Crazy Plane Crash Video from Inside Cockpit

Two things are notable. If you look closely it looks like the mixture knob is all the way in. :hairraise:

And according to the NTSB report this person is holder of a Commercial Certificate. :yikes:
 
spinfire said:
Two things are notable. If you look closely it looks like the mixture knob is all the way in. :hairraise:

And according to the NTSB report this person is holder of a Commercial Certificate. :yikes:
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WOW!!!!! What a tool. He might not have made it even with the engine leaned to max power, but it sure wouldn't have hurt him any. Obviously he did not have much high and hot experience, or had been lucky in the past.
 
Shoulder harnesses might have saved the day. The additional weight would have prevented him from lifting off at all. Then again, this doofus might have ground-rolled all the way to the trees.
 
The other thing noted in a facebook conversation is that he didn't have any flaps in. At least in the Stinson L-5 that I fly, using one notch of flaps makes a huge difference in getting off the ground and being able to start accelerating and then climbing. The one or two times I forgot the flaps it was a very noticeable thing.

Ryan
 
This story belongs here.

"What are pilots afraid of?"

IMO that pilot was afraid of embarrassing himself in front of his passengers by aborting his takeoff.

She was somebody else’s girlfriend. She was quite pretty, very intelligent, and well educated. Maybe some of us airport bums would be put off by the done-on-purpose Park Lane accent (from Radcliffe as I remember). But all of us were acting the part of ace-hero-airplane-driver. We pulled in our bellies, puffed out our chests, and tried to look steely-eyed and sharp-chinned through our wrap-around sunglasses. We swapped lies about wild flights, dumb stunts, and hazards endured (or imagined) in self-deprecating tones.

We knew better than to play that sort of game with Debbie, Julie, Mavis, or Rhonda (all flight instructors). But she was somebody else’s girlfriend. And she was playing the equivalent game with us: asking sharp questions and looking intently through her lavender-lensed designer sunglasses. Her friend had just given her her first ride in a small airplane. She enjoyed it. Let it be recorded to his credit that he didn’t do any of the idiotic stunts that scare passengers, that he flew his Cherokee in a completely professional manner.

She was asking sharp questions. It didn’t take her long to go through the usual questions: “How safe is flying?” Pretty safe. “Safer than driving?” Well… safer than motorcycles for sure, “California freeways?” Maybe, depends on what time of day. “Safer than horses?” Hell, Parachutes are safer than horses!

“Have you ever been afraid of anything while flying?” She asked. I think she got that line from The High and the Mighty.
Now, Ace Hero Airmen (like us) are never afraid. Never. Well, hardly ever. Besides, those of us who haven’t read the book have seen the movie. Let’s see now, what’s the authorized answer to that one? Oh, yes: “Sure, all the time.”
She pushed up her lavender sunglasses. “What is it,” she asked, “that pilots are most afraid of?”

Now it happens that I had the answer to that one. But before I tell you, maybe you’d like to take a guess.
Bad weather? Clouds? Thunderstorms? No. Even death and dismemberment don’t make the top ten. Turbulence? Structural failure? Engine failure? No, but engine failure and mid-air collisions make the top ten. Maybe they just barely make the top ten. Controllers? Talking to towers? No, but that’s close.

What is it, then? I’ll tell you what I told her: Extreme embarrassment.

Do you think I’m kidding? Some pilots won’t fly into a tower-controlled field because they are afraid of embarrassing themselves by saying something wrong. Tower-trained pilots are afraid of doing something embarrassing at a non-tower field. If you do something embarrassing at an uncontrolled field (land downwind, for example), the good ol’ boys sitting on the porch (there is always a porch for good ol’ boys to sit on at an uncontrolled field) will talk about it for years.

People have died of embarrassment. I have read reports and heard tapes of pilots that were lost, low on fuel, or over an undercast who finally managed to screw up their courage and face the embarrassment of admitting that they were in trouble. Usually you read the reports when it was too late. You don’t read about the cases where the pilot overcame his embarrassment early enough for the help to be useful.

She pulled down her lavender sunglasses and looked at me through them. “Have you ever been embarrassed, yourself?” she asked.

“Well, sure…”, I didn’t really want to talk about it.

I thought about the time I groundlooped in front of Boeing Tower…
Tower: “Cessna 777, are you experiencing difficulties?”
Me: “No, not now that I’ve got the son-of-a-***** stopped”
Tower: “Cessna 777, taxi to the ramp.”

I thought about the time I landed downwind at an uncontrolled field, and didn’t realize it until I found myself face-to-face with a line of airplanes taxiing out for takeoff. To rub it in, the good ol’ boys in the other airplanes all rolled off the taxiway onto the grass and waited until I had passed.

Sure, I’ve been embarrassed, but I don’t want to talk about it to the girl in the lavender sunglasses.

(c) copyright 1990 Roger Kuykendall
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from this link: http://www.thejoyofaviation.com/what-are-pilots-afraid-of
 
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After watching the video a couple of times a few thoughts. What is it about video taping themselves after the wreck and not attending to the injured? the pilot has he head on a log. They could be taking the seat custion out of the plane to make him more comfortable. After a head injury they should be taking great care with his neck, but they are more interested in getting the tape on You Tube than helping an injured human being. Shock is a serious condition and they should be keeping him warm and help stop the bleeding.

No one knows first aid anymore? :dunno:
 
I probably would have found a rock to put that idiot's head on.
 
I'm glad everyone is okay and I don't want anyone to think I have no compassion.

That said, I wonder if all those pilots injuries were from the crash or if his passengers beat the crap out of him before filming him laying on the ground.
 
rottydaddy said:
I think going into the trees upright and more or less in control really helped them (that, and not hitting a tree head-on, LOL).
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If you look at 6:14, he hits a tree head-on. The prob chopped right through it.
 
MBDiagMan said:
I'm glad everyone is okay and I don't want anyone to think I have no compassion.

That said, I wonder if all those pilots injuries were from the crash or if his passengers beat the crap out of him before filming him laying on the ground.
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+1 :yes:
 
steingar said:
I would have found a rock to put on that idiot's head. Preferably a nice big heavy one...
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Folks like him are like the male praying mantis - they perform better when the head is removed!
 
Glad everyone was ok, too bad about the Stinson though.

Seems like a cascade of poor decisions, I remember someone saying all one has to do is break one link in a chain of bad decisions for a favorable outcome.
 
redtail said:
Yeah, I thought this was old news. I was surprised when they showed a preview of it and said.. story/video coming up.
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Some intern just discovered it on YouTube.

I was finally able to open it by cutting and pasting the link. Really bad ADM there. Really bad.
 
They're about to show it after the break. One of the passengers will be speaking. Damn I wish I was home to record it.....I'm at work right now.
 
Wow! His son and another hiker spoke. They made the pilot sound like a hero that saved the day! They said it wasn't his fault. The news only showed the final few seconds before impact, not the entire ground roll.

The video did have audio and you could hear the pilot asking was everyone OK. They also said he served in Vietnam.

Glad they all survived!
 
ABC news just did a more detailed report and showed most of the video. They'll probably repeat it again later tonight.

A pilot/reporter pointed out that the flight was doomed early in the takeoff run.

Also gave a little more info about the pilot. He flew choppers in nam.
 
Mafoo said:
If you look at 6:14, he hits a tree head-on. The prob chopped right through it.
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Those pine/spruce trees looked dead. So that helped out a lot by giving way while absorbing some of the forward energy.

The lack of talking can be partly explained by the fact they were using GoPro cameras. The case muffles the sound and you can tell when he hits it or moves it by the thumping sound. You can hear some talking during the takeoff and right before impact. But its hard to make it out or even hear it for that matter.
 
ARFlyer said:
Those pine/spruce trees looked dead. So that helped out a lot by giving way while absorbing some of the forward energy.
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Beetle kill. It's everywhere out here and related to the fuel state for all the recent wildfires also. Tens of thousands stand dead until a good wind causes a mass blowdown or a fire starts.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
The creepiest thing about that video was the lack of any talking.
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I was thinking the same thing. So very much wrong, even to a novice, in the minutes leading up to the crash. I have no doubt the pilot knew he was in trouble from the start. I think he didn't want to admit it in front of the younger guys he was flying. But to get up to the seconds before he knew "this is it" and not give a single word of warning to the guys looking at the pretty trees outside the window is beyond poor ADM. That's borderline criminal.
 
I don't even have a cert yet, so I can't be very judgemental...but when I see/hear about stories like this I just can't understand how ANY pilot would think it is okay to try something like this. I enjoy living way too much.
 
I'll bet cash money that the pilot thinks he did nothing wrong, and that a random air pocket crashed his airplane.
 
cleared4theoption said:
I don't even have a cert yet, so I can't be very judgemental...but when I see/hear about stories like this I just can't understand how ANY pilot would think it is okay to try something like this. I enjoy living way too much.
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I don't have my cert yet either, however I would suspect he has done it hundreds of times before. Probably dozens of times where it was a struggle to get off the ground, but then everything was ok.

Just far more confidence then you should have. I guess that's why over half of the crashes that happen, are pilot error (and usually experienced ones).
 
Tough situation here and glad everyone will be ok. One of the things that most disturbed me while watching this was the terrain he was flying towards was only getting higher. In a sad kind of way, they were all lucky to only hit the tops of tress because it looks like in only a matter of minutes they were headed into mountain.

Obviously the only option was to abort takeoff here once it was clear the plane was not gaining altitude but once that option was not taken it seems like the crash was inevitable. That had to be a very tough moment for the pilot.
 
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redtail said:
Also gave a little more info about the pilot. He flew choppers in nam.
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In my EAA chapter is an RV builder that flew Cobra gunships for the Army. He told me that while he has tons of rotory time, he only has about 250hrs of fixed-wing time. He also said it's a totally different type of flying, and it took him some time to get it all down and he still feels like he's learning.

I don't know about ya'll, but I hear "chopper pilot in 'nam" and usually think he must be a hell of a pilot in anything, but clearly that's not always the case.
 
bullwinkle said:
In my EAA chapter is an RV builder that flew Cobra gunships for the Army. He told me that while he has tons of rotory time, he only has about 250hrs of fixed-wing time. He also said it's a totally different type of flying, and it took him some time to get it all down and he still feels like he's learning.

I don't know about ya'll, but I hear "chopper pilot in 'nam" and usually think he must be a hell of a pilot in anything, but clearly that's not always the case.
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I was thinking the same thing. He probably pulled off some daring missions over there and had a few close calls. Maybe that lead to overconfidence and a lack of willingness to accept the fact that this was a bad situation and only getting worse.

I believe like others have said... He's probably gotten away with this many times before and his ego was to big to chop the power and except what might look like failure in the eyes of his passengers!

Great lessons to be learned here.
 
bullwinkle said:
In my EAA chapter is an RV builder that flew Cobra gunships for the Army. He told me that while he has tons of rotory time, he only has about 250hrs of fixed-wing time. He also said it's a totally different type of flying, and it took him some time to get it all down and he still feels like he's learning.

I don't know about ya'll, but I hear "chopper pilot in 'nam" and usually think he must be a hell of a pilot in anything, but clearly that's not always the case.
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At least he's on the right track..........as long as he installs a big enough engine, and perhaps a constant speed prop, in that RV...:D

Then, he'll know that "at least" three times the takeoff performance, is easily obtainable, while still keeping density altitude & weight and balance on the mind... :wink2:

L.Adamson
 
I'm surprised they even went public with the video. I would have been way too embarrassed to show that to the world and tell everyone my name:rolleyes2:
 
redtail said:
Wow! His son and another hiker spoke. They made the pilot sound like a hero that saved the day! They said it wasn't his fault. The news only showed the final few seconds before impact, not the entire ground roll.

The video did have audio and you could hear the pilot asking was everyone OK. They also said he served in Vietnam.

Glad they all survived!
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Its worse than that. It was on the evening news AND on GMA this morning. They had the pilot and all four pax. The interviewer say that the pilot did a great job landing the plane! :hairraise: REALLY? They also shot up a blurb from the initial NTSB report that read that a down draft pushed the plane down. :mad2: Et Tu NTSB?

ARFlyer said:
Those pine/spruce trees looked dead. So that helped out a lot by giving way while absorbing some of the forward energy.

The lack of talking can be partly explained by the fact they were using GoPro cameras. The case muffles the sound and you can tell when he hits it or moves it by the thumping sound. You can hear some talking during the takeoff and right before impact. But its hard to make it out or even hear it for that matter.
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I didn't see GoPros, I saw the guys in the back with hand held cameras.
 
AdamZ said:
Its worse than that. It was on the evening news AND on GMA this morning. They had the pilot and all four pax. The interviewer say that the pilot did a great job landing the plane! :hairraise: REALLY? They also shot up a blurb from the initial NTSB report that read that a down draft pushed the plane down. :mad2: Et Tu NTSB?



I didn't see GoPros, I saw the guys in the back with hand held cameras.
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Thanks Adam. I missed GMA (had my DVR setup wrong:lol:).

Here's the link if anyone wants to see it.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/t/video/c...cording-reveals-person-account-idaho-16976214
 
cleared4theoption said:
I don't even have a cert yet, so I can't be very judgemental...but when I see/hear about stories like this I just can't understand how ANY pilot would think it is okay to try something like this. I enjoy living way too much.
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Trying it makes perfect sense to me... Looks like they had done it at least a few times before.

Taking off on a long rollout - sure, I can see it too, especially as you're focused on getting it off the ground, and it seems willing (it did get off eventually, and even out of ground effect).

Going for the trees and hills beyond when you are not even 20ft over their tops with a plane that is with a very high AoA - reprehensible. It's obviously over loaded. Fly around over the flat ground burning off some fuel and gaining some altitude first. I betcha 20 minutes it all it would have needed - and I have done that before, even when getthereitis was playing a big role in my decision making (even with pax - I rarely fly alone). The words I use are "feels a bit heavy, I'm going to burn off some fuel before making the pass". And no, the plane has never been over max gross, just didn't feel right because of DA.
 
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Geico266 said:
If he only would have filed a flight plan.......;)

Typical mountain flying crash. Out flying the altitude performance of the airplane as the terrain rises.

Glad they survived. :D
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The preliminary report showed that he DID file a flight plan. I was really surprised at that.

Since he filed a flight plan, it's impossible to understand how anything went wrong.:confused: At least in the eyes of the press, that's probably what they think.:dunno:
 
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