Plane in wires near KGAI (Montgomery County, MD)

flyingron

flyingron

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FlyingRon
Daughter just sent a tweet from the Montgomery County fire department of a low wing plane dangling from high tensions wires. Pilot and passenger trapped inside. Crash scene looks to be about a half mile from the runway and in a direct line with the extended centerline. LIFR: 200 OVC and a mile.

Looks like a Mooney from the pictures. Might be this one:
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N201RF/history/20221127/2030Z/KHPN/KGAI

Live ATC has PCT giving him an unsolicited altimeter setting and a low altitude alert well after he seems to have started on the approach.
 
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I have no power due to this, along with like 85 thousand other county residents.
I've read on Twitter that the occupants are ok though, and are awaiting rescue. I hope that is correct.
 
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I can't get the GAI feed because I suspect the power went out.
 
Today was not a good day to fly in the DMV.
 
Looks like there were people behind him waiting for him to cancel as well. The guy behind was trying to relay to him to get him to cancel. They eventually told that guy GAI was going to be tied up for a while and the guy diverted to FDK.

Plane is based at GAI (looks like a six-way partnership/club).
 
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A current TV newscast following the story indicates three souls on board. All alive, but injuries, if any, not yet known.

What is "the DMV"?
 
The lines are 230,000 volts, from the Dickerson power plant and a tie to the Virginia power grid.

My understanding is that the 2 sets of 3 wires on that tower are presently energized while the company finds alternate flow for the power. The clearance from the plane is safe, as long as no one tries to rescue them.

This is not the first time these lines have been hit, the previous was a low wing retractable, painted red and white. They went through, momentarily shorting the line and tripping it, but since retractable, did not catch, and did not crash. They never reported, the power company found the paint smears, and deduced what happened. The investigator was a private pilot who worked for the company.
 
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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geezer said:
They went through, momentarily shorting the line and tripping it, but since retractable, did not catch, and did not crash.
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Yet they probably still to this day suffer PTSD from surviving that.
 
There's only three things I've ever been afraid of: Electricity, Heights, and Women. (Oh, and I'm married, too). -- helicopter deployed lineman from the movie Straight Up.
 
Magenta line can give a lot of confidence that you are lined up just fine, just fly in until you see the runway.

Who would expect an obstruction more than 120 ft AGL out in the farm land and homes of Montgomery county? The real luck in this one is that they wound up hung on the tower, further out the line, they would have fallen to the ground from more than a hundred feet.

Really, being based at GAI, they should have been well aware of those lines, as they flew over them every time the departed straight out.

Night plus low ceiling are very dangerous when taken together. Today would have been tough in daylight.

At least there is no RIP required for this crash.
 
upload_2022-11-27_20-38-3.png

The LPV DA is 789, the LNAV 919. The GS must have been pegged full up.
 
I take it the active TFR and airport closure are both there for the rescue effort.
 

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Randomskylane said:
What else happened? Other than craptastic conditions
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nothing. Just a really crappy weather day. Well there was crash on I70 right in front of me due to viz but minor
 
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My husband believes they should be allowed to enjoy every aspect of their stupidity, including the starvation from being left up there. :cool:
 
geezer said:
The lines are 230,000 volts, from the Dickerson power plant and a tie to the Virginia power grid.

My understanding is that the 2 sets of 3 wires on that tower are presently energized while the company finds alternate flow for the power.
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Kelvin said:
By now....one of them has to pee...
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That was my thought... Hope they don't pee on one of those live lines.:goofy:

Of course, they may have let it all out during the crash sequence anyway... :eek:

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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Last METAR at KGAI before the crash was OVC002 and 1 1/4 SM. So yeah, they probably weren't getting in. Again, FlightAware makes it look like they were not at the right altitude and that they may have been attempting LNAV dive-and-drive instead of LPV.

flyingron said:
Live ATC has PCT giving him an unsolicited altimeter setting and a low altitude alert well after he seems to have started on the approach.
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Yeah, I'm starting to wonder if they had the wrong altimeter setting too. Actual setting at the time of the crash was 29.45, so pressure altitude should be ~470 feet above actual. Last hit on the ADS-B shows 1100 feet, so 630 MSL plus or minus 50 feet, and the obstacle on the plate shows 636… But it also looks like they crossed the FAF at 2000 PA/1530 MSL, should be 2200.
 
Oh boy, here we go again with puns on an accident thread...

Half Fast said:
What a shocking incident.
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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?
 
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?
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Is that a short body Mooney?
 
In this ill-considered bad weather approach, maybe their plan was to break out, then do a circuit of the traffic pattern. Of course, based on the obvious results, they didn’t have the capacity to do that, and weren’t prepared for that phase of flight.
 
I understand they were NORDO so pulled up to the tower for an in person landing clearance.
 
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?
 
I hope they're not seriously injured. Being trapped and watching friends suffering isn't something I'd wish on anyone.
 
These folks need to play the lottery when they get down….. Looks like they hit the one in 100 million chance of surviving this one.
The tower arm that supports the cable is embedded into the rear section of the airframe, just behind the cabin area.

<img src=”upload_2022-11-27_23-47-44.jpeg
 
Rescuers now securing the airplane to the tower.

upload_2022-11-27_23-48-48.jpeg
 
I'm not sure whether they got lucky or unlucky being stuck up there.
 
Pilot & passenger will probably celebrate with sparkling wine.
 
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