Thanks for the information..One more question...lets assume that he ran out of gas, and tried to stretch the glide..could the loss of control at the last minute be due to a sudden attempt to avoid crashing into a house..IOW, he thought he could make a dead-stick landing..which as I understand it, the pilot is mentally doing the calculations..air-speed, rate of descent...to see if he can make it to whatever possible landing area he’s picked out..at the last second, he realizes he’s misjudged it..there’s a house directly ahead, so he attempts to evade..to avoid killing anyone inside the house and also because he has a much better chance to survive an impact with a grass lawn than with a brick house..
I flew a light plane until I read that doing so eventually ends in death by crash for one in 250. (or something like that)
Then I thought of the life insurance forms where they ALWAYS inquire: “Do you pilot your own airplane?”
No one was flying that airplane when it crashed. It was out of control.
Controlled flight into the woods, even after loss of engine power, would have destroyed the airplane while likely leaving passengers unharmed. That happens all the time.
The worse thing a pilot can do is to try to save the airplane. That's when they try to stretch the glide or do something else that's not possible.
That airplane stopped flying somewhere way up in the air and not just before crashing.
There is some crucial information that we just don't have. None of the news reports say whether the flight originated at Williamsburg or whether that was the destination. Makes guessing about fuel exhaustion vs. mechanical problems difficult to assess. Engine failure immediately after takeoff vs. after a 5 hour flight suggests different potential causes. There is nothing in any of the articles that says anything about fuel exhaustion. Even in the presence of fuel post-crash fires are not inevitable. It will be months before the NTSB releases a final report. When preliminary information becomes available look for comments about the presence or absence of fuel smell, amount of fuel drained from tanks, etc.