King Air down, Marietta, OH

N515GK?

The ADS-B track looks very stable, lined up with runway 21 at KPKB, then the signal just disappears about a quarter mile before the dealership. No indication of a steep descent or abnormal airspeed or altitude, maybe a couple hundred feet higher than the minimum altitude at the fix MARII on the RNAV, which is right there at the river behind the dealership. But the

Interestingly, the METAR shows

KPKB 181153Z VRB03KT 10SM OVC013 03/01 A2981 RMK AO2
KPKB 181150Z 26006KT 10SM OVC013 03/01 A2981 RMK AO2
KPKB 181053Z 26003KT 10SM OVC014 03/01 A2980 RMK AO2
 
My instructor and friend was one of the pilots on the plane. Very sad day for many here in ohio, and I am sure many in WV as well. Tim was very safety conscious, and had cancelled many of our flights for weather that I questioned but trusted his judgement. This has caused me to pause and try to determine if I wanted to get back in the sky, because if it happened to him, it can happen to anyone.
 
AviAlex said:
My instructor and friend was one of the pilots on the plane. Very sad day for many here in ohio, and I am sure many in WV as well. Tim was very safety conscious, and had cancelled many of our flights for weather that I questioned but trusted his judgement. This has caused me to pause and try to determine if I wanted to get back in the sky, because if it happened to him, it can happen to anyone.
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I'm sorry for your loss.
 
Icing conditions were bad for about 7 minutes of the descent, according to that analysis.

What sort of anti-icing would a King Air E90 have?
 
E90 has boots and can carry a LOT of ice before it becomes a problem. Looks to me that his speed never stabilized on the approach, just kept bleeding off. I really doubt it was ice that brought him down. He overshot final initially, then let the speed decay. That speed decay plus some ice could be what triggered the stall. Not a forgiving plane if you get slow.
 
SethV said:
E90 has boots and can carry a LOT of ice before it becomes a problem. Looks to me that his speed never stabilized on the approach, just kept bleeding off. I really doubt it was ice that brought him down. He overshot final initially, then let the speed decay. That speed decay plus some ice could be what triggered the stall. Not a forgiving plane if you get slow.
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This could be a case of multiple minor things culminating in a perfect storm so to speak.

Overall, the Beechtalk discussion on this has gotten ridiculous, but of note, some folks who have flown that same model/similarly equipped, say that it can slow down significantly if you pull the power way back due to the 4 blade props.

Tower told the pilot that there was a wildlife vehicle inspecting the runway when he checked in.

I can see a plausible scenario where the pilot pulls power back to give some extra time for the vehicle to clear. While ice should not have brought the plane down, it’s possible that he had picked up ice and the power reduction and increased stall speed became a deadly combination.
 
Fearless Tower said:
I can see a plausible scenario where the pilot pulls power back to give some extra time for the vehicle to clear. While ice should not have brought the plane down, it’s possible that he had picked up ice and the power reduction and increased stall speed became a deadly combination.
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Given the video of this thing plummeting out of the sky essentially straight down, this is the most plausible scenario given what little info we have. Stall into a spin? What are the stall characteristics of something like an E90? I imagine they aren't great.
 
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Steve Costello said:
Given the video of this this plummeting out of the sky essentially straight down, this is the most plausible scenario given what little info we have. Stall into a spin? What are the stall characteristics of something like an E90? I imagine they aren't great.
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My experience is that they’re fairly abrupt and rarely symmetrical, but easily recoverable with good technique.

Whether a pilot is prepared to apply good technique to an inadvertent stall is an entirely different issue. Most pilots that I work with seem to treat stall recovery as a check ride maneuver rather than a life skill.
 
Looked like it was going full speed?!! Clearly no fire!
 
MauleSkinner said:
Whether a pilot is prepared to apply good technique to an inadvertent stall is an entirely different issue. Most pilots that I work with seem to treat stall recovery as a check ride maneuver rather than a life skill.
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Altitude helps too, does it not?
 
AviAlex said:
This has caused me to pause and try to determine if I wanted to get back in the sky, because if it happened to him, it can happen to anyone.
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I am sorry for your loss. It is sudden and unexpected, I know from experiencing the same.

But I have known folks to die in cars, motorcycles, bicycles and walking as well as airplanes, and I still do all. Do you think Tim would want you to stop flying, or learn from this accident and move forward.??
 
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