Bonanza down near Billings, MT 9/26/2021

iamtheari

iamtheari

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Ari
So much experience, hard to imagine it would end up like this. I’d start to try to see phase of flight & what if any maneuvers were being done?

It seemed to not be near any airport, with a landing or takeoff? Just after 7:00 pm local time, dark?? Is there an ADS feed on the flight track, altitude? There are hills most places in MT.
 
According to the report, they went down in the vicinity of 63MT. The FlightAware tracking cuts out WELL short of where they reportedly went down, so it's hard to say for sure. Mission Aviation, which the father owned is based out of Laurel, MT (6S8). Neither of the published approaches for Rwy 22 would have had them over this area, so it can be reasonably assumed they planned a visual approach into the 6S8, which would have allowed them, based on their previous flight position to cross this general area. Additionally, their flown altitudes indicate that they were VFR for this flight.

63MT is only 8NM from 6S8, so they were at the very least in descent. Fuel starvation is unlikely as they previously flew a leg from KDWH to KITR which was roughly 640NM and this leg was only 482NM.

Without knowing more details, the only takeaway that we can definitively come away with right now is that none of us, no matter how much or how little experience we have is immune to this outcome. Rob had been an airline captain for over 30 years and Riley, the son is a CFII with land and sea ratings.

My sincerest condolences to the family and any of the PoA family that knew these folks. Also, be praying for the son, Riley as he was reported to have burns on 70% of his body. That's a long road of recovery.
 
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It’s incidents like this that really get my attention. Excluding some type of non standard flying procedures, of which I highly doubt, I truly hope we find the root cause here. With so much experience on board it’s a bit unnerving to think that this was the best possible outcome. As capable as I think I am and would be in an unexpected situation, things like this make me think twice about that.
 
Sunset was 7:03 p.m, so it wouldn't have been too dark. Maybe landing/taking off at the private strip, or the crash site being close to it might just be a coincidence.
 
Could be anything...control surface flutter, contaminated fuel, etc...we need to wait and see what comes next.

Experience has nothing to do with many accidents...ever heard of an airliner accident ?
 
Injuries incompatible with fuel exhaustion.
 
Deceased pilot was well liked and respected at his 121 employer. Godspeed.
 
Has anyone looked for the LiveATC recording of this timeframe yet?
 
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/268126

 Preliminary is out on this tragic accident. Seems to of been a poor setup for a landing then maybe an attempt to go around. Working sunset backwards to the eve in question, it was getting kinda dim out. I see they advertise lighting.

I thought this was a ‘throw over yoke too’? Only one side has controls at one time??
 
It is a "throw over " yoke. You can get (if you can find one) a dual yoke set up that easily installs in place of the sinlge yoke.
 
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