Posted on 08/30/2014 4:28:28 PM PDT by Brown Deer
RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - A Cirrus SR22 recreational plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean Saturday, 51 miles southeast of Chincoteague Island, Va. The Coast Guard reported one person was on board.
Sources with knowledge of the initial investigation say it is highly likely the pilot is dead.
According to the NTSB, the plane took off from Waukesha, Wisc. and was scheduled to land in Manassas, Va.
Watchstanders at the Coast Guard 5th District in Portsmouth, Va. received notification at approximately 2:40 p.m. that the aircraft with only the pilot aboard failed to land at Manassas Regional Airport as scheduled.
Instead the plane remained at an altitude of approximately 13,000 feet and continued into restricted air space near Washington, D.C.
Two U.S. F-16 aircraft came alongside the Cessna to investigate and observed the pilot to be unconscious in the cockpit.
The F-16 airmen escorted the plane on its course over the Eastern Shore of Virginia until it eventually ran out of fuel and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Coast Guard launched an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew and an HC-130 Hercules airplane crew from Air Station Elizabeth City in North Carolina and the crew of Cutter Beluga, homeported in Virignia Beach, to respond.
The NTSB signaled Saturday afternoon it has started an investigation into the crash.
Oh, how unfortunate.
A friend of mine knew the pilot. He believes he was retired from Harley
What a shame.
Sounds like he may have flown too high too long for his respiratory capacity, and lost consciousness.
.
U B Bad!
And the news media were making a big deal out of his Electric Harley Davidson this weekend.
.
Oh, Puh-leeze. Show of hands. Who believes that plane is already in Pakistan, buried in the sand for later use? ;)
Gallows Humor, but Prayers Up for the family & friends of the pilot.
Prayers for this pilot and his family.
>> A pilot lost consciousness
Remember the crash that killed Payne Stewart?
Wiki:
>>Stewart was killed in the depressurization of a Learjet. He was flying from his home in Orlando, Florida, to Texas for the year-ending tournament, The Tour Championship, held at Champions Golf Club in Houston. Traveling on a Monday morning, Stewart was planning to stop off in Dallas to discuss building a new home-course for the SMU golf program.The last communication received from the pilots was at 9:27 AM EDT, and the plane made a right turn at 9:30 AM EDT that was probably the result of human input.
At 9:33 AM EDT, the pilots did not respond to a call to change radio frequencies, and there was no further contact from the plane. The plane was, apparently, still on autopilot and angled off-course, as observed by several U.S. Air Force (and Air National Guard) F-16 fighter aircraft as it continued its flight over the southern and midwestern United States. The military pilots observed frost or condensation on the windshield (consistent with loss of cabin pressure) which obscured the cockpit, and no motion was visible through the small patch of windshield that was clear. National Transportation Safety Board investigators later concluded that the plane suffered a loss of cabin pressure and that all on board died of hypoxia as the plane passed to the west of Gainesville, Florida. A delay of only a few seconds in donning oxygen masks, coupled with cognitive and motor skill impairment, could have been enough to result in the pilots’ incapacitation.
I remember that day as if it just happened.
What a nightmare.
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13,000. Hypoxia? Most people cannot handle 13,000 but for a few minutes. Besides, O2 is required at 12,500 for anything over 30 minutes.
According to FlightAware, he was at 21,000 for about an hour, until 12:00 EDT, then took a little over half an hour to descend to 13,100, where he stayed more or less until beginning a descent shortly after 3pm. FlightAware's last altitude was 4,600 at 3:13, but their record doesn't end until 4:03.
According to the Wikipedia, the service ceiling of the SR22 is only 17,500 ft.
and the parachutes have saved the planes and their passengers several hundred times......
...
Well, it’s saved a few. In the early days the parachute caused more problems than it solved, because it still has to be deployed in the right situation. The SR22 is extremely popular. It has excellent avionics making it easy to fly long distances with decent speed for its class. It has a perception of being safe, although that my not be deserved.
Getting back to the parachute, the Diamond DA40, at idle with the stick pulled all the way back, can descend slower than the SR22 with the parachute.
And if a person doesn’t have that much money, the Cessna 172 has one of the best safety records in spite of being widely flown as a trainer.
I've been to the summit of Pikes Peak at 14,114 feet multiple times. Folks were not jumping rope, but nobody was keeling over.
If you're in the area, try the cogwheel railroad from Manitou Springs.
Maybe the descent was not intentional?
We’ll probably never know.
I was just repeating what the instructor told me......
Yes, 172 is great plane to fly and to learn to fly in - very forgiving with the CG below the wing. Son got his ticket in one and that’s what he’s using to get his advanced ratings......great view too! My uncle instructor checked me out flying one from Gainesville to the Bahama’s a thousand years ago......
But since I learned in low-wing singles, it’s funny how I have always felt a tad more secure in a low-wing than high-wing - not technically true of course. Just like the feeling of a wing beneath me - but love the visual pluses of the low wing.
Sorry, but that can’t be right. I’ve spent over an hour at the top of Pikes Peak > 14,000’ and although I would get a bit dizzy if I over exerted myself, otherwise was fine.
“Getting back to the parachute, the Diamond DA40, at idle with the stick pulled all the way back, can descend slower than the SR22 with the parachute.”
I didn’t know that. I knew that the chute deployment/descent in a Cirrus wasn’t exactly a gentle float to the surface, but that is an interesting fact about the DA40.
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