Mid air collision reported at T31

JCranford

JCranford

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JCranford
Just heard a report of a two plane mid-air collision at Aero Country, T31. One fatality reported so far. No other details yet.
 
Man these last few days of the year have been terrible.
 
One down in the street (RV?). The other came down in a storage center.
 
Heard of that one too. Been to McKinney before. It is hard when it hits close to home.
And the attempted bad humor from the self-proclaimed "journalists" does not help. "One dead in a mid-air plane collision" is not my style of humor, I guess.
 
BigBadLou said:
Heard of that one too. Been to McKinney before. It is hard when it hits close to home.
And the attempted bad humor from the self-proclaimed "journalists" does not help. "One dead in a mid-air plane collision" is not my style of humor, I guess.
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Huh? Where'd that come from?
 
Watching the news, an eyewitness called in and reported that he saw two small airplanes collide and that one immediately went into a spiral and crashed and the other headed off to the east, also descending quickly. He had no idea what happened to that airplane.
 
Those pictures are just awful. I feel terrible for the families. RIP :(
 
Is that a person's head in the pic?

Sorry for the loss. Keeping their families in our thoughts tonight.
 
BigBadLou said:
Heard of that one too. Been to McKinney before. It is hard when it hits close to home.
And the attempted bad humor from the self-proclaimed "journalists" does not help. "One dead in a mid-air plane collision" is not my style of humor, I guess.
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Maybe I would have to see the video you're talking about, but saying "One dead in a mid-air plane collision" doesn't sound like someone even trying to be funny. It sounds like a fact in the story.

We're trying to figure out if this was the Luscombe my friend sold to a guy at Aero Country. It was a silver and red 8A with a red interior. Always a sad day when pilot's die doing what they love.
 
That's my aviation worst nightmare :-(
 
Ugh. Horrible. :(
 
Low-wing and a high-wing, easy for them to lose sight of each other. I saw a video kids took where one kid was yelling "they just hit each other". He was terrified, then you see a black plume of smoke. Horrible to witness.
 
That's tragic! So heartbreaking for the families.

I stopped for fuel in Commerce, about 40 miles east of T31 Aero Country, right around when this collision happened. Commerce shares the same CTAF frequency (122.9), and I heard several planes at T31 when I was there. Pilots there were making standard position reports and nothing sounded out of the ordinary. Then again, I wasn't paying too much attention because I wasn't in their vicinity.

If anybody comes across a recording of their CTAF, I'd love to hear it. T31 isn't on LiveATC ... but being in a metro area, maybe there's a chance somebody got it recorded.

Also, I'm not sure what field they were at, but there were several local yokel "Bubba" types on freq tonight. Not uncommon, especially on a holiday, for "how you doin'" type conversations at small fields. The calls I heard from T31 were very standard, though.

I'd hate to think somebody at T31 missed a critical traffic call because Bubba had to chitchat with his buddies on freq.
 
On another board, a witness claimed he saw the accident. His quote,

"I saw it. I was eating dinner watching planes land with my family. Something like a Luscombe was on downwind. Something like a Piper Archer was on a mid field cross wind. The Piper flew into the tail of the Luscombe and cut it off. The Luscombe nosed over and fell straight down. The Piper continued a little more east and then hit the ground. It made a big black plum of smoke. This is very sad."
 
Pretty much just confirmed this is the plane my friend owned and we flew all over the country. There is a trim tab that had been added to the right aileron and it's visible in the crash photos. It was such a sweet flying Luscombe and the guy who bought it was so excited to own and fly it. Very sad.
 
So sad. RIP. I learned to fly there, many years ago, before it was T31, and the area around the airport was very different then. I guess nowadays it's likely the pilots were residents.
 
Lowflynjack said:
Pretty much just confirmed this is the plane my friend owned and we flew all over the country. There is a trim tab that had been added to the right aileron and it's visible in the crash photos. It was such a sweet flying Luscombe and the guy who bought it was so excited to own and fly it. Very sad.
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Sorry to hear, Jack.
It is much harder to swallow when we realize we know the pilot. :(
R.I.P.
 
On another board, a witness claimed he saw the accident. His quote,

"I saw it. I was eating dinner watching planes land with my family. Something like a Luscombe was on downwind. Something like a Piper Archer was on a mid field cross wind. The Piper flew into the tail of the Luscombe and cut it off. The Luscombe nosed over and fell straight down. The Piper continued a little more east and then hit the ground. It made a big black plum of smoke. This is very sad."

If the above is true, it tells of another reason to use standard pattern entries.
 
pmanton said:
If the above is true, it tells of another reason to use standard pattern entries.
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I suggested that here once after twice being cutoff by pilots entering on a mid-field x-wind and was significantly chastised for it.

Unfortunately, some pilots are going to do whatever they want to do. You really need to have your head on a swivel.
 
Oh boy, this is terrible. I fly to McKinney quite a bit and around Aero all the time. I received some text messages yesterday asking me if I was flying in the area, people wondering if it was me that went down. I would be interested to know what radio calls were made (if any) and how this happened. Geez. RIP......
 
Very sad... Prayers to the family's of all involved. R.I.P.
 
Fearless Tower said:
I suggested that here once after twice being cutoff by pilots entering on a mid-field x-wind and was significantly chastised for it.

Unfortunately, some pilots are going to do whatever they want to do. You really need to have your head on a swivel.
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I remember some discussions about "its better to just cross mid field so you can see, vs flying a descending teardrop to do a 45 entry...." a few times. It does suck to be on the wrong side of the runway, but at the 45 is where people will be looking.
If the Arrow did hit the Luscombe mid doenwind....man that really sucks.
 
I'd say more keep your head of a swivel.

Lots of folks make compulsive like radio calls, talk a lot but don't really listen and look as much.



that kid sounded a little more frantic than I'd think he would, horrible thing to see, still felt a little extra distressed for a third party.




RIP
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
NORDO....or did either of these planes have radios?
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Perhaps the Luscombe? But if the other was an Arrow it would be pretty unusual for it to be without a radio. Doesn't mean it was on the right frequency or that the pilot was talking to anyone though.

I had a very close call in an identical situation a couple of summers back when I nearly hit an RV-4 that was not listening or talking. The ironic thing is we were flying in to a memorial service for a mutual friend who had died in an airplane accident.
 
Turns out it wasn't the plane or pilot I thought it was. I was surprised to find another silver/red Luscombe was based at the same airport. It was a father and son that were killed in the Luscombe, so very sad for one family.
 
James331 said:
that kid sounded a little more frantic than I'd think he would, horrible thing to see, still felt a little extra distressed for a third party.
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You think he sounded too frantic for a 13 year-old who just saw two planes collide overhead? I think he handled it pretty well. Not every day you see something like this luckily.
 
Lowflynjack said:
You think he sounded too frantic for a 13 year-old who just saw two planes collide overhead? I think he handled it pretty well. Not every day you see something like this luckily.
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A little over the top/frantic, yeah.



GRG55 said:
... Doesn't mean it was on the right frequency or that the pilot was talking to anyone though.....
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This is part of the problem, too many people think taking on the radio is the answer, yet they don't LISTEN or LOOK.

Incoherently babbling about your every move in the pattern is useless if you don't listen.

I've gone into airport with the calling every let type, said my intentions and tried to coordinate, no response, but he kept on going on and on about his every move lol
 
Very sad....prayers for the family left behind.

Fond memories of T31, that's where I sealed the deal on my Sundowner and had the prebuy completed. Bo Boggs was based there for many years.
 
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