Plane in wires near KGAI (Montgomery County, MD)

From washington post online: "Both the pilot and the passenger were taken to a local trauma center with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, fire officials said. Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said they sustained hypothermia, orthopedic and trauma-related injuries. He said they were “able to assist with their removal” from the plane."

From another site, one was 65, the other 67, and they were stuck up there for almost 7 hours. Can't imagine.

But yeah, they survived it, and that doesn't sound likely.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Still plenty of opportunity for injury; I’m going to hold my jokes til they are safely down.

When they left, was not the metar 400 & 3?
adds is acting up for me, can’t be sure this is right.
(not defending or chastising them… just like the facts.)

How to find the tafs they were presented with? Historical tafs, I guess. Are those a thing?
Click to expand...
Ask and ye shall, oh dear…
I used both Dulles and BWI. As you can see, the TAFs were all over the place, kind of unpredictable as to the arrival of the system. I’m guessing the are was close to the center of low pressure and there was a fast-moving occlusion, which made the timing hard to pin down. Note how the 21/22z IAD forecast deteriorated rapidly as the day wore on, but the BWI forecast for the same period improved, until the actual forecast time, when it was well worse than forecast.

KIAD 271120Z 2712/2818 18006KT 6SM -RA SCT025 OVC060
FM271500 18008G16KT 5SM -RA SCT008 OVC015 WS020/20040KT
FM271600 17008G16KT 2SM RA BR BKN006 OVC015 WS020/19040KT
FM272000 18008KT 6SM -SHRA BR SCT004 BKN006 OVC015 WS020/21040KT
FM272200 23008KT P6SM BKN015 WS020/22045KT
FM280000 23008G16KT P6SM BKN040
FM281300 30012G24KT P6SM BKN040

KIAD 271459Z 2715/2818 19010G20KT P6SM BKN020 OVC040 WS020/20040KT
FM271600 17008G16KT 3SM -RA BR BKN008 OVC015 WS020/19040KT
FM272000 18008KT 6SM -SHRA BR SCT004 BKN006 OVC015 WS020/21040KT
FM272200 23008KT P6SM BKN015 WS020/22045KT
FM280000 23008G16KT P6SM BKN040
FM281300 30012G24KT P6SM BKN040

KIAD 271631Z 2717/2818 16008KT 4SM -RA BR OVC015 WS020/19040KT
FM272000 18008KT 6SM -SHRA BR SCT004 BKN006 OVC015 WS020/21040KT
FM272200 23008KT P6SM BKN015 WS020/22045KT
FM280000 23008G16KT P6SM BKN040
FM281300 30012G24KT P6SM BKN040

KIAD 271738Z 2718/2824 17008KT 3SM -RA BR OVC005
FM272000 21008G16KT 5SM -SHRA BR BKN020
FM272300 22008G16KT P6SM SCT050
FM280200 23007KT P6SM SCT050
FM281000 27009KT P6SM SCT040
FM281700 32010G20KT P6SM SCT130
FM282200 31008G16KT P6SM BKN150

KIAD 272000Z 2720/2824 18004KT 6SM BR OVC004
FM272300 22008G16KT P6SM BKN010
FM280200 23007KT P6SM SCT050
FM281000 27009KT P6SM SCT040
FM281700 32010G20KT P6SM SCT130
FM282200 31008G16KT P6SM BKN150

KIAD 272101Z 2721/2824 16005KT 6SM -DZ BR OVC003
FM272300 22008G16KT P6SM BKN008
FM280200 25009KT P6SM SCT050
FM281000 27009KT P6SM SCT040
FM281700 32010G20KT P6SM SCT130
FM282200 31008G16KT P6SM BKN150


KBWI 271120Z 2712/2818 19005KT P6SM OVC130
FM271500 19008KT 5SM -RA BR SCT025 OVC040 WS020/20040KT
FM271700 16009KT 2SM RA BR BKN006 OVC015 WS020/20040KT
FM272300 20008G16KT P6SM BKN015
FM280100 23008G16KT P6SM BKN040
FM281300 29012G24KT P6SM BKN040

KBWI 271459Z 2715/2818 19008KT P6SM SCT025 BKN050 WS020/20040KT
FM271700 16009KT 4SM -RA BR BKN006 OVC015 WS020/20040KT
FM272300 20008G16KT P6SM BKN015
FM280100 23008G16KT P6SM BKN040
FM281300 29012G24KT P6SM BKN040

KBWI 271738Z 2718/2824 19004KT 2SM -RA OVC008 WS020/19040KT
FM271900 17009KT 3SM SHRA BR OVC008 WS020/19040KT
FM272100 20008G16KT 6SM -SHRA BR OVC010
FM272200 22010G20KT P6SM BKN015
FM280000 23010G20KT P6SM SCT050
FM280200 25007KT P6SM SCT050
FM281000 29008G16KT P6SM SCT120
FM281700 32012G23KT P6SM SCT120

KBWI 271911Z 2719/2824 33004KT P6SM -SHRA OVC004 WS020/19040KT
FM272100 20008G16KT P6SM OVC010
FM272200 22010G20KT P6SM BKN015
FM280000 23010G20KT P6SM SCT050
FM280200 25007KT P6SM SCT050
FM281000 29008G16KT P6SM SCT120
FM281700 32012G23KT P6SM SCT120

KBWI 272101Z 2721/2824 12003KT 1SM -DZ BR OVC004
FM272300 20005KT P6SM OVC008
FM280200 25008G16KT P6SM SCT050
FM281000 29008G16KT P6SM SCT120
FM281700 32012G23KT P6SM SCT120

KBWI 272207Z 2722/2824 12003KT 3/4SM -DZ BR OVC002
FM272300 20005KT 4SM BR OVC005
FM280200 25008G16KT P6SM SCT050
FM281000 29008G16KT P6SM SCT120
FM281700 32012G23KT P6SM SCT120

KBWI 272331Z 2800/2906 22011G24KT 6SM -DZ BR BKN014
FM280200 26010G18KT P6SM SCT130
FM281300 31014G24KT P6SM BKN040
 
Very lucky they did not get fried by the world's largest bug zapper.

Montgomery-County-Plane-Powerlines-closeup~2.jpg
 
Last edited:
Ed Haywood said:
Both injured but will survive. Very lucky they didn't get fried by the world's largest bug zapper.

View attachment 112654
Click to expand...
Yikes. Hard to see if they hit the lines or the tower first. But surviving rocks. I'd be more afraid of the ride down in a bucket or however.
Oddly, one can sit on one of those powerlines while it's hot, with no issues. Watch the videos of helicopters dropping off a tech; it's crazy. They use a bonding rod, and hop onto the electricity pipes.
 
Year round daylight savings may have prevented this - they would have been making the approach before sundown and could have seen the towers.

Just saying...
 
Those folks need to play the lottery when they get down"

No, they just cashed their winning ticket.

The prize, the rest of their life.

With that tower TOP at about 25 feet above the runway altitude, and they hit close to 50 feet below the top, they bought that lottery ticket with borrowed money.

Scan should have shown them that they were at a GPS altitude well below the pressure altimeter long before they descended so low. ATC gave an altitude warning, and an update on the barometer setting, but they were in a very high workload time in the approach, and did not comply. On the plus side, they did have flaps down, and gear down, so their airspeed would have been lower for less impact forces.

The approach that they seem to be using, based on GPS, at least infers that they did have GPS, and there fore GPS altitude as well as a fly up indicator unrelated to pressure altitude.

BWI would have been a much cheaper alternate, or DIA. With long runways, you can arrive quite high, and still land easily and safely.


EDITED TO ADD:

They were also very lucky the 20 gusting 30 we had a couple of days earlier did not exist while they were waiting rescue, it would have shaken them loose, and...........
 
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flyingron said:
The LPV approach there has a DA of 269' with a minimum of a mile visibility. Don't think they were getting in. It appears to have been 300OVC and 3/4sm. FDK has an ILS. Even National was having problems.
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Have a friend that was waiting at DCA to catch a flight when this happened and he said there were 121 guys on CAT II approaches going missed.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Oh boy, here we go again with puns on an accident thread...



Seeing a Mooney wrecked like that really Hertz.

Too bad the power lines gave them such resistance.

I hope they amp up the rescue effort soon.

I wonder what their current status is?
Click to expand...
"Cleared for the ILS; contact tower..."
 
I'm curious where and how fast they were able to get specialized equipment for the rescue. The typical fire department ladder truck is 75-110 feet max. I thought I read where they were stuck 175 in the air, that is going to require a large man lift to get to them, not to mention all the procedures to shut down and ground that section of lines to make them safe as well.
 
midwestpa24 said:
I'm curious where and how fast they were able to get specialized equipment for the rescue. The typical fire department ladder truck is 75-110 feet max. I thought I read where they were stuck 175 in the air, that is going to require a large man lift to get to them, not to mention all the procedures to shut down and ground that section of lines to make them safe as well.
Click to expand...

Power company. From the coverage I saw on TV, looks like they led the rescue.
 
I have a feeling the pilot was all wired up.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Power company. From the coverage I saw on TV, looks like they led the rescue.
Click to expand...

Makes perfect sense. Although I'm wondering if the first thing the company did was go up there and sign a waiver before they would help them? I know how risk adverse our local power company is.
 
Not knocking the fire and rescue people, but it is impossible for them to have suitable equipment for this kind of work. Pepco, which owns the line, uses contractors who specialize in tall, and high voltage build and repair crews. They do not do that level of repair or maintenance with in house equipment or employees.

Those men are accustomed to such dangerous work, and do it on a day to day basis. Just as you prefer to have an ATP flying your airliner, not a guy who has taken all the tests, but never flown, as the PIC.

You want those technicians with daily practice come in to save you. From the power customer perspective, you do not want a blunder to take the lines out of service for weeks or months, since they carry critical power flow.
 
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Flying Keys said:
it was well worse than forecast.
Click to expand...

That is interesting. It helps with the assessment of pilot judgment.
It is not the whole story of course.
But it helps. Had the forecast been in the sewer, one might more likely say 'why did you launch?'
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
That is interesting. It helps with the assessment of pilot judgment.
It is not the whole story of course.
But it helps. Had the forecast been in the sewer, one might more likely say 'why did you launch?'
Click to expand...

It’s interesting in that neither of the forecasts, individually, would have made this a no-go until around or after the time he launched. But if you put them together, along with others in the area, something was going to move into the area quickly and cause problems at some point that afternoon/evening.

I think the lesson learned here is to look at the big picture, use all available weather tools, and don’t press your ability/equipment into a situation that can change rapidly.
 
steingar said:
My Mooney is currently for sale and listed all over the place.
Click to expand...
Most of us know someone that had their plane up for sale, but it was taking a while to sell, and then it mysteriously had a gear-up landing, which in effect, sold the airplane (to the insurance company). I'm glad you aren't following that model and that you and your plane are ok.
 
Hi,

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Year round daylight savings may have prevented this - they would have been making the approach before sundown and could have seen the towers.

Just saying...
Click to expand...

Not sure. They would just have departed one hour "later". Anyways: The weather was really bad according to METAR & TAF. They could have flown at noon and might have hit that power line...

But true: The whole daylight saving **** is stupid. It's like changing the scale of your thermometer to make it warmer outside....

Tobias
 
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