Cirrus SR20 Crashes in Fayette County, TN

I was curious, so I watched the video. Sounds like it burned.

It's hard to tell if something was wrong or what happened. Eyewitness accounts (for what they're worth) make it sound as if it was under power. If something was wrong, he probably should have pulled the chute.
 
Appears to be VFR only pilot flying in less than great conditions. Discussions on COPA center on VFR into IMC.
 
jason said:
I was curious, so I watched the video. Sounds like it burned.

It's hard to tell if something was wrong or what happened. Eyewitness accounts (for what they're worth) make it sound as if it was under power. If something was wrong, he probably should have pulled the chute.
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Ya know Jason I agree with you but dollars to doughnuts if he pulled the chute and survived there would be a cadre of folks out there excoriating him for not flying the plane to the ground and landing in the pasture. Shame. I will say that it was actually a pleasant surprise the man they interviewed did not start talking about those dangerous small planes, he just spoke of the loss of life and said to pray for the family. That was a mature response. To the OP sorry for your friends loss.
 
AdamZ said:
Ya know Jason I agree with you but dollars to doughnuts if he pulled the chute and survived there would be a cadre of folks out there excoriating him for not flying the plane to the ground and landing in the pasture. Shame. I will say that it was actually a pleasant surprise the man they interviewed did not start talking about those dangerous small planes, he just spoke of the loss of life and said to pray for the family. That was a mature response. To the OP sorry for your friends loss.
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Oh, I agree 100% with that assumption. But, as you know, people will second guess you either way. Especially when you fly a Cirrus. I'd rather take the odds and deal with the second guessing.
 
AdamZ said:
Ya know Jason I agree with you but dollars to doughnuts if he pulled the chute and survived there would be a cadre of folks out there excoriating him for not flying the plane to the ground and landing in the pasture.
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That was my first thought too.
 
jason said:
Oh, I agree 100% with that assumption. But, as you know, people will second guess you either way. Especially when you fly a Cirrus. I'd rather take the odds and deal with the second guessing.
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Amen my friend!
 
Local news here in Memphis said the plane came apart in the air (according to witnesses on the scene). I chalked it up to VFR into IMC, then overstressing the airframe. The weather was really low that day.

I am sorry for the loss of your friend's brother. Just because somebody made a mistake, it is sad to see them have to pay the ultimate price. Aviation can be very unforgiving.
 
I think we're seeing the same pattern that the military has acknowledged for many years. If the airplane breaks, the pilots will bail out without hestitation. If the pilot screws up or thinks he might be blamed for causing the accident, he will ride it all the way to the smoking hole.

Sorry it happens but don't know what we can do about it.
 
somorris said:
Local news here in Memphis said the plane came apart in the air (according to witnesses on the scene). I chalked it up to VFR into IMC, then overstressing the airframe. The weather was really low that day.

I am sorry for the loss of your friend's brother. Just because somebody made a mistake, it is sad to see them have to pay the ultimate price. Aviation can be very unforgiving.
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Do you have a link? The only inflight breakup of a Cirrus I know about happened with the plane iced up, in a dive, approaching 300 knots, when the chute was pulled.
 
Independent of my general thoughts about BRS I firmly believe an instrument rating is a much more valuable expense. Given the choice between spending an extra $10k on a BRS vs. getting an instrument rating I'd say the rating wins hands down.
 
I think you're confusing training and equipment. Assume that most pilots of such airplanes are instrument rated. In that case, would you rather have an airplane with BRS or one without? When convective activity is forecast, would you rather be a trained meteorologist or have on-board radar?

spinfire said:
Independent of my general thoughts about BRS I firmly believe an instrument rating is a much more valuable expense. Given the choice between spending an extra $10k on a BRS vs. getting an instrument rating I'd say the rating wins hands down.
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Do you have a link? The only inflight breakup of a Cirrus I know about happened with the plane iced up, in a dive, approaching 300 knots, when the chute was pulled.
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I checked the local TV station website. They had a brief story, but no video posted that I could find. When it happened, a witness said he heard a loud boom and saw the pieces of the airplane come to the ground. Reliability could be questioned, I am sure. It was a lousy VFR flying day though. I remember that much.
 
somorris said:
I checked the local TV station website. They had a brief story, but no video posted that I could find. When it happened, a witness said he heard a loud boom and saw the pieces of the airplane come to the ground. Reliability could be questioned, I am sure. It was a lousy VFR flying day though. I remember that much.
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I pretty much blow off any eyewitness accounts. I rarely ever see them pan out. I'll pay attention to whether or not they hear an engine and stuff like that (that's generally a no-brainer). But "booms" and "splats" and "in pieces" and all the other stuff are, all too often, imagined.
 
Just an FYI:

"In 2011 the accident record of the SR20 and 22 was the subject of a detailed examination by Aviation Consumer magazine. The review concluded that the series has an overall accident record that is better than average for light aircraft, exceeded only by the Diamond DA40 and DA42. However its fatal accident rate is much worse at 1.6/100,000 hours, placing it higher than the US general aviation rate of 1.2 and higher than the Diamond DA40 (.35), Cessna 172 (.45), Diamond DA42 (.54), Cessna 182 (.69) and the Cessna 400 (1.0), despite the Cirrus's full aircraft parachute system.[14]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirrus_SR20
 
I pretty much blow off any eyewitness accounts. I rarely ever see them pan out. I'll pay attention to whether or not they hear an engine and stuff like that (that's generally a no-brainer). But "booms" and "splats" and "in pieces" and all the other stuff are, all too often, imagined.
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Of course you are right, Jason. I am probably biased, but when I heard about the crash (before I knew it was a Cirrus) and I had experienced the weather all day here, my leanings were towards either VFR into IMC or out of gas. Since this post indicates the guy was a VFR pilot, I jumped to the conclusion. I guess we will have to wait for the NTSB report.
 
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