John Croft: September 2009 Archives

A medical emergency, perhaps hypoxia, looks to have claimed another pilot and aircraft.

Two months ago to the day, it was a Cirrus SR22.

Today is was a Mooney M20M Bravo, N400DE, powered by a turbocharged Lycoming TIO-540 and registered to N400DE LLC of Ada, Michigan.

Based on flight tracking information from FlightAware.com, the lone pilot had departed Grand Rapids, Michigan around 0840h central time this morning, headed north and levelled off at 25,000ft by 0912h. At about 0937h, the aircraft reversed course. Pilots must use full-time supplemental oxygen above 14,000ft.

At some point, the pilot also stopped communicating with air traffic control which prompted the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) to launch F-16 fighters which met up with the plane near Muncie, Indiana at 1030h to check out the situation. 

NORAD says Mooney pilot, who had departed Grand Rapids on a post-maintenance flight, was "unresponsive". The fact that the plane was on a post-maintenance checkout flight may very well explain the course reversal and some erratic indications on the transponder return for altitude -- the aircraft could not have physically moved 11,000ft in less than one minute, as the FlightAware data suggests.

At approximately 1105h, the plane's speed decreased and it's altitude began to drop, likely indicating the selected fuel tank had run dry. It crashed near Winchester, Indiana at approximately 1140h, according to NORAD.

Canada has been very good to me.

In May, I left my beloved BlackBerry Edge at a kiosk for Air Canada check-in in Montreal. TSA tried to help me find it after the jarring realization that the buzzing on my hip was phantom. No luck.

Three days later, I get a phone call at my home in Maryland, in the US, from a gentleman named Guy (pronounced Gey in that region) who says he found my "Blackberry or whatever it is" and turned it in at the Calgary transit station. Gey was my hero.

Fastforward to 24 September. I was traveling from DC to Cedar Rapids to visit Rockwell Collins. The seat on my Northwest/Delta CRJ200 flight from the leg from Detroit to Cedar Rapids was so crammed that my wallet -- with ID, credit cards, all the essentials -- popped out of my front pocket at some point in deplaning. I realized the missing gear a bit too late, and once again, TSA tried to help but wouldn't let me retrace my steps back to the airplane. Security reasons. My friends at Rockwell Collins graciously carried me to my appointments for the next 24h.

Believe it or not, you actually can get through security and board a plane even with absolutely no identification. TSA recommended I get to the airport early the next day for my flight home. Once there, I had to fill out a "verification of identity" form. The TSA supervisor made a phone call, then asked me, based on my name and address, etc, some basic questions intended to prove I was who I say I was. Things like, "Tell me your home phone". It was actually very easy, and may have been helped by the fact that I was wearing a suit, and not the ragged outfit and flip-flops I usually travel in. 

Once home, I cancelled my credit cards. Getting a new license would be a hassle, but I put that off. 

Long story short, I get a call from Northwest Airlines yesterday (9/29), five days after losing my wallet.

Guess where it turned up? Yep. Canada.

This time my lost was found in Winnipeg, completely intact.

Thanks Canada!

European air safety and navigation agency, Eurocontrol, is warning pilots that a new form of collision threat exists from ships that have begun experimenting with large high-flying kites or sails for auxiliary propulsion.

They know this because they received a report about a 15 September incident in which an aircraft over the southern North Sea reported seeing a kite or sail flying at approximately 1,000ft height "just below the clouds" ahead of a ship as it headed into port.

The agency did not revealed the type or operation of aircraft involved, but did post an artist's representation of what this newfound (and logical) auxiliary propulsion device might look like.

"It was attached to the vessel and was in the flight path of the aircraft as it headed towards  a nearby installation," the agency reports in a safety warning message issued today. "The 'skysail' was extended on a long cable and was moving around the vessel in an erratic manner."

 

Officials later determined that the ship in question is "the first in a line of experimental vessels using skysails to supplement the traditional propulsion units".

A simulation played for US House lawmakers by NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman at a hearing today on Capitol Hill shows how an air taxi helicopter might have looked to the pilot of a single-engine Piper Saratoga just before the two collided over the Hudson River, just west of New York City on a sunny Saturday morning in August.

In the animation, the helicopter's position is highlighted by a white circle. The second part of the video shows actual pictures of the aftermath of the collision, taken by witnesses.

 

Hersman, along with representatives from the FAA and other organizations, were discussing procedures, airspace issues and proposed changes associated with the VFR corridor where the collision occurred. All nine occupants on both aircraft were killed.

The full-length version of the animation is available on the NTSB's website.

 

The agency originally created to use human eyes to search for German U-boats off the eastern coast the US during the World War II will now provide electronic eyes to help Army and Marines ground crews get ready to use their MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper hunter/killer unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in Iraq and Afghanistan or elsewhere.

Under the US Air Force's $2.5 million "Predator Surrogate" program, the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is modifying two Cessna 182s to hold UAS targeting systems under their left wings, allowing the piloted aircraft to take the place of UAS in training exercises in the US.  

CAP says that once the pod is in place, "the CAP plane-turned-Surrogate Predator" will have the capability to lock onto and track targets, with the ultimate goal of broadcasting streaming video.

Predators and Reapers not only provide aerial surveillance to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, they also carry laser designators and several types of bombs and missiles, including the AGM-114 Hellfire.

 

Predators and Reapers are so popular that there aren't enugh to use here in the states for training.

"Due to the Air Force maximum surge effort to provide more MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper support to ground units in CENTCOM, there are no Predator or Reaper forces available to support pre-deployment exercises such as Green Flag, which focuses on air-to-ground operations," says Major Matt Martin, chief of the Predator/Reaper Ops Branch of Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base.

Green Flag exercises typically involve 11 days of flying, 8 hours a day, at least 10 times a year and include "hunter-killer scenarios," where the surrogate aircraft first surveys targets and then provides full-motion video to the brigade combat team, says CAP.

Once a target is identified by the ground commander as "hostile", CAP says the 182 "will dynamically re-task into the strike role and coordinate with a forward air control to simulate the delivery of precision ordnance onto a target".

The US National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a bizarre incident out in Chandler, Arizona, on 25 August...

A private pilot prepping for a cross-country flight from Chandler AZ to Tucson AZ had the misfortune of looking up and seeing smoke then fire coming from the left side of the Cessna 177B Cardinal's cowling after he tried repeatedly to start the engine.

Says the preliminary report,"The pilot revealed that while he was waiting to proceed with another start attempt, he observed smoke coming out of the left side of the engine cowling followed by the presence of a fire. The pilot subsequently exited through the left cabin door, after which the fire consumed the airplane."

That's when things got weird, if you believe what you read...

An airport operations supervisor tried, unsuccessfully, to help out by shooting two fire extinguishers into the fire after the pilot bolted,

He reported to the NTSB investigator-in-charge (IIC) that "approximately 1-2 minutes" after he backed away from the airplane "the aircraft engine starter engaged and the engine began to run at a fairly high RPM, well above idle power." The aircraft apparently didn't move, and it wasn't chocked.

He says the engine ran for 2-3 minutes "until the fire burned through the left wing, at which point the engine stopped."

The final report, with probable cause, should be interesting...

Two F-16 Fighting Falcons from the Ohio Air National Guard that scrambled to intercept a non-responsive Cirrus SR22 cruising at 25,000ft over Ohio late on the evening of 30 July discovered what controllers had no doubt suspected -- a pilot "unconcious" at the flight controls.

Once fuel was depleted, the aircraft pitched nose-up and decelerated at 25,000ft "until a sharp, descending left spiral was entered," writes the NTSB in its prelminary report, based on recovered avionics data.

Authorities responding to the crash scene in Ravenswood, West Virginia, found the remains of the lone pilot, though it's unclear whether he died before the final spiral.

The accident smacks of a tragic loss of six aboard a Learjet 35 in October 1999, including professional golfer Payne Stewart. F-16s were called to intercept Stewart's chartered plane for a flight from Orlando to Dallas after all contact was lost. The aircraft, with no visible signs of life onboard, ultimately climbed to more than 46,000ft and cruised Northwestward until it ran out of fuel and crashed near Aberdeen, South Dakota. NTSB ruled that the probable cause of the crash was "incapacitation of the flight crewmembers as a result of their failure to receive supplemental oxygen following a loss of cabin pressurization, for undetermined reasons."

In the Cirrus accident, fhe first clues of a problem began when a controller cleared the pilot to climb from 22,000ft to 23,000ft enroute to Eagle Creek Airpark (EYE) in Indianapolis, Indiana, from the departure airport, York Municipal Airport (JYR) in York, Nebraska. Continuous supplemental oxygen is required by the FAA for pilots flying above 14,000ft. Earlier that day, the accident pilot and the non-pilot owner of the N581DS had flown to JYR from EYE at 25,000ft using supplemental oxygen. "The oxygen system was not serviced prior to departure, but was going to be serviced at EYE on 'Monday'", according to the NTSB's interview with the owner.

NTSB says the pilot acknowledged the instructions to climb to FL230, but the controller noted that his voice "had changed, and had taken on a 'helium / Mickey Mouse' quality".

The situation deteriorated from there, with the pilot later "stepping all over himself" in communications calls with air traffic control. An airline pilot listening in said the pilot sounded "incoherent". For anyone who has taken oxygen deprivation training, such hypoxic-like symptoms, are not at all suprising...

The pilot, perhaps realizing the gravity of the situation, did later ask for a descent to 12,000ft, but he never accomplished the task. His final radio transmission consisted of "labored breathing," according to the NTSB's report. The investigation continues...

 

California this past weekend put to work all three of the largest aerial tankers now available to the US Forest Service and others in the United States on the "Station" fire near Los Angeles.

New to the airborne arsenal -- which traditionally has included firefighting helicopters, small-, medium- and large-sized fixed wing aircraft and for the past several years, two 12,000 gallon "very large" DC-10 tankers (owned by 10 Tanker Air Carrier) -- is Evergreen International Aviation's Boeing 747-100 Supertanker, which holds a total of 20,000 gallons.

Two video segments by a local news channel show the Supertanker in action, accompanied by a video by AIRBOYD that shows some of the features of the aircraft, plus a view of drop testing methods used by the government to test how well the aircraft spreads fire retardant.

Below that is a video of some local residents happy to see the DC-10s in action (which they refer to as "supertankers").

This shouldn't be funny, but somehow it is...

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Drunk pilot guided home by helicopter after 'losing' airfield - The Daily Record

9/1/09

dailyrecord.co.uk

A DRUNK amateur pilot was guided to land by a rescue helicopter after he radioed a control tower and asked: "Where the bloody hell have you hidden yourself?" The 65-year-old tanked up on beer and wine before taking to the skies in his Cessna light aircraft.

Continue on to dailyrecord.co.uk