The National Transportation Safety Board did not travel to the scene of this accident.
Additional Participating Entity:
Federal Aviation Administration / Flight Standards District Office; Salt Lake City, Utah
Additional Participating Entity:
Federal Aviation Administration / Flight Standards District Office; Salt Lake City, Utah
https://registry.faa.gov/N761RG
Location: Hanna, UT
Accident Number: WPR20LA258
Date & Time: 08/07/2020, 1145 MDT
Registration: N761RG
Aircraft: Cessna T210
Injuries: 2 Serious, 4 Minor
Flight Conducted Under: Part 91: General Aviation - Personal
On August 7, 2020, about 1145 mountain daylight time, a Cessna T210M airplane, N761RG, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Hanna, Utah. The private pilot and one passenger were seriously injured and 4 other passengers had minor injuries. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight.
The pilot reported that the engine experienced a loss of power during a turn over mountainous terrain. The pilot decided to fly down a canyon as the propeller continued to windmill. He initiated a forced landing in an open field where the airplane experienced a hard landing. The open field is on the banks of Moon Lake at an elevation of 8,100 ft mean sea level (msl). The airplane's forward fuselage and cabin area were crushed upwards and the engine was partially separated from the airplane. Both wings were buckled near the tips.
Preliminary flight track data shows the airplane as it departed Roosevelt Municipal Airport (74V), Roosevelt, UT, and climbed northwest over mountainous terrain. The track turns to the west and continues to climb to an altitude of 12,927 ft msl. The track then decreases in altitude as it turns southwest approaching a large canyon. Shortly after the flight track data stops at 11,575 ft msl. The accident site was about 7 1/2 miles south of the last flight track.
The wreckage was recovered to a secure location for further examination.
Aircraft and Owner/Operator Information
Aircraft Make: Cessna
Registration: N761RG
Model/Series: T210 M
Aircraft Category: Airplane
Amateur Built: No
Operator: On file
Operating Certificate(s) Held: None
Meteorological Information and Flight Plan
Conditions at Accident Site:
Condition of Light:
Observation Facility, Elevation: U67, 5105 ft msl
Observation Time: 1100 MDT
Distance from Accident Site: 29 Nautical Miles
Temperature/Dew Point:
Lowest Cloud Condition:
Wind Speed/Gusts, Direction:
Lowest Ceiling:
Visibility:
Altimeter Setting:
Type of Flight Plan Filed:
Departure Point:
Destination:
Wreckage and Impact Information
Crew Injuries: 1 Serious
Aircraft Damage: Substantial
Passenger Injuries: 1 Serious, 4 Minor
Aircraft Fire: None
Ground Injuries: N/A
Aircraft Explosion: None
Total Injuries: 2 Serious, 4 Minor
Latitude, Longitude: 40.566944, -110.500278 (est)
MOUNTAIN HOME, Utah — A small plane carrying six people crashed near Moon Lake in Duchesne County, and miraculously, everyone survived. The plane’s pilot spoke to KSL from his hospital room about the crash and what happened for all six people to survive.
Shadrach Feild shared that he trained a lot for a worst case scenario, and while that training kicked in, he felt divine intervention’s hand.
“I absolutely know that God had his hand in this,” Shadrach Feild said. “It’s a miracle.”
When you see what’s left of the Cessna T210M Turbo Centurion, it’s hard to believe that everyone on board survived.
“For the terrain that we were in and how it all unfolded, it takes more than a good pilot to get through this,” he said.
Six people were onboard the plane including Feild, his wife Jazlyn, their family friends Betsey and Gentry Mikesell, and their 16-year-old teenage twin sons, Brock and Boston Mikesell.
The group said they were out flying near Moon Lake on Friday morning.
“When I came over the corner over the lake, there was a lot of wind coming at me, which isn’t normally a big deal,” Feild said. “My plane — a Turbo Charged 210 — has plenty of horsepower.
That’s when Feild said the engine gave out.
“I pushed the throttle in and there was no power,” he said. “It kept running, but there was just no power.”
“It took about 12 seconds from that point to the time we touched down,” said Betsey Mikesell, explaining that they only had moments to brace for impact.
Meanwhile, Shad prepared the plane and crew for an emergency landing.
“I remember telling them I would take care of them,” Feild said, holding back emotions. “We made it across the lake.”
“Because Shad was so calm, I just thought he was landing it. He never said, ‘we’re going to crash,’” Mikesell said.
As Shad looked for a landing spot, he spotted two possible locations. The first, he said, was a beach, but there were people on it and he feared his tires wouldn’t handle the sand well. The second option was an open field.
“I thought it would be better to try and land in the sagebrush flat,” Feild said. “I didn’t want to flip over and hurt the people in the back.”
“For some reason in my mind, I was just so calm,” Mikesell said. “I just remember bracing and holding onto the seat in front of me.”
Mikesell said she was the first one out of the plane as nearby campers ran to their rescue.
“Someone said that you could feel angels everywhere, and I feel like that is what we experienced, “ Mikesell said. “Someone else said that it looked like we were just being carried down to the ground, and I swear that is literally what happened.”
“I lost my dad about four years ago, and I know that he helped,” Feild said. “I could feel him the whole time.”
Brock managed to walk away from the crash.
Gentry and Shad, who were at the front of the plane, suffered back and spinal injuries and remain hospitalized. Gentry also has a broken femur, tibia, and shattered ankle. Betsey said he broke his nose and face in 3 places.
Shad’s wife Jazyln broke her arm and wrist.
Boston, the other twin, fractured a hip.
And Betsey said she has four broken ribs on each side, a neck injury and bruised lungs.
Despite their injuries, they said they’re grateful to be alive and for the help of first responders and the campers who ran to their aid.
“Not only where we landed but that the plane died where it did — had it have been 45 seconds earlier, we all would’ve died,” Feild said. “There was nowhere to land 45 seconds earlier. It was God’s hand.”
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash.
Airmen database:
ReplyDeleteSHADRACH ROUNDY FEILD
Medical Class: Third Medical Date: 2/2015
Certificate: PRIVATE PILOT
Date of Issue: 5/31/2016
Ratings:
PRIVATE PILOT
AIRPLANE SINGLE ENGINE LAND
Previous aircraft:
DeleteN82488 1964 CESSNA 182G Skylane
13-Dec-2016 certificate issued
Stall horn was blaring. Glad they all survived. But remember the ABCs ,,,Airspeed for best Glide , Best place to land and Checklist if you have time. Based on the stall horn going off , I’m pretty sure he wasn’t at his best glide speed. Ended up stalling the airplane, at glide speed it would have been a routine landing.
DeleteJust prior to impact Shad yelled...there's going to be blood! Also if you watch the whole video the engine was stalling a bit when he took off. He was committed to the takeoff though. Watch the vid. I am so glad they all survived. I haven't heard much on how Shad is but poor Gentry! I hope they all recover quickly
DeleteIs there a whole unedited video out there that shows the takeoff and the engine stalling as you mentioned? The video I saw, from their Youtube, showed a whole lot of cuts during taxi, runup check and finally, 3 seconds of rear seats during what sounded like takeoff power and then about 5 seconds of just after takeoff with gear retraction being heard with a music track. There's no additional takeoff footage that I saw unless there's another video out there.
DeleteJust before the actual takeoff, and I did hear this on the video that the pilot was doing a runup check, which does make the engine sound like it's surging. We are checking two ignition systems (left and right magnetos) and adjusting the prop governor, all to make sure the engine is working before deciding to fly.
Now I haven't flown turbo charged engines yet, but from what I understand if it was a turbo failure, all that needed to be done was to go back to mixture leaning like we did with non turbo planes at 9000 ft (assuming that turbo failure was the problem, plus all the emergency checklist items that should have been memorized as a flow).
So he should’ve climb to 9000 feet and leaned out the airplane.! So do you believe it was pilot error??
DeleteLooks like he had the field EZ-and-safely to a normal touchdown speed but neglected airspeed and got a left wing stall. Yes, definite error. For engine, did he richen mixture from that 12k? Otherwise...if some surging..(speculation) its really amazing how much air can be entrained with the smallest of air leaks in a fuel system.
Delete@goldy you said "Just prior to impact Shad yelled...there's going to be blood!" but that's not correct, he says "it's going to be hard!!"
Delete“It took about 12 seconds from that point to the time we touched down”
ReplyDeletePilot only needed an 8 second ride - has Rodeo training.
https://rodeonews.com/association/11110/
Wonder if the stall warning horn blew and he let go ...... ;)
DeleteThere is more to this story for sure .... FAA will be very interested
ReplyDeleteWhy ? It's a standard crash - engine failure and he handled it about as well as possible. Probably a turbocharger issue. Normal investigation for the NTSB. FAA won't get involved unless there was a violation.
DeleteIf he had retracted the gear and kept the airplane level, the result would have been an almost normal landing. I don't detect "god's hand" in this at all. Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't.
DeleteStuff happens.
"FAA won't get involved unless there was a violation."
DeleteActually considering there are potential life altering injuries and the totalled aircraft hull which will be a write-off, you can bet the FAA is going to investigate this - at the very bare minimum a request from the owner's aircraft insurance company.
Sorry to say but,always put the gear down unless your ditching. The landing gear absorbs most of the kinetic energy. He landed correctly.
Delete"Sorry to say but,always put the gear down unless your ditching. " This is incorrect, you are much better off w/ the gear up when coming down on a field like this. you can see the effect here from having the gear down- the airplane pitches nose down, rather than sliding, and the g-loading is much higher.
DeleteAnd the POH for this aircraft says gear up for emergency landing on rough or soft terrain. See excerpt, below:
Deletehttps://dms.ntsb.gov/public/62000-62499/62024/622131.pdf
FAA doesn't investigate air crashes. That's the NTSB.
DeleteWrong. FAA investigates ALL aviation accidents along with NTSB. NTSB determines probable cause. FAA determines any regulatory violations.
DeletePilot was three years out of date on his medical according to FAA Airmen inquiry.
DeleteIf you would easily land at the beach and let the landing gear retracted, you and your plane wouldnt have any scratch. Sure it´s easy to say this from the ground but it would be the right way in this case. The 210 lands smooth withot wheels in any soft enviorement. BUt ok nice you and your family are allive !! Super great
ReplyDeleteYes it will, but a dead engine on an airplane does not have a horn to honk, as it glides silently over the beach and some folks might be walking the beach in the same direction. Happen years back in Florida, pilot lived but killed a mom and kid.
DeleteThe "beach" is not like Daytona. Moon Lake shoreline near the campground area they landed on is not at all suitable. Dirt vehicle paths at the beach, maybe. Have a look:
Deletehttps://www.google.com/maps/place/40%C2%B034'09.8%22N+110%C2%B030'10.9%22W/@40.569399,-110.5052257,580m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d40.569399!4d-110.5030373
"folks might be walking the beach in the same direction. Happen years back in Florida, pilot lived but killed a mom and kid."
DeleteI remember that well as one who learned how to fly at Eglin AFB in an aero club (Fort Walton Beach). The beach coast ran from Pensacola to Panama City and there were few areas in that 80 mile stretch where there were no people on it. Year round even with snowbirds in the winter there. Needless to say, the beach was never an option unless one could 100% confirm it was clear, and that is hard to do when you are managing airspeed and altitude while assessing multiple landing options. We always prepared to get wet if along the coast and a road was not an option (and upside down in a Skyhawk).
They did not have there shoulder harnesses on, that would have helped the pilot and passenger in the co pilot seat. That is why they installed them..
DeletePilot..KLC
Gentry Mikesell's family posted a sofa chat youtube video about the crash. Three on the sofa were in the plane (daughter was not on the plane). They seem to be in good shape.
ReplyDeleteThey say they were coming over the mountain and setting up to go down and have a look at the lake, lowering gear and then "turbulence", pilot throttled up but power did not come. Sounds like he was establishing slow flight before the power loss ruined the day.
Mr. Mikesell had made 4 videos during the flight before the crash. It seems certain that they would continue filming video at the lake. Airspeed and height above terrain when they lost power may have been chosen for best video flyby.
"We SURVIVED a Plane CRASH!" video link:
https://youtu.be/W_pVekhO-yU
Third photo of this instagram post shows plane orientation with lake in background:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.instagram.com/p/CDrer7Kgfo3/
Post includes short video onboard the Cessna earlier that day. Note the under wing mirror for visibility of landing gear. Nice plane.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.instagram.com/p/CDq_DoSAklO/
Mmm so is his medical expired? if obtained in 2015.
ReplyDeleteIt will invalidate any insurance and the FAA will have to punish too as a violation of the federal regs. It also means his currency was sketchy at best.
Even high time private pilots without any other rating will stale in their progress and the famous license to learn will be just a ticket to fly sporadically an aircraft and hopefully not become dangerous. The lack of seeking at least an instrument rating and his expired medical tell a deeper story of not really trying to improve over the year.
As for the engine quitting a high density altitude with a too rich mixture can also shutdown a powerplant as I saw it happen many times, mostly for fuel injected engines.
Another reason to always properly lean.
"The lack of seeking at least an instrument rating and his expired medical tell a deeper story of not really trying to improve over the year." And you base this inane statement on which set of given facts?
DeleteWhy invent a story that the pilot is stale, sporadic and not improving? The 210 was his business airplane since mid 2018. Nothing has been publicized about hours flown.
DeleteOn the medical date: Pilot is 36. Before Covid-19, his medical was valid for the remainder of February in 2015 plus 60 additional months, making the expiration date April 1, 2020.
Then there is the Covid-19 relief extension SFAR, which adds three additional months, making his expiration date July 1, 2020. If he took action to renew his medical before the accident flight, the AME would issue him the signed certificate.
If he just recently saw the AME, the FAA database may not have caught up yet.
FAA reference:
https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/avs/offices/aam/ame/guide/app_process/general/validity/
"A third-class medical certificate is valid for the remainder of the month of issue; plus
60 calendar months for operations requiring a third class medical certificate if the airman has not reached age 40 on or before the date of examination.
Covid Special FAR:
https://www.faa.gov/pilots/medical/
"SFAR 118-1 grants relief to medical certificate privileges that expire from March 31, 2020 through August 31, 2020. This relief extends medical certificates for a maximum of three (3) additional months or until September 30, 2020, whichever occurs sooner."
Maybe he was legal regarding his medical as extended by the SFAR but his insurance will most likely cancel coverage as not subjected to governmental granted extensions. The AOPA actually put out a warning regarding this.
DeleteThe centurion is a high power complex aircraft capable of IFR flight... not sure why after all these years he didn't seek at least an instrument rating. And my inference is not insane, it is based on stats: VFR into IMC is the leading cause of fatalities for non instrument rated pilots.
It is in fact described as the "rating that will save your life".
90% of private pilots who get a rating and not seek an IFR will generally spend long periods of time not flying and for them the license was pretty much a bucket list item.
Another factor here if one looks at small significant details is the fact he probably used the plane as an all you can eat buffet for tax deductions and business use as it is registered to a corporation... but the IRS will always question this intent if one has only a private pilot rating, hence why most business owners seek at least a commercial pilot license and even an instructor rating to nail the business intent without any doubts.
I am sure the IRS would take an interest in his business usage of the aircraft following this highly publicized mishap using it for a family trip...
Interesting point about insurance handling of accidents that occur during a medical certificate extension under the SFAR. Imagine the fuss if advisory letters were not sent to customers, but premiums were still collected while policies were invalid.
DeleteUnlike for automobiles insurance for aircrafts isn't required believe it or not.
DeleteOnly part 135 operators need to have liability coverage.
Say you win the lottery and buy yourself a Phenom 100... chances are the insurance on that puppy will set you back a cool million a year. But since you paid it cash you won't need to pay it at all and just hire a competent pilot as "insurance" while you get experience in the bird but without coverage.
This can work in an ideal world of course and hence why the feds and regs don't require any sort of insurance when owning an airplane unlike for cars. Same as the registration fees being $5 and lasting 3 years. A small perk in an otherwise pretty expensive hobby.
Here we don't even know if he had insurance or not and if he did, then there are specific conditions for coverage. And indeed one can suspend their insurance altogether and go commando so to speak if the SFAR tells you you can fly but on the other hand the insurance becomes ineffective.
So you think people are paying a $1mm insurance premium on a $3.5mm plane? That is absolutely ridiculous. You are wrong. $100k would be the cap if you're low time. And nobody, even if you have the cash, pays cash for an airplane when you can borrow at 3%.
DeleteAs of Feb, 2022, the FAA database still shows a medical date of 2/2015, so I think it's safe to say that the pilot never renewed his medical and was flying illegally at the time of the accident. This is a huge deal because willfully breaking the law in such an obvious way shows the dangerous anti-authority attitude the pilot had. It makes you wonder what other rules the pilot thought didn't apply to him (like, say, weight and balance, minimum safe altitudes, minimum fuel requirements, shoulder harness rules, etc.) The pilot's whole spiel on video about how he would never do anything dangerous is a sad joke.
DeleteWhy extend the gear ? An airstrip nearby ? The description indicates gear was lowered before the 'power loss'.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the family members in their video, "Shad wanted to take us over this lake, we wanted to see the lake. As we came over the mountain Shad decided to pull out the landing gear, 'cause as we were coming down he wanted to slowly go down so we could see the lake better. And then we hit a pocket of turbulence and he went to give it a little more power, nothing was working, engine was running, just not power. He said I'm going to land this, hold on tight. We all thought he was joking..." He extended the gear to slow the aircraft so that they could enjoy the view of a lake.
DeleteYeah he did not say "I'm going to land this thing"..He started saying " Be good!" and "relax" and his wife told him to "stop it" and he said I promise relax", then he says "We're going to land. Hang on tight, we're going to probably flip over" Then the stall alarm goes off and he checked flaps down, gear down and kept saying relax and be good then just before impact he yelled " Relax! relax! Be good! There's going to be blood!" then bam! They hit. There is a video of the entire crash on youtube. I know Mr. Mikesell suffered life altering injuries and last I heard Shad, the pilot, had no feeling in his legs. I am glad they all survived. How horrible to have that happen.
DeleteIn the video you can hear the gear warning going off then you hear the gear go down then the warning stops, then the stall warning starts.
Delete@goldy he says "it's going to be hard!!" not "there's going to be blood"
DeleteSomething not quite right here - "lowered the gear for slow flight", "turbulence" , "over the mountain"...
ReplyDeleteSome advice would be for the Youtube to be taken down immediately.
Some advice would be for the FAA to investigate immediately.
DeleteBased on video he lowered the gear because: yes, it might help to slow down but also to avoid a possible aural warning of gear not extended at slower speeds. Seems I heard some sort of warning tone and then what appears a gear in motion sound.
DeleteOnly thing that I'd quarrel with is the decision to put the gear down. Upside is little or no damage, downside is, you end up on your back, But this is the 2nd best choice for any landing, everyone is alive. First is obviously the ability to walk away from the landing. No damage on 2 of the 3 prop blades.
ReplyDeleteLack of visible ground strike scars in the helicopter views of the KSL-TV video is puzzling. Tweaked-under nose suggests sudden stop from nosegear embedding in the ground. Maybe he rolled on mains and then stubbed in.
DeletePerhaps the rear raised up for a "almost" flip but went back down hard and mashed the right main gear. No wrinkles to indicate hogging down of the tail section, though. Would have been interesting to see the ground under the plane after the take apart and move was done.
Looks like the aircraft stalled in from about 100' AGL. Keep the nose down, stall speed increases with an aircraft fully loaded...
DeleteDrone flight video of the lake from 2017, area of crash is on left at the 5 minute mark:
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/kGCaYvwBF8I
It will probably be some stupid like he ran out of gas or accidentally hit the high pressure fuel pump switch.
ReplyDeleteOr they might not determine the cause. See similar T210M accident in 2018 that lost power on throttle adjustment.
Deletehttp://www.kathrynsreport.com/2019/04/cessna-t210m-turbo-centurion-personal.html
About the gas, during the warm-up the video shows 20 gallons left tank, and 10 gallons right tank, with fuel selector on right tank
DeleteI suspect he forgot to switch fuel tanks and simply ran out of fuel resulting in the gradual loss of power and pilot saying 'I don't understand this'.
DeleteThe video does show him switching to the left tank just before the cut to the next scene (unless there's another video out there that's unedited, it would be nice but that's probably best to not be public too, let NTSB investigate while we guess at the right answer and see who's right, when it's finally revealed. Enough, okay so anyways, there's so many quick cuts in the video you have to pay attention or reduce playback speed, lol.
DeleteSo assuming it's not a fuel gauge malfunction (we're supposed to visually and physically inspect and measure fuel before each flight, so we know if we have a malfunction or not with a gauge, or leaks); 30 gallons (1.75 hours) total fuel on a turbo T210M that consumes up to 17 gal/hr, starting on the 20 gal tank (1.15 hours). The other tank has 10 gal (0.6 hrs). More endurance if not at full power the whole time (15 gal/hr for cruise perhaps)!
It looks-like the flight was about 18 minutes (0.3 hrs) on a tracking site but there's nothing on NTSB since the 1983 incident with water in the fuel. Seems like the flight just started, so something must have failed with all that fuel still on board, glad there was no fire and everyone survived.
Switching to the right tank again...he would have had at least 15 gal (a whole hour) still on the current tank and 0.5 hrs on the right. If he did use all of the left tank fuel, he should at least have an airport (Provo perhaps) right in front of him intending to land for fuel. VFR required minimum reserves fuel is 30 minutes so....about 7 gallons on landing.
With that, do we have additional information to even assume anything yet?
Pilot has posted his story of the crash to Instagram. Details from 1:35 mark onward include height, speed, flaps, gear operation, power setting/response and landing. Details at 11:15 about flight time duration and fuel quantity in each tank. Details at 12:28 about years flown and some bush pilot training.
ReplyDeleteHe pulled the gear back up after the engine faltered, putting it back down after he was confident of making it across the lake.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDz5fhdJJdt/
A+ for keeping those "T210" fuel tanks intact!
ReplyDeleteFamily has posted new video with footage taken from inside during power loss and landing. Skip to the six minute mark to see the lake overflight and descent.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/kMzjf6K0ll0
Any landing everybody lives to fly another day is a good one.
ReplyDeleteFrom the video of the crash the family posted it looks like he was not pitching for best glide. It looked like he had plenty of room in the sage brush field, I am not sure why he was so intent on trying to slow the plane down to as slow as possible before touchdown. He mentioned that in his instragram video linked above that he was trying to make it stall right before touchdown. Just pitch for best glide and come in on the slow end of your approach speed and roll it out. This is all said in complete hindsight and everyone came out alive which is the best part. But a reminder for all to practice your engine out landings. You should be spring loaded to pitch for best glide when you feel the engine go out.
ReplyDeleteI think this sums it up for me too - what a horrible nightmare to have happened, but playing complete armchair/hindsight, I too wondered why he didn't aim for more room straight ahead to float it down vs stalling down like a rock while making a turn at the last second. He mentions in the instagram video he took a bush flying course one summer in Alaska, maybe in the heat of the moment he thought he'd be able to drop it gently out of the air like a bush plane? I think that's pretty much how he ended up landing anyways. I can't speculate - I'm just glad they all made it out and their recoveries go well.
DeleteThe aeroplane could have been landed and flown out of that field if he had just ensured he didn't stall. Just a few more feet before the wings stalled would have had them rolling out unscathed. Nose down to keep wing from stalling at any cost!!
ReplyDeleteI want to see what the inspection of the engine shows, and the log book. I am a retired A&P, I.A. (42 years in the business.) I had a Beech Baron land at the field I worked at after it suffered a left engine failure. I wondered how it flew and landed safely after seeing the result of the failure. There was a 6 inch hole in the top cowling where a piece of the camshaft went through after the crankshaft broke. The prop was not feathered because the crankcase also broke just aft of the two front cylinders. The only thing holding the front of the crankcase, with two cylinders attached was the oil pan. The prop was hanging down about 25 degrees below level. One lucky guy!
ReplyDeleteI want to concur with others statements about the lack of airspeed on approach to the selected landing spot, and the possibility of turbo failure or lack of leaning for altitude. But, we shall see. It appears there was rising terrain just above the beach and he probably made the left turn to parallel the contour of the land as going straight without power would have caused more injuries. But the stall at that turn made for quite an impact. A water landing with gear up might have meant fewer injuries, but who knows? Reference the Cessna Caravan (fixed gear)that made a successful water landing next to one of the Hawaiian Islands, or Capt. Sullenberger in the Hudson River. I hope all involved make full recoveries and thanks to them for telling the story.
Mr A&P, if you read this again, what do you think:
DeleteWhy did the engine stop producing sufficient power? From the video posted, pilot did not lean his mixture for taxi 4:42. First clue. If you carefully stop the video at 7:20 after the power loss, notice the mixture control is still in the full rich position. Engine won't make power at that altitude because of less air available without lessening the amount of fuel going to the engine. Standard practice which must be followed in "Density Altitude" situations with this type of engine. In other words, 'lean' the fuel mixture so it will run correctly. That is not an option, it is required. Fuel mixture leaning is the purpose of the red handle control knob coming out of the dash. Here, critical components of the engine probably 'loaded up' with unburned deposits from habitual improper leaning, building up prior to this flight, and then it came time to choke down. Glad they survived, but this should not have happened because very likely was no accident, but pilot error. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMzjf6K0ll0
210s are "slippery" in a descent and the gear is incredibly draggy when down. if you want to go down and slow down, you put the gear down. once it's down, it can stay down to a very high speed. very common to have it down when getting dropped in to an approach by atc for managing speed and keeping engine happy. i've flown 210s with "proper" speed brakes and ones with "gear down" speed brakes... the gear work much better.
ReplyDeletei will be interested to hear what happened here, but the engines on the 210 (and 206) have a tendency to be finicky coming back up to power after a power-off descent (i've had them cough on me many times in different planes pushing the power back up at bottom of descent)... i wouldn't recommend power-idle descents to any of my students.
A lot of the debate talks about how the aircraft was being flown. Engines stop suddenly (it did here) for a large part of the flight the aircraft was flying somewhere engine failure would kill. Why were the passengers not made aware of this (children). If you fly a single engined aircraft anywhere where an engine failure means almost certain death everyone on board should be aware.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say if like to fly low over wooded areas, and lakes buy a bush plane 31" tires maybe a carbon cub. If you want to fly places fast stay high enough can glide out of the mountains always stay with in gliding distance of an airstrip.
ReplyDeleteLooks like this aircraft had a prior engine out (water in fuel related) hard landing a long time ago...
ReplyDeletehttps://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20001214X42456&AKey=1&RType=Final&IType=FA
I wonder if the plane was just too heavy?
ReplyDeleteSeems doubtful that they were overweight. The plane has a useful load around 1700 lbs. In the pilots account he says he had 23 gallons of fuel in the left tank and 17 in the right. No way to know for certain but I'd assume with only 40 gallons + passengers they'd be well below that.
DeleteWhy did the engine stop producing sufficient power? From the video posted, pilot did not lean his mixture for taxi 4:42. First clue. If you carefully stop the video at 7:20 after the power loss, notice the mixture control is still in the full rich position. Engine won't make power at that altitude because of less air available without lessening the amount of fuel going to the engine. Standard practice which must be followed in "Density Altitude" situations with this type of engine. In other words, 'lean' the fuel mixture so it will run correctly. That is not an option, it is required. Fuel mixture leaning is the purpose of the red handle control knob coming out of the dash. Here, critical components of the engine probably 'loaded up' with unburned deposits from habitual improper leaning, building up prior to this flight, and then it came time to choke down. Glad they survived, but this should not have happened because very likely was no accident, but pilot error. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMzjf6K0ll0
ReplyDeleteOn ground in the video pilot select right fuel tank. I wonder if amongst all the excitement of his passengers he forgot to switch fuel tanks, which is done manually. Engine gradually losing power is points toward fuel starvation.
ReplyDeleteThe Engine of the T210 is turbonormalized with an automatic waste-gate controller. That means the engine will never know at which altitude it operates. The turbo will automatically compensate for reduction of density and keep the desired manifold pressure constant, typically at 27.5". So it is actually perfectly safe to operate her "full rich", although that will eat into the fuel tank considerably (possible failure mode#1).
ReplyDeleteWhen the turbo fails (possible failure mode #2), things are different of course. The fuel metering will be off to the rich side and the engine will drown in fuel and stop producing power. So pulling the red knob would help to restore whatever power the engine can generate with a failed turbo.
Other than that, pitching up all the way to the stall warning is of course a bad idea.
One thing nobody mentioned is that the pilot & front passenger that received the worst injuries
ReplyDeletewere not wearing their shoulder belts. This can be seen in the videos & also the pilot was tucking his shoulder belt into the holder above his door. Wear all your seatbelts people!
Video seems to indicate he was quite low over the lake.
ReplyDeleteSingle engine, mountainous terrain, low enough altitude to prevent a safe landing in the event of an engine failure...seems a bit risky to me whether solo or with a plane load of innocent and trusting passengers...
...amazing this turned out as well as it did...
ReplyDelete...stall was well above the tree tops...
...cowboys should stick to horses...
It seems to me he didn't manage the plane, he was not at best glide and the stall horn was going off. Had he pitched to best glide, pulled the prop to low rpm and kept the gear up he would have arrived at the field with plenty of energy to flare. It appears to me the plane stalled and crashed. They are lucky to survive. A belly up landing would have been fine if he was concerned with the plane flipping over. A lesson to us all, fly the plane all the way to the crash as Bob Hoover said. They would have all walked away without the serious injuries. As other have said where the damn shoulder harness!
ReplyDelete100% agree. Looks like more than just a stall too. Incipient spin. If he was 50 feet higher that plane would have impacted vertically.
DeleteLots of 210 crashes lately... what gives?
ReplyDeleteeasy fiat money meets idocracy instagram society
Deletehttps://ubmedia.biz/news/17182/pilot-who-crash-landed-plane-near-moon-lake-did-not-have-current-medical-certification/
ReplyDeleteAll those angels should have told him to keep the nose down! And maybe god should have recommended some glider training (minimum energy off-field landings, effects of wind and heating in mountainous etc) But it does make for a lot of new subscribers to the family youtube channel!
I have 2000 hours in that make and model plane.
ReplyDeleteThe pilot has poor judgement. They ran out of gas. The instagram family is fake and the pilot is just as fake. Hopefully the insurance gets rejected and these people pay for their fakeness and stupidity.
Can't find where NTSB stated he ran out of gas.
DeletePlane crashes generate views. This entire family thinks they're youtube 'stars.' Sad how the 'fans' speak of them like they're the chosen ones. Some think this was staged. Seems really, really fishy to me.
ReplyDeleteHow about this scenario? The right seat passenger is filming this flight and experience for youtube. The pilot decides to fly low and slow over the lake for added excitement. He pulls the throttle with mixture full rich. Perhaps the plugs are somewhat compromised from carbon build-up or perhaps vapor lock occurs, but the engine stumbles. The pilot adds fuel and the engine quits all together. Now they have a full blown emergency on their hands. Thankfully everyone survived; however, pilot did a poor job of maintaining aircraft control which likely resulted in more serious injuries. My personal philosophy is that I will never pull my throttle completely until on very short final, on speed and altitude, with the airport made ... definitely never in flight. Why take the chance?
ReplyDeleteAnyone notice the shoulder belts in the video are tied up not used. I think if they had those shoulder belts on would not have gotten so hurt in the front seat. Shoulder belts saved lot of lives in car crashes airplanes no different. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMzjf6K0ll0
ReplyDeleteHas any agency determined with accuracy what actually caused the engine failure? Aside from armchair speculation.??
ReplyDeleteI can see three major issues that any professional pilot would recognize ..
1) flight below safe minimums, very limited glide and landing possibilities
2) no use of shoulder restraints
3) stalling the airplane into the crash to high above touch down point.
It doesn’t matter what failed, turbo .. fouled plugs .. fuel level. If you are to low, your choices for a “better” touch down point are severely limited. If you don’t use shoulder restraints, you are GOING to be hurt, if you don’t have them then get them installed. Get the nose down no more than 3 seconds after loss of thrust, keep above stall all the way into the crash and flare to stall ( crash ) at the point of typical flare.for your airplane. . Gear down results in more fatalities than gear up, well documented by AOPA.
So many things wrong with the hateful posts on here. While I do find this family’s YouTube videos Douchey, largely showing off their wives wearing too much makeup and their showy lifestyle; the guy did nearly lose his life,
ReplyDeleteTo play devils advocate for the haters, he did spend the entire run up to the flight making jokes about dying in a small plane, crashing, etc etc so he didn’t help himself in the karma department.
He also didn’t do a lot to help the pilot out and was spending a lot of time cracking jokes and really not taking anything very seriously. So, based on that I doubt there was much preflight done nor any instructions given. (Note the earlier seatbelt comments). Throwing 6 souls in an airplane and heading out into the rugged wilderness shouldn’t be treated with giggles and sarcastic jokes.
I haven’t looked up the FOM for this aircraft but the fuel level sounds low. There can be starvation issues when turning in a low fuel situation and it’s possible he could have vapor locked by sloshing fuel away from the wing.
In all I do sincerely hope they all recover well. But, I hope they eventually release the ultimate root cause.
Like some others have said, I wish the guidance would change toward gear down landings because i really feel like it would have provided for lower injuries in this circumstance.
To the earlier comment saying maybe the pilot's latest medical hadn't been entered in the database yet, well here we are Nov, 2021 and the database still says:
ReplyDeleteSHADRACH ROUNDY FEILD
Medical Class: Third Medical Date: 2/2015
BasicMed Course Date: None BasicMed CMEC Date: None
So even with the COVID extension, there was no way his medical was valid at the time of the accident, meaning he did not have a valid license and it was completely illegal for him to be flying this aircraft.
Speaking of illegal, not only was it extremely foolish for the pilot to not ensure both he and the other front seat passenger had their installed shoulder harnesses fastened, it was also a blatant violation of federal regulation 14 CFR 91.107(a)(1) to not have them fastened during taxi and take off. The lack of doing so definitely caused their injuries to be much more severe when he stalled the plane into the ground from 30ft AGL.
Also from the video, the database in his Garmin expired Aug, 2018, two years before the accident. It didn't need to be up to date since he couldn't legally fly IFR, but it does demonstrate a general lack of care.
What you state here is absolutely correct, reading some of the other comments I was loosing the will, especially where some commented that the engine was stalling on the run up where in fact it was just the prop governor being recycled and checked, systematic pilot error through lack of responsibility and reasonable understanding, a fully loaded aircraft at high altitude but low and slow over the ground is a big no no from the get go, the pilots statement says he only had around 11 seconds to react when he had almost a minute, he further stated he lost power in a turn and decided to descend into the valley, what dribble he was well and truly in the valley before his engine lost power, pilot error after pilot error, just fortunate there was no engine fire and people were close by. The 210 centurion is classed as a complex aircraft for good reason, it requires accomplished professional pilots to fly it safely, the pilot here flew it without regard, no flight safety briefing, no shoulder harnesses, no engine leaning that could be detected prior to take off the mixture was full rich at 11,000 ft AMSL on a warm summers day on take off and I have no doubt there it remained, hell the switch to the fullest tank was an after thought and should have been selected before engine start but was not caught until the taxi out!.
DeleteJust saw the video. Looks like a classic Density Altitude Crash. Warm weather, mountains, heavy airplane, loss of engine efficiency, and a stall when there should have been no stall.
DeleteJust saw the video here in 2023. As soon as I saw mountains, the dress of the people (lightly dressed indicating warmth), the airplane full of people, loss of power, and finally a stall when there should have been no stall", I thought: Chalk another up to Density Altitude". Some pilots flying in the mountains just don't get it.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't get over the stall warning horn well above the ground. I kept waiting for him to push the nose down.
ReplyDelete