Plane in wires near KGAI (Montgomery County, MD)

Hopefully, AOPA’s McSpadden will do an initial look at this. Seems like even though the weather changed after departure, he should of been aware, and possibly diverted. Even if he decided to give it a shot, did he go below minimums in an attempt to sneak in?
 
I'm not an IFR pilot so please excuse if this is a dumb question, but ... wondering if 3D synthetic vision or some of the other flat panel gadgetry available now might have bailed them out of a bad spot?
 
Ed Haywood said:
I'm not an IFR pilot so please excuse if this is a dumb question, but ... wondering if 3D synthetic vision or some of the other flat panel gadgetry available now might have bailed them out of a bad spot?
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From a few fairly recent pics on the Googles, the panel looks very gaugey, plus a GNS430W.
 
Having not much experience with a synthetic vision - equipped panel - do they show power lines and such?
 
Baked Potato said:
Having not much experience with a synthetic vision - equipped panel - do they show power lines and such?
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Only if it's in the database; 25 years ago, my Lowrance AirMap GPS had an "obstruction database" that had to be updated periodically, to show towers and such.
 
Baked Potato said:
Having not much experience with a synthetic vision - equipped panel - do they show power lines and such?
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Depends on the model of the navigator and whether you have the often-optional obstruction database (and up to date).
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Some do, including some in GA.

@Lance F what do you have? I remember your 414 alerting us to the power lines on the way into Gaston's.
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I suspect a tower that is less than 200 feet tall would be in the obstruction database; it doesn't have to be reported to the FAA.
 
Brad Z said:
I suspect a tower that is less than 200 feet tall would be in the obstruction database; it doesn't have to be reported to the FAA.
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The towers aren’t necessarily charted, but the power lines often are. Although this tower had a cell tower extension on the top of it, which might have bumped it up pretty close to a reportable obstruction.
 
About the appearance of 85 knots, then Kaboom into the tower. Did not happen.

He hit one or more wires, slid along, slowing from friction and direction change, then hit just hard enough to embed the engine into the structure, and lock there. Some of the pictures showed a wide area of scratching the full length of one wing. The current passing through the plane tried to weld it in place, too. Those towers are quite rigid, and would not have swayed much with the impact, plus those very strong wires to the next towers would have transferred the forces.

From an electrical point of observation, the relays in the substations detect a direct short and initiate trip in about 2 cycles, the auxiliary devices take another cycle, and circuit breaker interrupt time, another 3 cycles. Therefore, 6/60th of a second or one tenth of a second from first spark to line is dead. That is a lot of arcing. Neighbors thought it was a wild lightning storm until the lights went out.

If a wing reached the other feeder on that tower, there would have been another tenth of a second event, starting at a slightly later time. Before I retired, I worked in the department of PEPCo that calibrated and timed those relays, and participated in the original energizing of those lines.

I would love to inspect that plane for arc damage!

The guys that went up in the bucket truck have my admiration. I know and understand the sequence of steps to verify not energized, apply grounds, and then move in to work. That is a very simplified version. I have been up in buckets several times, and even higher supported by a tall crane.. Happily, a rare event for me.
 
Those towers in line with the runway are charted, with altitude, MSL and AGL. The tops are exactly 25 feet above the runway and ONE MILE from the runway. That height is after the cell antenna were installed.
 
geezer said:
About the appearance of 85 knots, then Kaboom into the tower. Did not happen. He hit one or more wires, slid along, slowing from friction and direction change, then hit just hard enough to embed the engine into the structure, and lock there.
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Makes sense. Otherwise pilot and pax would have eaten the panel. POA never ceases to amaze me. Well done, sir.
 
FlyingElvii said:
View attachment 112648
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Look at the cabin area of the accident aircraft. It is the only part of the aircraft that is not twisted up. A Mooney has a steel safety cage surrounding the passenger compartment. Without it, I think the outcome for these two people would have been much different.

I saw a Mooney that a hangar door had fallen onto. The occupant was able to open the door and get out.

Thanks Al Mooney!
 
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flyingcheesehead said:
Some do, including some in GA.

@Lance F what do you have? I remember your 414 alerting us to the power lines on the way into Gaston's.
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To be honest I’m not sure if power lines are on the synthetic vision. But forget all that. This guy was clearly way below minimums looking for the runway. Ya just don’t do that.
It does show the strength of the Mooney tube frame. I think most other singles would have just folded up and killed them.
 
MBDiagMan said:
Look at the cabin area of the accident aircraft. It is the only part of the aircraft that is not twisted up. A Mooney has a steel safety cage surrounding the passenger compartment. Without it, I think the outcome for these two people would have been much different.

I saw a Mooney that a hangar door had fallen onto. The occupant was able to open the door and get out.

Thanks Al Mooney!
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The steel cage isn't even all that massive.
mooney.jpg
Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
Do you take wire transfers? :)

Ron Wanttaja
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I absolutely do.

JOhnH said:
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.
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I would never do that to my beloved Mooney. To me these are artifacts that need our care. It was here before me and will probably be flying after I'm gone. They don't make them anymore. So I want it to go to someone who will fly it.
 
The RNAV 19 approach at KGAI has a DA of 789' or 269' AGL. He was obviously way, way below that and still flying blind. He was supposed to have done the 5C's a while back and should have been heading to the missed approach CUTOP for a hold a long time ago. You don't mess around with the 5Cs once at DA. This is how my cfii taught it to me and now how I teach my IFR students when practicing missed approaches.

To the question above about synthetic vision, i doubt it would have helped this pilot. Clearly he was under duress and most likely task saturated at the time.
 
ATC to pilot ... "After approach, what are your intensions?"

I think the first thing the NTSB will ask is if the pilot was current ...

BTW, Foreflight shows obstacles very easily.
 
geezer said:
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..
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Farmland? It's rampant suburbia. Townhouses and shopping centers. About the only thing that doesn't have stuff on it was the right of way for those power lines.
 
Ed Haywood said:
I'm not an IFR pilot so please excuse if this is a dumb question, but ... wondering if 3D synthetic vision or some of the other flat panel gadgetry available now might have bailed them out of a bad spot?
Click to expand...
Nothing bails you out of breaking minimums. He was even warned he was low. That should have triggered a immediate go around.
 
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