10 Americans Killed in Costa Rica Plane Crash

FlyingTiger

FlyingTiger

Pre-takeoff checklist
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FlyingTiger
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This is beyond tragic. The other family of 4 that was on the plane was from the Tampa area but the wife/mother grew up in my town. The wife was the youngest of three sisters who we were friendly with and their parents are good friends of my parents. All three daughters were just so smart and wonderful caring people. Sadly I attended Her sister's funeral who died about two years ago of breast cancer. I can't begin to imagine what her parents and remaining older sister are going through. They will be in my thoughts.
 
I have taken a few flights within Costa Rica, a couple with this company that crashed Nature Air and a couple with the other one Sansa. To get to the nicer beaches on the Pacific coast from the capital, it's either a 5 hour car/bus ride up and down mountains and single lane roads or a 60 minute flight.

This company uses Twin Otters (which is a twin turbo-prop that seats 16 or 18 IIRC) and Sansa uses Cessna 206 Caravans, a single turbo-prop which seats 12. I had always been very curious about maintenance on these planes. Always made sure my will was updated when getting on one of these puddle jumpers. Plus, like US regionals, the pilots were usually very young (not even implying that this may have contributed to the cause- we know that old pilots also make stupid mistakes). I, for one, am very curious what the investigation will find. I wonder if Costa Ricans will lead it, or the Canadians since it's a Canadian plane, or NTSB since all the passengers were US citizens. I would hate to think that Costa Ricans would skew the report to have the least affect on tourism, the country's main revenue source.

EDIT: Nature Air now uses Caravans also. They ditched the Twin Otters apparently.
 
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orange said:
This company uses Twin Otters (which is a twin turbo-prop that seats 16 or 18 IIRC) and Sansa uses Cessna 206 Caravans, a single turbo-prop which seats 12. I had always been very curious about maintenance on these planes.
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Not to pick nits, but you mean Cessna 208 Caravans.
 
Wonders if crash would not have happened if Air Tran's reduced power takeoff was used.
 
Bradley W said:
Wonders if crash would not have happened if Air Tran's reduced power takeoff was used.
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Not sure what "beyond tragic" means but yes, it is tragic, 12 people died in that crash, not 10.
So far only a lot of speculation on other boards and not much information, besides the pictures and videos of the crash site.

Crash happened 10 minutes after departure when they should have been at least in teens if not higher (for a 40-minute flight to the destination).
Does anybody have weather information for the time and location by a chance?
Not a big debris field and it seems that all aircraft parts were located so not a mid-flight break-up?
Will the NTSB investigate since a US-built aircraft was involved?

R.I.P., not a good ending to 2017 :(
 
Caravan isn't pressurized, wouldn't have been "in the teens or higher".
 
Dave Theisen said:
Caravan isn't pressurized, wouldn't have been "in the teens or higher".
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D'oh, you are right, haven't thought of that. They still could have been above 10k with options to land out in case of engine failure.
Waiting what the investigation reveals, this is a mystery for now (and a tragedy).
 
Last time a Twin Otter crashed like that, it was the elevator cable that failed.
Hope it's not that.
 
I was the person who mentioned Twin Otters. But they switched to Caravans at some point in the past few years. I haven't flown them for a number of years.

And they fly at 10-11k if I remember correctly. I always tried to sit in the first row, breathing down the pilots' necks, literally within arms length of the yoke.:eek:

And from where it took off on the pacific Coast to San Jose, you are flying over the rain forest or mountains most of the way, very unfriendly terrain.
 
orange said:
And from where it took off on the pacific Coast to San Jose, you are flying over the rain forest or mountains most of the way, very unfriendly terrain.
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No place to land except the airport. Also thick, thick fog in the afternoon. Where I was staying the fog rolled in everyday at 4pm. I mean can't see the other side of the sidewalk thick. It had to be clear above because I would hear piston planes flying over.

At 5pm the rains came. I mean it rained.!! Be where you need to be at 4:59PM. Because if I haven't mentioned it, it RAINS.!!

At 6pm someone flipped the switch and it was dark. Inside of a cow dark. Then 15 minutes later the rain and fog left showing an amazingly clear sky and more stars that I ever though possible.

But yes, very aviation unfriendly terrain.
 
BigBadLou said:
Not sure what "beyond tragic" means but yes, it is tragic, 12 people died in that crash, not 10.
So far only a lot of speculation on other boards and not much information, besides the pictures and videos of the crash site.
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My "Beyond Tragic" comment was in reference to the surviving family of the family from Florida that perished . We know them well and the adult woman from Florida and her kids that died were the youngest child and grand children of close friends of my parents who sadly lost their middle daughter to breast cancer only about 2 years ago thus the "beyond tragic"
 
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