Mooney down in Victoria, MN 8/7/2021

Could be as many as 5 fatalities. About 15 miles from our house. Called the 1 minute wx at a nearby airport and OVC 800ft...but that was about 45min later. But its been low like this all day. Very sad. Appears to be a M20.
 
No fatalities other than in the plane itself so will be less than 5. The doorbell footage looks horrible and instantaneous. One witness reported it spiraling down and parts coming off.
 
The registered owner appears to be a general surgeon from Omaha.
 
Those video grabs are eerie. Seems to be either:

both wings were fully folded back prior to impact, so hard to imagine that happening.

Or, since the tail struck first, there might be just enough height left that the instant moment arm to the front basically snapped the wings and the ends stayed where they were while the fuselage continued down the last 15ft or so.

Since witnesses reported seeing parts falling off and debris found in a second, fairly close, location it seems like both wings had folded back above the ground.
 
It will be very interesting to hear what the other debris is. Apparently he started descending and making S-turns a fairs ways back.
 
The wings definitely appear to be folded back pre impact. Wake turbulence or clipping trees just before impact are my only guesses. There was an Arrow a handful of years ago that broke up and ended in lake Michigan due to wake turbulence. Are witness reports ever right? The missed calls are another thing. So many oddities here
 
weilke said:
The registered owner appears to be a general surgeon from Omaha.
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If the reports are correct and it was him, he used to have the hangar directly across from me. We met and talked a few times, super nice guy. RIP.
 
DaleB said:
If the reports are correct and it was him, he used to have the hangar directly across from me. We met and talked a few times, super nice guy. RIP.
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I believe the family has confirmed it. It was him, his step daughter and her husband.
 
PeterNSteinmetz said:
Link to mooneyspace thread
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This has got us Mooniacs scratching our pointy little heads. A video of the crash shows the wings folded up like a butterfly at rest. Mooneys aren't exactly known for doing that. One minute the pilot was flying an approach at 110 knots, the next he's in a catastrophic pitch level descent shedding parts and breaking the wings in half, all in what appears to be benign IFR conditions. Only Mooney I ever heard of to break the spar did it in the middle of a big thunderstorm.
 
IIRC, it was convective thunderstorms early morning and ended around 8am or so. Then it was low overcast all day and drizzling most of the day. I live about 10 miles from there. My daughter and I were playing tennis around 2pm and gave up because it was too wet. I did hear another small plane about then (over 2hrs before the crash, different plane) and wondered what the hell they were doing up there. Then again, it wasn't convective big T-Storms so maybe they were practicing actual IFR, etc.

In wx like that I'd be wondering about carb ice in our old 182. It might have been just a bit too warm but there was definitely visible moisture. I'm guessing the Mooney setup doesn't make ice so its probably barely worth mentioning. I thought he was filed for 5000msl. I wonder if he was in the soup the entire time.

The fact he was doing some S-turns in total IMC seems like a probably way for things to start going bad.

It appeared as if he had his nose gear extended? Is that just standard procedure for the airspeed / approach he was on?
 
Sinistar said:
It appeared as if he had his nose gear extended? Is that just standard procedure for the airspeed / approach he was on?
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The approaches I've done gear is out several miles from the airport. He was at gear speeds for that aircraft so it probably had been lowered.
 
As light planes go, this one was newer than many, 1991 or 92 model. I realize location & individual care factor in, but it wasn’t a 60’s vintage plane. Most have fewer hours than the average Warrior too.

It seems something went wrong setting up(doing) for the approach, aircraft, instruments, or the pilot.
 
It does not appear that it has its horizontal stab in the one frame I saw. Maybe that caused the overstress leading to the spar failure. I can't say for certain that the wings were folded up. It might have been the roll angle of the fuselage.
 
LesGawlik said:
It does not appear that it has its horizontal stab in the one frame I saw. Maybe that caused the overstress leading to the spar failure. I can't say for certain that the wings were folded up. It might have been the roll angle of the fuselage.
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Here's a screen grab posted on HomeBuiltAirplanes.com:

upload_2021-8-9_14-41-53.jpeg

Pretty hard photo to look at ...
 
Aircraft went through some really wild pitch excursions, staring with +2000 ft/min and -2000 ft/min and escalating. Looks like he was headed down fast (350 mph!), got below the cloud deck, pulled hard and broke the airplane. Only the second Mooney to ever break the spar. RIP to the occupants, at least it was quick.
 
From the Kathryn's report. The witness location matches up believably with the site. If this is right it would answer several questions. I can't find the Youtube video to back it up though:

AnonymousMonday, August 9, 2021 at 10:52:00 AM EDT
A comment from youtube:

"I saw the whole thing from start to finish. I was standing by my car in the holiday gas station across the street when I heard a low flying airplane, I looked up to see it approaching from the southwest in a steep left bank to the north, diving, and at a high rate of speed. It appeared the plane then attempted to level off abruptly at which point both wings folded up and it started plummeting to the ground. There were some small pieces of debris falling off, sounds like there were parts of the tail section found in yards to the south. It looked for a moment that the plane was going to come down right where I was in the parking lot but it passed overhead and hit the ground across the street. Have not heard anyone else mention the wings folding up but it was plain as day to me and also clearly visible in this footage right before impact."
 
The video (and still from the video) is horrifying. The sheer terror that must have been those last seconds. Dear God. :( I feel absolutely awful for anyone whose last moments are like that.
 
Steve Costello said:
The video (and still from the video) is horrifying. The sheer terror that must have been those last seconds. Dear God. :( I feel absolutely awful for anyone whose last moments are like that.
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Absolutely my worst nightmare as a pilot. Ever since I saw the video of the firefighting C-130 that lost its wings, I've had nightmares of being trapped in an aircraft totally out of control just waiting on the ground to come up.
 
Sinistar said:
A comment from youtube:

"I saw the whole thing from start to finish.
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If that description is true, is this loss of vacuum system? He starts making S-turns and sounds on the radio like he is struggling to understand what is happening.

Picture of panel, possibly older, from bradp on mooneyspace.

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That’s extraordinary amount of detail given the final moments after coming out of the clouds lasted only a few seconds.
 
Here's (very roughly) that ILS for 10R.
 

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Bill said:
Or switched it on? I use George up high, but he's old and cranky and don't trust him down low.
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Sounds like this involved an inflight breakup…While I’ve flown some autopilots that will hold significant control pressure, it’s gradually applied. I have yet to meet an autopilot that will pull that hard, even with malfunctions, but I haven’t flown them all.
 
Daleandee said:
Here's a screen grab posted on HomeBuiltAirplanes.com:

View attachment 99038

Pretty hard photo to look at ...
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Yes. That's clearer. Some have said that the nose gear is down. The mains certainly aren't. Also, It might be the perspective but I don't see a horizontal stab, at least on the left.
 
Shame an airframe parachute wasn’t on the mooney as last resort after wing failure. I recall a stunt plane breaking a wing and parachute saved both the pilot and plane.
 
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