Another Two Planes Bites the Dust

oldman

oldman

Well-known Member
Location
PA
I just heard from a friend of mine that lives in Arizona that two Cessna’s crashed. The crash occurred at Mariana Airport, which is an uncontrolled airfield.
My friend didn’t have a lot of details, except at least two people onboard the planes were killed.
 

oldman said:
I just heard from a friend of mine that lives in Arizona that two Cessna’s crashed. The crash occurred at Mariana Airport, which is an uncontrolled airfield.
My friend didn’t have a lot of details, except at least two people onboard the planes were killed.
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I heard this earlier. Makes me wonder if it's actually happening more often lately, or if we're all just more tuned into it/paying attention? I know that happened after the big train derailment. It seemed like there were a lot of them happening after that, but turns out they always *were* happening, but suddenly they were all front page news.
 
1000's of private flight happen every day with certain rules and regulations.
Its basically see where other planes are and stick to the recorded flight. Many
Pilots and not ok to fly instrument only. AKA possibly JFK jr. Visual rules are
sort of spooky some places. I once flew with a B17 pilot of WW2. Very windy
day, he set that lil aircraft down with the drift that was amazing to me. I could
feel the side thrust as the aircraft touched down. I had no desire to fly again. Lol

Later they built a field at their farm and 3 planes, 2 for the boys, one for him. I said, "no."
------------------
(if i was intended to fly i would have been a bird!)
 
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HermitHogan said:
I think there have been small prop-plane crashes all the time. They're just being reported more nationally in the past few weeks because of the jet-plane crashes and the news media wants to keep us scared.
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NOTHING is 100% without risk, but US commercial air travel is still extremely safe. Private aviation is another matter.
 
WhatInThe said:
This was an airport with no control tower which means the pilots have to communicate with each other. I thought I heard on the radio there's a special channel for that.

2 people are dead in a small plane collision at a southern Arizona airport

RIP those killed
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There are a couple of things that go on in situations when pilots are about to land on a runway in an uncontrolled airfield. One is, if there are lights on the runways, they should be white, which will tell the pilot that the runway is active and available. The pilot can then send a signal via his radio to the runway transformer that will change the lights on the runway to red, which now tells all other pilots they are not able to land at the moment on that runway. The pilot should also announce on the common channel RF that all pilots of small aircraft should be monitoring that they intend to land.

Pilots can also change the color of the lights by dialing to a certain frequency and clicking their microphone at airfields where this convenience is available. Other airfields also offer different ways for pilots of small aircraft that wish to land on uncontrolled airfields. I don’t know all the systems available.
 
Lots of Pilots use VFR only flight procedures. Our neighbors had landing strips on their Farms and flew mostly
when the wind was blowing right with the socks. They take off and land, take off and land for a couple of hours.
Some do acrobatics over their land-air space. Some spray their beans. Some now use Drones for spraying.
 
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has reported 87 aviation accidents in the U.S. for 2025 so far, with 62 occurring in January and 25 in February as of mid-month. This is a decrease compared to the same period in 2024, when there were 173 accidents (80 in January and 93 in February). Additionally, preliminary data suggests that January 2025 had a record low number of airplane accidents nationwide, with 62 incidents compared to 80 in January 2024 and a previous low of 70 in January 2012. While February 2025 is not yet complete, the current total of 25 accidents is well below the 93 recorded for the full month of February 2024.

Historically, aviation accidents were far more frequent decades ago. For example, in the U.S. alone, the 1980s saw hundreds of accidents annually, with some months likely exceeding 25 incidents by a significant margin, especially when including general aviation (private planes, which account for most crashes).
 
According to today's news, our national air safety system is in shreds, and more of the same is being planned. Remember the old quote from the 50's? "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
 
Delta announced today that the pilot and copilot were both FAA approved. There was some question by the media about the competency of the two pilots on this plane. So much for those accusations.
 
RIP reports as these remind me of the fatal crash of your great country and western singer John Denver - also so sad
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Yes...it's amazing how many planes are in the air at any given moment!
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Back when I was flying, we were told during peak hours there was over 5000 planes in the air over the U.S. I always gave a hats off to our air traffic controllers. On one occasion, I had lunch with an ATC and I asked him if he was keeping busy. He kind of stumbled over his words, but said one day the week before, he was landing around 40 planes an hour. I said Wow, but I didn’t know if that was a lot or not. I guessed that it was or he wouldn’t have mentioned it. This was in Newark.
 
john denvers story of his fateful flight is interesting but horrifying too - he was possible annoyed or angry and went up intoxicated with alcohol and very empty fuel tank - the switch to the reserve tank was difficult to get out if you were alone - a recipe for disaster
 
Joey said:
john denvers story of his fateful flight is interesting but horrifying too - he was possible annoyed or angry and went up intoxicated with alcohol and very empty fuel tank - the switch to the reserve tank was difficult to get out if you were alone - a recipe for disaster
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Could you perhaps research this and amend/retract your statement? There was NO alcohol found in his system that day.
National News Briefs; No Alcohol Indicated In Denver Plane Crash (Published 1997)
 
thanks Tommy - I have read the entire life story about John a few times but age dims the memory - he also used illicit drugs regularly and had troubled marriages - I would trace it back to an overbearing father who was a major or colonel in the army? - I have always felt sympathy for him but he did overstep the mark with women and kids and drugs and flying a badly designed plane.
 

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