PC-12 Air Ambulance, Amarillo

3393RP

3393RP

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3393RP
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I usually don't post this type of thread, so I apologize if it offends anyone.

Last Saturday a PC-12 on a medical dispatch went down after takeoff from Rick Husband International (KAMA), directly south of the departure runway. The pilot was an accomplished airman.

I can't imagine what might have caused this professionally flown turboprop to go down so quickly after takeoff. The weather was good, and the incident occurred just after midnight. There was no radio communication after takeoff.

A failure transitioning to instruments, perhaps? But the area south of the airport has many buildings and such. There must have been good ground lighting to reference.

I know at least one of our POA members flies the Pilatus professionally, and perhaps there are more. I was hoping a member with experience in the aircraft could offer some insight.

I hate medical flight crashes. The crews fly at all hours, and routinely dispatch into challenging weather to help those in distress. I admire their dedication very much, and it always saddens me when these incidents occur.

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http://amarillo.com/news/local-news...ne-was-headed-clovis-nm-deadly-amarillo-crash
 
We had a nasty cold frontal system blow thru that night.
 
Obviously too early to speculate. Could have been several reasons including pilot fatigue. Many of these operations do not adhere to rest rules. Could have just as easily been engine issues or W&B issues... along with a host of other things.
 
Mh:

It is possible that the autopilot disconnected during the accident flight due to the pitch trim adapter experiencing a loss of power, which would have to have occurred between 30 and 9 seconds before impact.

It is also possible that he was trying to get the autopilot to engage from the moment he took off, only interrupted by the time he spent on re-setting the transponder. In absence of a recording system we don't know whether this was his only attempt to engage the AP.

Scary how quickly this went from a routine positioning flight to a smoking hole.
 
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@weilke Here is it:

"The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:

The pilot's loss of airplane control due to spatial disorientation during the initial climb after takeoff in night instrument meteorological conditions and moderate turbulence."

I added a link to it in my OP.
 
Axtel4 said:
@weilke Here is it:

"The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:

The pilot's loss of airplane control due to spatial disorientation during the initial climb after takeoff in night instrument meteorological conditions and moderate turbulence."

I added a link to it in my OP.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Found it in the meantime.
 
Piperonca said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model Sketchy autopilot was the last layer to slide into place.
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Yep. Still, some on these forums don't believe in any sort of "accident chain". But there usually is one, and a single break in the chain (or substitution of a slice of sharp cheddar!) may stop anything bad from occurring (and leave the pilot ignorant of his close call.)
 
Buddy of mine (still in the FAA going to accidents) gave me the "Swiss cheese" name for something I already knew from doing several investigations in my Army days. There are almost always contributing factors (bird strikes maybe one of the rare exceptions). You are absolutely right about breaking the accident chain. Awareness and airmanship can save the day.
 
Single pilot, IFR, 24/7 is not the kind of operation to be lax in fixing autopilot issues. I would be looking at the company culture and history in repairing snags for the true root cause.
BTDT!
 
It is SOP to hit the AP at 1k AGL

Even if he hit some chop that set the AP off he still would have the flight director, just follow that.

The mins for these jobs are on average exceeded ATP mins, 2500tt, couple hundred IMC, thousand or so turbine.

I guess anything is possible and we have our bad days and all.

One other thought, if for whatever reason he had a bunch of flaps down (not sure why he would) and fully stalled it (it has a shaker pusher) it will do basically a wing over with a MAJOR loss of altitude.

Again, don’t know, and it’s hard for me to think he would have done a spatial d, 80hrs in a medevac PC12, depending on the base, is a good chunk of flights.
 
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Black hole flying will bite.
 
Too bad we can't have a seance and ask the pilot's ghost what really happened. Why did he not follow the FD if it was so easy?
 
I see too many pilots do paper work after taking off, and not just medevac pilots. Head buried in the paper, A/P has an anomaly and away we go. Not saying this is what happened, but it does happen.

I took off in a KA 90 late one night on a training flight, hit the A/P at 1000 AGL, and the thing started trimming nose down. A person concentrating on paper work might not have noticed it. The instructor and myself noticed it. It did it every time the A/P was turned on. We turned around, parked it, wrote it up and it was fixed. The plane sat for 5 days getting it fixed.

I am still not a fan of King Airs.
 
I get a bit lost in all the autopilot talk reading that report. But it seems to me they spent a lot of time talking about it and issues with it to turn around blame “spatial disorientation” and pilot error.
 
James331 said:
The flight director doesn’t know it’s black hole, just follow it.
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The only thing that's legacy PC12 specific that might bite a pilot with not alot of PC12 time is if your autopilot does something you don't understand and you disconnect it with the red button. That kills your flight director too.

So, take off, autopilot does "something" and you kick it off with the red button instead of the trim trigger, you now also killed your FD. Then start fumbling with the mode control panel and that can easily get you in a place where you don't want to be.
 
mtuomi said:
The only thing that's legacy PC12 specific that might bite a pilot with not alot of PC12 time is if your autopilot does something you don't understand and you disconnect it with the red button. That kills your flight director too.

So, take off, autopilot does "something" and you kick it off with the red button instead of the trim trigger, you now also killed your FD. Then start fumbling with the mode control panel and that can easily get you in a place where you don't want to be.
Click to expand...

True, but with 80 hrs I’d think he would know to leave the button alone, but who knows.
 
benyflyguy said:
I get a bit lost in all the autopilot talk reading that report. But it seems to me they spent a lot of time talking about it and issues with it to turn around blame “spatial disorientation” and pilot error.
Click to expand...

The autopilot is not a system the loss of which should absolve the pilot from the responsibility of flying the plane under control.
 
mtuomi said:
The only thing that's legacy PC12 specific that might bite a pilot with not alot of PC12 time is if your autopilot does something you don't understand and you disconnect it with the red button. That kills your flight director too.
Click to expand...

Not uncommon, the big red button on top of the right yoke horn on the 201 kills both the autopilot and FD. Old King KFC-200. Right trigger finger brings the FD back up.
 
James331 said:
True, but with 80 hrs I’d think he would know to leave the button alone, but who knows.
Click to expand...

Depends what he was flying before. Usually in bigger planes the red button only disconnects the autopilot but leaves FD alone.
On the NG, the red button kicks out YD and AP but leaves FD on.
 
In the pc12s I’ve flown the trigger kills the AP and leaves the rest, the button takes it all out
 
James331 said:
In the pc12s I’ve flown the trigger kills the AP and leaves the rest, the button takes it all out
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's different in NG though. NG it leaves the FD but kills AP/YD. Legacies it gets rid of it all. So, in IMC, landing a legacy, I use the trigger and then kick off YD with the mode selector button. Landing an NG, I use the red button.
 
mtuomi said:
Yeah, it's different in NG though. NG it leaves the FD but kills AP/YD. Legacies it gets rid of it all. So, in IMC, landing a legacy, I use the trigger and then kick off YD with the mode selector button. Landing an NG, I use the red button.
Click to expand...
To a non PC-12 guy, that sounds like a lot to remember in the heat of the moment. Not so much for a planned aporoach, but for an emergency.

Even so, no FD should not be a big deal. Sometimes having an incorrect FD (self induced) might be a big deal.
 
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