Aviation Ping....................
Not a pilot, but:
First it started to crash, then it crashed.
Stall, Spin, Crash Burn,... Controlled flight into Terrain...
Gravity is the law.
Dolan served on the board of Catholic Charities. It sounds like he was a huge contributor of time and money to the boards of many charities in Minnesota. But the Catholic Charities connection makes me go “hmmm” especially when thinking about what DOGE is exposing and investigating.
I’ve seen plenty of videos showing a plane losing power, it doesn’t translate to just falling out of the sky like this. Wouldn’t you have to lose control of all the flight control surfaces? flaps, etc..?
...unless he had a heart attack or something and slumped over the yoke?
Alone, long flight, 63 years old. Medical? Fatigue? Just bored and drowsy?
https://www.the-sun.com/news/13905338/us-bank-terry-dolan-plane-crash-minnesota/
...air traffic control officers at Anoka airport warned the pilot he was flying too low, per the ABC affiliate KSTP-TV.
The aircraft crashed at around 12:20pm - just minutes before it was set to land.
It had taken off from Des Moines airport in Iowa just after 11:10am local time.
The plane left Naples in Florida at 7:25am local time before landing in Des Moines around four hours later, according to Flightaware data.
A SOCATA TBM-700 aircraft can carry up to six people...
There was possible icing conditions at the time, if ice builds up on the wings, the aircraft loses lift. There’s only one way it can go.
The most likely scenario is a stall, which can have one or more causes. If the engine on a single engine plane fails, the plane will still glide, but not if the pilot panics and pulls back on the stick, stalling the plane.
No pilot in control would be my guess. Flight medicals can’t prevent anything.
Here is what a stall and crash looks like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=727Q2fDVXRQ
There will be preliminary analysis by people on youtube soon, some probably up already. 90% of small plane crashes are caused by pilot error. There will be an initial report by the NTSB fairly soon, but those tend to have little info unless something obvious is noticed. Communications from the pilot, or the lack of same is the first important info.