California Van Nuys (KVNY)- SportCruiser crash 2, fatalities

Gosh way too many crashes lately, RIP
 
Looks a lot like an engine failure right after takeoff and an attempted 180. They’d already done two laps in the pattern just prior and a flight up to the Santa Clarita area several hours earlier in the morning.
 
Flying Keys said:
Looks a lot like an engine failure right after takeoff and an attempted 180. They’d already done two laps in the pattern just prior and a flight up to the Santa Clarita area several hours earlier in the morning.
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Any given Sport cruiser should be quite new(ish), correct? With a Rotax? How common are engine failures in LSA like this?

Edit - this one seems to be manufactured in 2015
 
Flying Keys said:
Looks a lot like an engine failure right after takeoff and an attempted 180. They’d already done two laps in the pattern just prior and a flight up to the Santa Clarita area several hours earlier in the morning.
Click to expand...
Just listened to the audio playback.

Definitely a power loss, did not declare emergency, but asked for priority and was given 34R, then any runway. Most comms were pretty relaxed but I’ll caution you that there seemed to be a last second transmission from the accident aircraft. It was unintelligible but you can get the context of what was about to happen, not for the faint of heart.
 
Baked Potato said:
Any given Sport cruiser should be quite new(ish), correct? With a Rotax? How common are engine failures in LSA like this?

Edit - this one seems to be manufactured in 2015
Click to expand...
Rotax is a reliable engine with over 50 000 installations ( since 1980s ) and tons of engines routinely making their TBOs but there are potential Rotax specific issues like heavy preference for Mogas which can result in increased risk of vapor lock, especially with seasonal fuel blends and older installations without (now mandatory) fuel return line installation.

 
Flying Keys said:
Just listened to the audio playback.

Definitely a power loss, did not declare emergency, but asked for priority and was given 34R, then any runway. Most comms were pretty relaxed but I’ll caution you that there seemed to be a last second transmission from the accident aircraft. It was unintelligible but you can get the context of what was about to happen, not for the faint of heart.
Click to expand...

Yeah... that one's rough.

The pilot was asked about the nature of the emergency, and it sounds like he replies "having exhaust gas issues."
 
mandm said:
Gosh way too many crashes lately, RIP
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The numbers are actually getting better, probably due to reduced GA hours, unfortunately.

What we usually see is cyclical interest in media reporting.

Unrelated to what's actually happening.

It used to be about 1 fatal a day. Now its down to closer to 200/year.

www.statista.com

U.S. general aviation: fatal and non-fatal accidents | Statista

This statistic displays the number of fatal and non-fatal accidents within the U.S.
www.statista.com www.statista.com

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