No Media Report but... Mooney M20 Near Peoria, IL

Yeah, looking through the Facebook comments - one person underneath (about 1/2 mile west under the point of impact) did report "sputtering" and signs of distress.
 
Look at all those power phone/power lines!

When it comes to eyewitnesses saying the engine sounded like it was sputtering, I take that with a grain of salt. Nearly every accident an eyewitness will say that.
 
Also wondering if oxygen was a factor, he was up at 15,000 for a while. (I've never flown on supplemental oxygen - so I'm totally ignorant on the subject). That town is very small surrounded by so much open farmland (with paved roads) - I'm not sure why in the descent between 15,000' to 728' the heart of the town looked liked the best option.
 
On KPIA (LiveATC) in 1700Z archive for 2022-08-13.

At about 21 minutes in, pilot establishes contact and requests landing clearance. All sounds normal.

At about 27 minutes in, pilot reports engine out. (Two people on board, and eventually reports about 10 gals of fuel left). Tower asks if pilot can make it to airport, and when the pilot reports he cannot, tower advises they are over the state highway (where the crash occurred) can be used.

Pilot advised a town was there; tower asked if he could make a 180 to be clear of the town.

No further contact from pilot; Tower asked another craft to go visibly look at site of Peoria VOR. (Which is near the town).

At about 12 minutes in to the 1730Z archive, they confirm location on the state highway.
 
The weather looks great in the picture. Unless in a pattern of sorts(low), plenty of farm fields in IL. Even if mature corn is a little harsh, better than a wired, tight street, usually.
 
Crazy. I drove on that highway through that town yesterday. @Jim K and I left the Peoria area about an hour before that. Weather was beautiful.

In fact, Jim and I were discussing that if we couldn't make an airport we'd go for the corn with gear retracted.
 
sonnikaz said:
Also wondering if oxygen was a factor, he was up at 15,000 for a while. (I've never flown on supplemental oxygen - so I'm totally ignorant on the subject). That town is very small surrounded by so much open farmland (with paved roads) - I'm not sure why in the descent between 15,000' to 728' the heart of the town looked liked the best option.
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Yeah, that's one we'll never get answered. Plenty of flat farmland. Perhaps they wanted to land on pavement to mitigate a fuel exhaustion issue.
 
There's actually a grass strip not far from where they put it down (they pretty much flew right over it).

The internet tells me a K model can go 4.9 hours. They flew 4.9 hours. They passed Canton (CTK) which has perfectly good fuel. I don't understand.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
There's actually a grass strip not far from where they put it down (they pretty much flew right over it).

The internet tells me a K model can go 4.9 hours. They flew 4.9 hours. They passed Canton (CTK) which has perfectly good fuel. I don't understand.
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Is that strip charted?
 
Looks like they were on some big trip. Looping around the east coast down to FL then back to NM. Kinda crazy to try to stretch fuel like that. Did some longer flights per FlightAware but nothing past 4h. I don’t know what id want to sit in a Mooney for more than 3
 
RyanB said:
Fuel exhaustion? 5hrs is a good punch non-stop.
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benyflyguy said:
Looks like they were on some big trip. Looping around the east coast down to FL then back to NM. Kinda crazy to try to stretch fuel like that. Did some longer flights per FlightAware but nothing past 4h. I don’t know what id want to sit in a Mooney for more than 3
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If the victims correspond to the registered owner, they split their time between NY and NM. The plane appears to have been in Santa Fe since June 15.
 
When there’s flat farmland as far as the eye can see in every direction, don’t let ATC talk you into a road — especially if landing on the road puts you in the middle of the only town within 20 miles.

I have no idea why they had to make an emergency landing, but it appears to me that the PIC partially abdicated the “C” part.
 
My understanding is the crash site is just to the east of Brown. The gray line is the highway they crashed on. It's a two lane highway with a small turn lane down the middle if I remember correctly. Might be 4 lanes in places. If I had missed Canton or Brown I would've gone for corn. But I'm local so there's that...

Screenshot_20220814-124644_Chrome.jpg
 
Another vote for corn. Power lines and cars scare the crap out of me and the plane owes me nothing.
 
Airborne 4hrs 50 min. Not good.
After engine quits over endless flat farmland, he decides to land in the center of the only town for miles. Literally crashes into the outside of a restaurant during lunch hours. Really not good.
At least nobody on the ground was injured. RIP
 
mr_happyland said:
...Literally crashes into the outside of a restaurant during lunch hours. Really not good.
At least nobody on the ground was injured. RIP
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Fortunately, that restaurant is only open for dinner. I know it well; if you're ever in the area and you're looking for some good fried midwest food - this is your place to go.

You're right of course, as the video shows - there's plenty of east/west traffic to/from Peoria on that highway as well as local goings on. There's a coffee joint, a diner-style restaurant right in the area where the video was shot. Fortunately, fire/rescue is just on the other side of that intersection.
 
benyflyguy said:
Crash didn’t look that bad. With shoulder harness could have been survivable.
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Take a closer look at video of the impact point on the building. It is a corner constructed of several courses of masonry. Based on the condition of the forward fuselage, I doubt the force of impact was survivable. The pilot apparently elected to hit the building instead of the car in his path that was turning right.
 
5 hours might not be that bad in a K. They had the turbo so they were up high, a Mooney can sip fuel at those altitudes and go fast. If they configured the aircraft correctly they'd have had enough fuel on board to get to their nearest. I hit 5 on the clock in my aircraft once and still had 10 gallons aboard (didn't do it again either!). I agree, I'd have been looking for a flat field. Pity they hadn't shoulder harnesses, though from the look of the nose in those photos it might not have made a difference.
 
I went back and listened to the ATC feed. They were doing a normal descent headed for PIA. About 10 miles out (I believe they were around 3,000 feet or so) he reported an engine out. When the controller asked for fuel on board he responded with "we got about 10 gallons."

https://archive.liveatc.net/kpia/KPIA-App-125800-Aug-13-2022-1700Z.mp3

Starts around 22 minutes in and the report of engine out is around 29 minutes. He mentions something about "it's coughing off and on." Sure sounds like fuel starvation to me. ATC actually pointed out the road and suggested to use it for landing. But then he says he is over a town and it becomes clear ATC only pointed it out to land on outside of the town. Even asked him to make a 180 away from the town but it was too late.
 
Unlike cars, airplanes are not designed with crumple zones. To slam into an immovable object at 60kts is a death sentence in our spam cans.
 
"A postaccident examination revealed that the left-wing fuel tank was breached during the impact and
absent of fuel. The right-wing fuel tank remained intact, and when opened, only a small amount of fuel
was present inside of the tank. The fuel selector was found to be on “RIGHT TANK.” The fuel strainer
contained about 3 oz of fuel and the fuel line into the fuel flow divider was absent of fuel. The fuel flow
divider was disassembled and no blockages were observed within the divider or fuel lines that would
have prevented fuel from reaching the cylinders. The magnetos were removed and tested utilizing a drill
with all leads producing bright blue spark."
 
Also, the plane hit powerlines when trying to land on the highway. Don't run out of fuel, folks
 
Sad besides being out of fuel the corn may have been a better choice for landing. RIP
 
I’ll say it again, fuel stops are 1/3 of the fun & adventure. Take a break, forget using that Gatorade bottle, or worse. If the leg looks stretched, pick a spot midway of interest.

Truly the lowest hanging of fruit for accident prevention.
 
sourdough44 said:
I’ll say it again, fuel stops are 1/3 of the fun & adventure. Take a break, forget using that Gatorade bottle, or worse. If the leg looks stretched, pick a spot midway of interest.

Truly the lowest hanging of fruit for accident prevention.
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Perhaps the second lowest fruit; a simple glance at the weather may be #1 for me.
 
Listening to the ATC feed, the controller suggested the possibility of a landing on Rte 116, and it seemed that the pilot fixated on that, considering a landing on pavement while ignoring the open fields around him. Obviously the pilot was stressed (as anyone would be) and possibly had developed tunnel vision with respect to the choice of an off-field landing. I think ( just my opinion here) that in moments of stress, we humans tend to seize upon any hint of normalcy, as represented by the controller's calm conversation about Rte 116, and focus on that, minimizing the real life occurring around us. Other than "don't ever run out of fuel", there may be a lesson to learn here: keep our heads on a swivel and our brains in gear.
 
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