Fatal plane crash video released 25 years after it happened

[Redbaron]

This is kind of a hard video to watch but right near the end of the clip you can see when he tries turn around he enters a stall/spin trying to avoid rising terrain. Be safe out there guys

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=316_1249535759

[barnstorm2]

I for one am glad gyroplanes can not stall nor spin.

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[GyroDoug]

That is sad to watch, but avoiding that very stall - spin situation was the main motivation behind the invention of the Autogyro. That doesn't mean that we can't get into trouble in a Gyro because man has yet to invent anything that someone hasn't figured out a way to mess up. But it is nice to know that Gyros are not going to stall and fall out of the sky when you get down to slow speed and try to turn too sharp (like the guy in this video did).

[ScottTinnesand]

I was shown that video on the first day of an aviation safety class at UND in 1988. The instructor said he wanted to show us a flying video with lots of nice scenery. The end of it was not expected by any of us and was quite sobering.

As an attention grabber - mission accomplished.

[Chuck Roberg]

For some reason my computer will not let me watch it. Say's waiting to install plug in's.

Guess I have to catch it somewhere else.

[Dale Young]

High Altitude + Low airspeed + increasing bank angle = crunch!

[E6B]

Hmmm. Can't say I saw a stall or a spin there. I saw the terrain rising up to smack a guy that made a right turn, for no apparent reason, when lower terrain was to the left.

This seems to be an example of one of the many dangers of mountain flying: lack of a natural horizon, and lack of, or inattention to, the artificial one.

Pat

[SnoBird]

Originally Posted by E6B

Hmmm. Can't say I saw a stall or a spin there. I saw the terrain rising up to smack a guy that made a right turn, for no apparent reason, when lower terrain was to the left. This seems to be an example of one of the many dangers of mountain flying: lack of a natural horizon, and lack of, or inattention to, the artificial one. Pat

You can hear the stall alarm buzzing as the aircraft starts to struggle just before impact.

[All_In]

Originally Posted by Chuck Roberg

For some reason my computer will not let me watch it. Say's waiting to install plug in's.

Guess I have to catch it somewhere else.

Looks like Adobe Flash player here is a download. http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html

[SnoBird]

It always amazes me how unexpectedly death can seemingly come out of nowhere and at the same time how banal it often is when it happens. As an aviator you've got to know what you're doing and keep robot-like vigilance at all times. To do otherwise is to end up like this poor soul and his passenger(?). Hopefully they didn't suffer.

[PW_Plack]

Originally Posted by SnoBird

It always amazes me how unexpectedly death can seemingly come out of nowhere...

Bill, that does happen, but this one is like so many other head-shakers. Nothing that went wrong here should have been a surprise. The plane had performance charts which included service ceiling; the area to be inspected (including terrain and required altitudes) was known in advance; the humidity and temperature were readily available. Even if all that was missed, the trees kept getting closer, and nothing was done until after a shallow 180º turn became impossible.

The lessons for me here are (1) determine ahead of time whether the machine is up to the mission, and (2) once you're in the air, when the little voice says, "uh-oh, this is not good," pay attention.

Now, I'm going back to re-read some of Vance's posts involving decision making, just for contrast.

[SnoBird]

Originally Posted by PW_Plack

Nothing that went wrong here should have been a surprise.

I agree Paul, that's why I described it as "banal". It reminded me a bit of a particular gyro flying lesson I took one time. We were on final and a medivac helicopter taxied out on the runway preparing for a non-emergency takeoff. As we approached we moved to the side and remained airborne off to the side at about 100' altitude at a low airspeed of about ~35mph (I was in control of the aircraft at the time). As a beginner I wasn't sure what to do, but figured since my instructor was with me it was ok to start looking down at the rotors of the medivac copter spinning and admire the beauty of the sleek Dauphin helicopter from above while flying low and slow (in a mac powered Parsons at that). My instructor deliberately let me get into that situation to teach me about situational awareness and then barked "look at your airspeed, look at your altitude!" I had lulled myself into a sense of complacency and was momentarily distracted from the business of flying to the business of gawking at a helicopter from above instead. Fly the aircraft! Goddamned right.

That's what happened to this poor guy. He was distracted by the beauty of the rockies and probably wasn't very skilled or experienced and was "suddenly" lulled into a fatal scenario that took only seconds to unfold. From his perspective it "came out of nowhere". From an experienced aviator's perspective after the fact, it was an obvious situation just waiting to happen.

[route66]

I agree with Tim

I for one am glad gyroplanes can not stall nor spin

Gyros just pancake in the same situation. Not an elegant landing but didn't stall spin and the pilot lived.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2P2Hwjohs4

[Scary Gary]

Been there . Come close to doing that . Don't have the T-shirt . Don't want the T-shirt .
Very sad .