Posted on 02/17/2010 12:52:50 PM PST by SmithL
EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) -- The three people killed on board a small plane that went down in a Northern California neighborhood were all employees of Tesla Motors Inc.
The twin-engine Cessna 310 crashed in a residential area of East Palo Alto on Wednesday morning after hitting some power lines. It had just taken off from Palo Alto Airport in heavy fog.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I know, inappropriate.
Tesla motors is in deep trouble with their planned production. Losing some top execs certainly won’t help. RIP
Sounds like a VFR pilot operating in IFR conditions. That’s never a good idea.
It was a twin too, though an old one. Will be interesting to hear about the cause. Sad story, RIP.
Tesla tragedy ping
They found a mode of transport even less safe than those tiny foot-tall (3’ 8”) cars (which are very cool looking but not much safer than a motorcycle, I’d imagine).
I wonder if there'll be anything left of the crash to investigate. What's the salvage price of aluminum theses days?
More telling is the report of heavy fog. I'm surprised they aircraft was cleared for takeoff under those conditions. As a VFR pilot, I recall the minimum acceptable being around 3,000 ft AGL. "Scud running" i.e. dodging clouds was considered poor practice. The FAA regularly sent a newsletter detailing accidents and their causes.
I thought global warming had reduced the fog in California.
That is a bit strong for a slightly offensive comment.
It could have been a rented plane. Not uncommon in California.
I have a long time friend who has a pilot’s license, and he rents planes. He doesn’t ever expect to have the funds to own his own aircraft.
If you aren’t instrument rated and don’t know the area you are most likely going to die getting out of Paly airport on a foggy morn. Today was pea soup thick
In fog, and a multi-engine plane? Not likely.
Assuming that the registered owner was operating the plane, Douglas Bourn has a commerical pilot certificate, with single-engine airplane, multi-engine airplane, instrument airplane, and rotorcraft ratings. He also has flight instructor certificates for single and multi-engine airplane, as well as advanced ground instruction.
It's more likely that he had some sort of problem, like an engine failure. Single-engine rate of climb in that plane is only 370 feet per minute, and any obstructions near the runway would be difficult to clear.
Cause will be pilot error (aka stupidity)
The minimums for takeoff are much lower than for landing. Basically all you have to do is track straight and liftoff. They probably would have been out of the fog very quickly after take-off. I suspect maybe one engine went out, or the pilot got disoriented.
I have an IFR rating. Even after all that training I still didn’t want to do actual IFR by myself. With foggles or a hood you can always cheat a little, you can’t when its the real thing. None of my training took me into actual IFR.
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