Posted on 04/01/2025 7:21:12 AM PDT by Red Badger
Plane that crashed into a home in Minnesota went straight down "Like a lawn dart", caught of neighbor's RING camera.
Can some FReeper pilots explain this?...........
2:25 VIDEO AT LINK...................
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
MY non-aviator guess is medical blackout, fell forward on the controls and went straight down at full speed.
Second guess, suicide...............
I saw an expert video interview yesterday. It is very likely that the plane iced up and the pilot did not notice it in time leading to a stall. The stock auto pilot on those planes does not manage the throttles. So if the auto pilot was engaged then it could have kept pitching the plane up(Trying to maintain altitude) causing a loss of air speed until it stalled. It is up to the pilot of monitor the throttles and air speed. There were ice warnings in the area he was landing.
Interesting.
His landing destination was Anoka Airport, next town over from where he crashed. Wouldn’t seem likely to be on autopilot in a landing approach, unless he was not in control for some reason.
Even if he was not on autopilot he could have lost track of his air speed. The ice would have changed the characteristics of the plane. Also That plane had extensive de-icing equipment. But if it was not turned on or functional then things could really go wrong.
The expert also seemed to be saying that the engines on that plane always maintain the same RPM. Changes in power actually come from feathering the prop. I believe that is what I heard.
The problem with that is that the engines sound the same if the throttle is at idle as they do at full power. So it would be easy to forget that your throttles were turned down.
I’m pretty sure you’re correct.
Runaway/frozen trim?
...or ‘controlled’ flight into terrain.
[tin hat off]
Definitely un-controlled, and the plane was not “flying” it was falling.
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