Lafayette, LA 8 passenger plane crash

5 fatalities - sad.

Video shows a fairly long burning track. KATC report starting to have more details. Apparently taking off in very low visibility and hit a power line or pole while attempting an off field landing.
 
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Low ceilings and terrible visibility across the deep south. Trying to get to the game the same day probably played a role in the decision to go.
 
I was sitting at pdk watching all the private charters and personal planes coming in for the LSU / oklahoma game. Game is tomorrow. Sad to see. Most flights waited to leave at 11am ish. Low cielings all over SE.
 
Tdaf22 said:
I was sitting at pdk watching all the private charters and personal planes coming in for the LSU / oklahoma game. Game is tomorrow. Sad to see. Most flights waited to leave at 11am ish. Low cielings all over SE.
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Game is today, not tomorrow.
 
so sad. That pilot almost made that field... ** edit. He needed a lot more than 15' to make that field.

gosh I hate that - same as every accident.
 
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Sad indeed, sounds like this was right after takeoff.
 
Sad to hear. They just did a report before the game. Tough loss. That’s a good airplane to go down so soon after t/o
 
Bonchie said:
Low ceilings and terrible visibility across the deep south. Trying to get to the game the same day probably played a role in the decision to go.
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The reports said it was a Piper Cheyenne II...a turboprop with a pair of 620 shp PT6As on it.
Unless there was fog on the runway, or thunderstorm cells over the airport, there's no reason that airplane (with a suitably experienced pilot) shouldn't be able to launch and get above the weather in short order.

Pure speculation but it seems either something mechanical went wrong, or maybe another LOC accident on rotation climbing into immediate IMC (certainly not the first time the latter has happened).
 
GRG55 said:
The reports said it was a Piper Cheyenne II...a turboprop with a pair of 620 shp PT6As on it.
Unless there was fog on the runway, or thunderstorm cells over the airport, there's no reason that airplane (with a suitably experienced pilot) shouldn't be able to launch and get above the weather in short order.

Pure speculation but it seems either something mechanical went wrong, or maybe another LOC accident on rotation climbing into immediate IMC (certainly not the first time the latter has happened).
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The most reasonable explanation is pilot induced loss of control. As you said, it's unlikely it was engine related and I doubt the wing just fell off or something.

Going immediately into IMC with 1/4 mile visibility will always be an increased risk. These are the kinds of accidents that so inflate the GA fatality statistics. Weather related crashes are always a top killer.
 
CNN is reporting that the flight track shows a sharp left turn after departure, & aircraft never climbed above 300 ft.

Maybe possible left engine issues.
 
Fire officials later identified the dead as:

• Ian E. Biggs, 51, pilot
• Robert Vaughn Crisp II, 59
• Carley Ann McCord, 30
• Gretchen D. Vincent, 51
• Michael Walker Vincent, 15

The 6th passenger was identified as Stephen Wade Berzas, 37. He is in critical condition.
 
Pilot Ian E. Biggs. commercial MSEL, instrument. 2nd class medical from 11/2019.
 
jallen0 said:
Fire officials later identified the dead as:

• Ian E. Biggs, 51, pilot
• Robert Vaughn Crisp II, 59
• Carley Ann McCord, 30
• Gretchen D. Vincent, 51
• Michael Walker Vincent, 15

The 6th passenger was identified as Stephen Wade Berzas, 37. He is in critical condition.
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Wow. Incredible to survive. Hope his condition improves.
 
I was in Lafayette at the time of the crash this morning. Wasn’t flying just running i10 from Hammond to Lake Charles. Didn’t see the official weather but it didn’t appear to be anything that pilot or plane couldn’t handle. He only made it to around 300’. Pilot Error wouldn’t be my first guess.
 
Wonder if it was overweight or had a c/g issue. Ground effect, strong engines and t/o flaps get it up and once flaps start retracting problems arise maybe.
 
lsaway said:
CNN is reporting that the flight track shows a sharp left turn after departure, & aircraft never climbed above 300 ft.

Maybe possible left engine issues.
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Turning or rolling left seems unusually common. An AOPA article link with some brief twin turboprop take-off accident descriptions. Count how many of them went to the left...

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2017/november/pilot/turbine-take-no-shortcuts

In the case of the Melbourne Essendon Airport King Air 300 accident the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau investigation found the cause of the accident was the rudder trim was set to full nose-left and wasn't caught during the pre-take off checks. A summary of the investigation is linked below.

Reminds me of another King Air accident, in the UK a few years back. Low viz take-off with rotation into immediate IMC. Airplane rolled left after airborne and crashed into an airport building. Turns out it was in for maintenance just prior, the throttle friction lock was backed off. The left throttle retarded during takeoff resulting in an asymmetric thrust the pilot didn't catch and correct fast enough on the instruments.

In both these cases nothing wrong with either engine throughout.
You just never know what might be the thing...

https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2017/aair/ao-2017-024/


Rein Hart said:
Wonder if it was overweight or had a c/g issue. Ground effect, strong engines and t/o flaps get it up and once flaps start retracting problems arise maybe.
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8 place airplane with only 6 on board, <3 hour flight time, going to a football game. Seems low probability of being overloaded.
 
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Sad situation. Incidentally I have a pretty good amount of time in the accident airplane, although it was over 15 years ago. :(
 
Pilawt said:
Do they use external gust locks on PA-31Ts?
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FYI: doubt it was a gust lock. Aircraft went down about 1 mile from runway, slightly left of the center line with the debris field perpendicular to that line. Local reports have smoke trailing an engine.
 
Purely speculation, but my guess is pilot tried to make an emergency landing in the cleared field. He might have made it but for the power lines.
 
Bell206 said:
Local reports have smoke trailing an engine.
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And given the low visibility... How, exactly did they see said smoke trail? o_O

This is why witness reports are next to worthless. My favorite example is the one where the witness swore up and down that the engine was sputtering... It was a glider.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
And given the low visibility... How, exactly did they see said smoke trail? o_O
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Well, visibility and ceilings at the accident site were much higher/farther than at the airport due to its location. A number of people heard then saw the plane emerge from the fog/cloud base which is why there is one survivor. They also pulled a few other bodies out. Several saw smoke/a trail behind an engine. So perhaps these witnesses may have something.;)
 
The Cheyenne II is a bit pitch neutral when the CG gets close to the aft limit. Worse if the CG is out the aft. Combined with a rotation into IMC might be a bit of a challenge.
 
I used to live about 1000' from where the plane crashed, had a PO box inside the Feu Follet post office. There are no weather reports from the crash site so no idea if the weather was better or worse than the 200' & 3/4mi at the airport; could have been either. I flew out of LFT for 9 yrs and it is a fog hole...have to bring your "A" game to the table. Eyewitness testimony is unreliable. Eyewitness testimony from a trained pilot is only slightly better. The brain can encode catastrophic events in strange ways. It's a sad event and I doubt a definitive answer to what happen will be found.
 
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