King Air Down in MN

Lando

Lando

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Lando
http://www.inforum.com/news/4165913...cause-emergency-landing-near-moorhead-airport

I read these reports but hadn't been out to the airport until yesterday. The plane is pretty much on an extended centerline of 30, a quarter mile from the airport. Ceilings were under 500 ft most of that day and evening, with poor visibility and the only bright lights are REIL for 30. Such a shame that the pilot didn't just divert to Fargo (only 5nm to the northwest) where he could have flown the ILS 36 and had all of those nice, bright lights to guide him in. Instead, he flew the RNAV 30 into KJKJ and appears to have simply landed short. Thankfully, everyone walked away!
 
An instrument rated professional pilot can and should be able to handle an instrument approach w/ a 500' ceiling and whatever the vis was (as long as legal) without much difficulty. So everyone lived and walked away, including the PIC. Shouldn't take long to find out what caused this. Maybe fuel exhaustion, hope not.
 
Theory #3: Went below minimums hoping to see something and got a closer look at the grass than he expected.
 
Knew of a corporate pilot here in Alabama flying a Cheyenne who had a heart attack and crashed short of the runway in the late 80s, St Louis I think, killing him but passengers survived. Article didn't give the impression that the pilot had experienced a medical condition though in this case though.
 
Gear was down (and subsequently torn off). I'm pretty sure they fly that plane single-pilot, so my guess is that he simply pushed it below minimums, lost track of altitude and flew it into the ground. Most likely a case of getthereitis.
 
The RNAV (GPS) RWY 30 approach has a 3.0 degree glide path and threshold crossing height of 40 feet, so at 1/4 mile from the threshold one should be about 120 feet above the ground, which is 130 feet below the 250-foot decision height on that approach and thus the missed approach should be commenced before that point. But imagine that you are flying the glideslope down and your altimeter is off by 0.13 inHg. You would just be arriving at what you think the minimums are when you get to 1/4 mile from the threshold. And if you are a couple of dots low on glideslope and your altimeter is off by 0.25 inHg, you would think you are at minimums when you impact the ground. (I decline to call anything within 100 miles of Fargo "terrain.")

Where were they coming from, in terms of pressure systems? Did a low pressure system hit the Fargo-Moorhead area while this plane was flying the approach, after it got the weather? I'm glad they all got out okay and hope we can learn something constructive from the experience.
 
iamtheari said:
you would think you are at minimums when you impact the ground. (I decline to call anything within 100 miles of Fargo "terrain.")
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There is the highway overpass and the landfill ;-)
 
If I recall correctly, ceiling at the time of the accident was 300' and visibility was around 1/2 mile. That puts visibility below minimums for the LPV, and there isn't much in the way of approach lighting at the airport. My bet is that the pilot went down to minimums and was looking so hard for the runway that he accidentally continued to descend.

Why the pilot didn't just divert to Fargo, with better weather, an ILS, and better approach lighting is beyond me. They must have wanted to get into Moorhead bad.
 
mondtster said:
If I recall correctly, ceiling at the time of the accident was 300' and visibility was around 1/2 mile. That puts visibility below minimums for the LPV, and there isn't much in the way of approach lighting at the airport. My bet is that the pilot went down to minimums and was looking so hard for the runway that he accidentally continued to descend.

Why the pilot didn't just divert to Fargo, with better weather, an ILS, and better approach lighting is beyond me. They must have wanted to get into Moorhead bad.
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I can't imagine anyone wanting to get into Moorhead so badly. The ILS and giant, brightly lit runway at Fargo do make a lot more sense. Thankfully this is one where the NTSB can talk to the pilot and find out what was going through his head.
 
Preliminary report: http://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/Re...D=20161128X83501&AKey=1&RType=Prelim&IType=LA

"The pilot initiated a missed approach after losing visual reference of the runway environment during the final segment of a GPS instrument approach." The ground impact happened a half mile before the runway that they were on approach to. Still rampant speculation on my part, but perhaps the pilot just didn't get the plane cleaned up and establish a climb quickly enough when he went missed.
 
iamtheari said:
Preliminary report: http://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/Re...D=20161128X83501&AKey=1&RType=Prelim&IType=LA

"The pilot initiated a missed approach after losing visual reference of the runway environment during the final segment of a GPS instrument approach." The ground impact happened a half mile before the runway that they were on approach to. Still rampant speculation on my part, but perhaps the pilot just didn't get the plane cleaned up and establish a climb quickly enough when he went missed.
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm a pessimist but this description sounds more like a covering of one's rear to keep them out of trouble than what really happened.

Whatever the case, the pilot and passengers were lucky.
 
iamtheari said:
The RNAV (GPS) RWY 30 approach has a 3.0 degree glide path and threshold crossing height of 40 feet, so at 1/4 mile from the threshold one should be about 120 feet above the ground, which is 130 feet below the 250-foot decision height on that approach and thus the missed approach should be commenced before that point. But imagine that you are flying the glideslope down and your altimeter is off by 0.13 inHg. You would just be arriving at what you think the minimums are when you get to 1/4 mile from the threshold. And if you are a couple of dots low on glideslope and your altimeter is off by 0.25 inHg, you would think you are at minimums when you impact the ground. (I decline to call anything within 100 miles of Fargo "terrain.")

Where were they coming from, in terms of pressure systems? Did a low pressure system hit the Fargo-Moorhead area while this plane was flying the approach, after it got the weather? I'm glad they all got out okay and hope we can learn something constructive from the experience.
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Most of the king airs I've seen all have radar altimeters too
 
mondtster said:
Maybe I'm a pessimist but this description sounds more like a covering of one's rear to keep them out of trouble than what really happened.

Whatever the case, the pilot and passengers were lucky.
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What he said. How does a King Air 200, with 7 total people on board, hit the ground after going missed? Were they all NFL O-Linemen or something? Shouldnt that thing be able to climb with flaps and gear down? It was about a 45 min flight. Was tankering fuel to fly to TX or something? I assume the report is what he told them. Be interesting if any pax heard the engines spool up before impact. Going missed usually requires adding power....

At least they all survived this edition of stupid pilot tricks.
 
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