”
If you can’t get a car door at 60MPH open to jump out, then how are you going to get an aircraft door at 100+MPH open? Parachute jumps are done at low speed and often from a door at the rear of the plane designed to get open at speed or are not even on the aircraft when it departed. None of these conditions are likely to be met in a situation where they weren’t deliberately made to happen. You don’t want to jump out of the plane and turn into a very large bird-strike or lawn dart.
wy69
True. My dad was still flying at 67. He had been a flight instructor for civilians until he was 65. Before that, he’d been a Navy pilot for 28 years.
Flight students tended to prefer him as an instructor, being that he was somewhat long in the tooth with no visible scars on him. 😏
Very true. I remember the Texas event. ‘Obstructed view’. But only at one specific and small angle. Very unlucky.
Many years ago, our 16 year old son was taking flying lessons.
He had a part time job and paid for the lessons himself so I tried not to interfere.
One day he came home and told me about how he learned to bank the aircraft by opening one of the doors.
I think the instructor was in his 30s.
Son did finish the lessons and got his license.
It’s a tragedy, for sure.
And 24 ain't young.
“No, you don’t. When I was 24 years old I was repairing”
What does skill for repairing a plane have to do with skill for flying one?
This crash? Awful to see.
https://youtu.be/3zuiDpBhCvw
I think you’ll find that the fixed wing Piper with wings under hit the other with wings over, sort of like when the Cobra hit the B-17 Bomber, my 2cents.
I think you misunderstand. There are some aircraft (not many, but growing) that have whole plane parachutes.
They also put steering wheels on the wrong side of the car!.................
Honestly there are so many small planes and air traffic around the area, I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more.
I hate seeing these stories. My 25 yr old son is a flight instructor near the same area of Florida (Tampa). He nearly has his 1500 flight hours completed and he will be with the airlines in a few weeks.
I’m confident the original poster was referring to aircraft that have emergency parachutes. Aircraft such as a Cirrus. After a catastrophic failure, such as a collision, you push a button and a parachute opens and the aircraft floats down.
More important is ADS-b in/out. You can have a plot of most other aircraft nearby displayed on the dash.
General Aviation has gotten exponentially safer over the years. Accidents still happen. Anytime humans move, dangerous things might happen.
Yes, exactly it was awful, and a combination of cascading failures. Both aircraft were doing what the ground controller ordered which put the pilots in a situation where both pilots lost sight of each other.Neither Pilot saw it coming, there was no attempt at evasion. Like I said in my earlier post, this is a tragedy.
That's my guess, especially if the J-3 Cub was taking off from the lake.
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