What Goes Up Usually Comes Down

oldman

oldman

Well-known Member
Location
PA
I feel like writing about a story I read In one of the aviation magazines I get and so you are my audience. If you don't fly or like to fly, it will probably be boring to you. This past March, a family of five left Canada for a flight to Nashville, Tennessee. They made a few stops for gas on their way, including in Erie, PA. Once they reached Nashville, the pilot intended to landed at John C. Tune Airport (JWN), however, the pilot over flew the airport and ended up in Nashville International Airport's (BNA) airspace.

The traffic controller declared an emergency and radioed the pilot of the Piper and gave him vectors to Runway 2 at the JWN Airport. He overflew the first airport at an altitude of 1500 feet and he reported that his engine had shutdown at an altitude of 1200 feet, His transmission to the Controller was garbled, but they did make out the pilot stating that he was going to land, but did not know where. It was not going to be at the airport.

The pilot was about 2 miles short of the runway and ended up crashing the plane at a 45° angle killing all 5 passengers, which included 3 children. The NTSB is continuing their investigation, but my guess is that fatigue is going to be an issue.

I am sitting here shaking my head wondering what was going through his mind. Such an easy maneuver to complete and the family would have been safe. I think of those 3 kids that were killed and never having a chance to live their life. Landing a small plane like this Piper is not a big deal. For someone that has flown as much as this pilot, it should have been easy enough to get everyone safely on the ground. Here is what I found online:

Plane Crash
 

oldman said:
The pilot was about 2 miles short of the runway and ended up crashing the plane at a 45° angle killing all 5 passengers, which included 3 children. The NTSB is continuing their investigation, but my guess is that fatigue is going to be an issue.

I am sitting here shaking my head wondering what was going through his mind. Such an easy maneuver to complete and the family would have been safe.
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Since a landing even in those circumstances should have been fairly easy for him to do, I'm curious about why your guess would be fatigue instead of something like impairment of some kind? Would that also be a possibility?
 
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Doesn't mention the ages of the children, but I wonder if they were a distraction. Distraction is the only reason I can think of for the pilot errors. I agree, Pipers are really nice, manageable planes, but, personally, I wouldn't take on 3 little ones ...not if all 3 were under age 4 or 5, anyway.
 

I used to love to fly. Took a lot of planes from Hawaii to Europe (where I have family), flew across the Pacific, the U.S. continent, across the Atlantic and a good part of Europe itself, but after watching Air Disasters on the Smithsonian Channel you'd have to lock me in a pet carrier and store me in the cargo area before I travel anywhere on a plane. I don't like water either. Looks like I'm stuck. And most of these crashes are not caused by the pilots. It's the planes themselves and poor maintenance by airlines trying to save money. But that doesn't happen much any anymore as it did in the past.
 
When I said the planes themselves I didn't mean it that way. Sometimes it was the design and mechanics of the particular planes themselves and also the satanic forces involved were the investors and executives of in the planes who valued money over people.
 
That's a shame. So close to the runway, yet so far. I flew in small planes and the man I flew with owned his own Cessna and was a pilot for the now gone TWA Airlines.
 
Murrmurr said:
Doesn't mention the ages of the children, but I wonder if they were a distraction. Distraction is the only reason I can think of for the pilot errors. I agree, Pipers are really nice, manageable planes, but, personally, I wouldn't take on 3 little ones ...not if all 3 were under age 4 or 5, anyway.
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The kids were 12,10 & 7 years of age. When kids are of this age, the day, who is the pilot has taught his kid NOT to be a distraction and to occupy themselves by playing a game on their phone or laptop. No matter what though, kids will still be kids.
 
The worse landing I ever had was when the aileron cables weren't working on my final approach. I used my engine speeds to make my turns onto the runway. There was very little danger of anything going wrong, but you never know.

The ATC asked me if I needed anything. I told him a Jack and Coke might be helpful about now. He laughed at me, but I was serious.
 
oldman said:
The kids were 12,10 & 7 years of age. When kids are of this age, the day, who is the pilot has taught his kid NOT to be a distraction and to occupy themselves by playing a game on their phone or laptop. No matter what though, kids will still be kids.
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Old enough to behave themselves (with proper parenting). And if was the kids, they would have to have caused a sustained distraction or multiple distractions, and I doubt very much that was the case.

So I wonder what went wrong? I'm gonna keep my eyes open for updates. Sure is tragic, whatever the cause.
 
I wouldn't rule out fatigue, only because they left Canada, but I didn't check what time and they stopped twice to get fuel, so maybe fatigue could be an issue. I know pilots that fly for fun are not as trained to look out for being fatigued as professional pilots are.

I have been fatigued myself, but have been trained to recognize it. Turn the controls over to the other pilot in the cockpit and monitor the gauges and the communications. It's like drinking and driving and knowing when to turn over the wheel to someone else.

It kind of sickens me that three children lost their lives.
 

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