Cessna 172 Down at KBNA

Last night we had a Glassair go down in Colorado and now this. Sheesh...be careful out there people. There's no need to put your life at risk.
 
Rest in Peace. So sorry for all who are affected.
Reports that it was based out of Ontario. Anyone else confirm?

C-number is published in media, but I'll let someone else post it here. Reports are that it may have crashed earlier in the morning (we had heavy fog in the Nashville area - not sure about KBNA) and was discovered later by a taxiing aircrew.

Report is now that it is believed to have crashed sometime after 3:00am local time and was discovered after daylight. gracious.
 
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WBI Flyer said:
Reports that it was based out of Ontario. Anyone else confirm?
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It was registered to a flying club out of Canada.

Also, reports now that the crash occurred around 3am but wasn't discovered until 830ish. Not sure how you crash undetected at a class c airport but the fog was really really bad this morning.
 
Is the BNA tower not operational 24/7?
 
Weather at 3am:

KBNA 290653Z 00000KT 1/4SM R02L/1200V1400FT FG VV001 12/11 A3028 RMK AO2 SLP250 T01170111

I hear no calls from the aircraft in question (first one on the page) on LiveATC for the 3am hour. No IFR flight plan.

Plane looks pretty tore up, and burned. I wonder if he was just tooling by overhead, VFR, lost it, spun in, and KBNA had no clue until the taxiing aircrew saw the burned wreckage later this morning...

Stolen airplane? Who does this at 3am?
 
N801BH said:
How can the tower miss the glow of a fire..:dunno::dunno::confused:
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Really heavy fog where I was this morning. The people that pilot those weird wingless mechanisms were advised to "drive safe" this morning.

I might venture a guess that, if the fog was around at the time - and was dense, that between the fog and the runway lights, it just didn't register.

who knows? my ignorance precedes me.
 
N801BH said:
How can the tower miss the glow of a fire..:dunno::dunno::confused:
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Very possible if the fog was thick, but the bigger question is how did the tower not know the airplane was there? If it was an arrival, they would surely have been IFR and the tower would have known they were coming. Unless the tower was asleep. Barring that, the only thing I can think I'd that maybe he was departing and being from Canada, was unfamiliar with the field and possibly thought the tower was closed at 0300 so he taxied on his own and logs control while trying to takeoff? Perplexing to say the least.
 
I thought the only ones flying at that hour where the freight dogs. Going to be hard to make sense of this until more facts are known.
 
frfly172 said:
I thought the only ones flying at that hour where the freight dogs. Going to be hard to make sense of this until more facts are known.
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Agreed......

Seems to me Fed Ex is landing and launching planes several times a minute at that hour... Funny no one saw the fire or wreckage..:confused::confused:
 
Seems to me Fed Ex is landing and launching planes several times a minute at that hour...
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True, but in Memphis, not Nashville.
 
At least this one made it to the airport. There was one in CT a few years ago where the guy even told approach he was likely to have to miss, but they forgot about him as he crashed without canceling.
 
A crash on departure sounds much more believable than an approach. Sounds like he may have just taxied out and tried to take off without talking to anyone. Wait and see.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Interesting. That was what I suggested in post #13, but some of the comments that were being reported this morning by those from the flying club in Canada sounded like he was entire to BNA without a flight plan when the crash occurred.
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That could be true - CNN is not exactly a detail-rich information source with credible fact-checking. If it doesn't fit in a 10-second sound bite they don't run it.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Interesting. That was what I suggested in post #13, but some of the comments that were being reported this morning by those from the flying club in Canada sounded like he was entire to BNA without a flight plan when the crash occurred.
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Um...you can't fly from Windsor, ON to BNA without a flight-plan legally...even VFR you need to file a DVFR to cross the border.
 
JeffDG said:
Um...you can't fly from Windsor, ON to BNA without a flight-plan legally...even VFR you need to file a DVFR to cross the border.
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Of course not, but you also can't taxi and depart a class C airport in IFR conditions when the tower is in operation without talking to ATC or filing a flight plan either.
 
JeffDG said:
Um...you can't fly from Windsor, ON to BNA without a flight-plan legally...even VFR you need to file a DVFR to cross the border.
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Um...a DVFR flight plan is not required for that VFR flight. ;)
 
I wonder if he died on AP and that's where he hit after he ran out of gas......but because the fire that doesn't make sense.
 
DavidWhite said:
I wonder if he died on AP and that's where he hit after he ran out of gas......but because the fire that doesn't make sense.
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Unless he had right tank selected and the left one was full...

Winsor Flying Club is basically Detroit, on the Canadian side. Intended destination was Pelee Island Airport (CYPT) in Ontario.

Without extended range tanks or one heck of a tailwind, he probably couldn't reach Nashville. Especially without the fuel knob on both.

Jim
 
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ChrisK said:
Dude, this is either smuggling (my bet) or theft.
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Anything is possible, but if you were smuggling, I would think that the Class C airport that is manned 24/7 would be the last place you'd want to go.
 
Kiddo's Driver said:
Unless he had right tank selected and the left one was full...

Winsor Flying Club is basically Detroit, on the Canadian side. Intended destination was Pelee Island Airport (CYPT) in Ontario.

Without extended range tanks or one heck of a tailwind, he probably couldn't reach Nashville. Especially without the fuel knob on both.

Jim
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FWIW, according to the article, he did land at Pelee Island....or at least contacted someone and reported that he had arrived.
 
What ticks me off the most about this is that completely innocent US GA pilots get harassed by CBP and other LE with aircraft searches when they fly anywhere near the border and then this chum can fly 5 hrs into the US from Canada completely unnoticed and crash at a major airport, again, completely unnoticed.

This sounds like a DHS failure.
 
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