US, General Aviation PLANE CRASH captured on video in cockpit

[Mark Grima]

Guys,

I saw this on a.net this morning, initially decided against posting it, but thought it might interest some who do not look at that forum.

This is video from a passenger on board a Stinson 108 that went down in Idaho a couple weeks ago. No one was killed, although the Pilot has seen better days so if you don't like blood, stop watching after the crash.

The video

The NTSB report

I'm not a Pilot so not going to speculate on any causes, nor is that the reason for the post.

Hope this is appropriate, please remove if not.

Cheers

M

[Matt_L]

Mark,

Thanks for posting- I think it's appropriate especially since you pre warned anyone clicking the link!

irrelevant of what caused the crash (one could quite easily pick a major possible reason or 2) it is a great educational tool for pilots..

The 2 things that strike me (and im watching /writing from a mobile so it might not be 100% clear what I saw) but...
1. The plane settles back down onto the gravel strip/grass after initial rotation - a sign it lacks the lift required to sustain flight
2. The airport as referenced by other forums is at a very high altitude - thinner air + hot temps = poor performance especially near max takeoff weights!

[David C]

4 very lucky people . That accident could have and indeed in many cases would have resulted in fatalities . The one thing that strikes me is the fact that the aircraft takes forever to get airborne initially , much longer than could be regarded as normal , this in itself should have been enough to have aborted the take off , and then when finally airborne it settles back on the runway . When it finally gets airborne and struggles to gain height the pilot still continues towards trees , with no possibility of making a forced landing in the events that followed . Stupidity at it's best , however , 4 very lucky people are still around to tell the story .

Dave C

[Jayden Laing]

http://jalopnik.com/5932944/this-sca...ium=socialflow

I'm no pilot but I immediately thought to myself, why did the pilot not circle of the airstrip if he knew that the plane was struggling to gain height? Wouldn't the safety of the airstrip & the big open plains surrounding be more important than continuing flying straight ahead?

I would like to get peoples thoughts on this.....

[Matt_L]

Jayden,

without wanting to be presumptuous about what happened- the video displays a performance issue in the climb re gaining height. If the pilot was say to attempt a turn or circuit at such a low altitude, the little altitude it had would reduce with a possible stall as a result of the turn as oppose to just flying straight ahead.

In any event, flying straight ahead was a double edged sword with the treeline impacting on any chance of salvaging the situation. The safest option (in my opinion) would have been to put it down straight ahead onto the remaining grass/field. Once again though- easier talking on here then being in the plane in that situation- and I want to stress that as part of my response!

[Grahame Hutchison]

There way plenty of flat open ground to land on when they were obviously struggling to climb out from the airstrip. The pilot should have aborted the takeoff, or landed straight ahead as he had gained very little height in the seconds after takeoff. The airstrip looked to be long enough with a reasonable surface, and maybe a crosswind present as he was off to the left of the strip as he passed the end markers. With almost no rate of climb, higher ground and trees ahead, it would have been better not to push a bad position, abort and re-check everything before attempting another takeoff. They were all very lucky indeed.

[Philip Argy]

Aborting the take off would have been the safer course once the lack of lift became obvious. And heading into the heavily wooded area was just asking for trouble - they plainly had insufficient altitude.

[Jason H]

I'm sorry but how do these people get pilot licences. Purely based on that footage, there is absolutely no justification for what happened. That pilot is completely responsible for those passengers well being on that flight. Those 3 passengers were lucky, but that pilot is an idiot.

[Mark Grima]

Noticed this made the main stream news tonight.

Think it was on WIN that I saw some shorts about the story.

Cheers

M