Mooney Down near Camp Blanding, FL

[Hector]

Mooney down this afternoon near Camp Blanding in North Florida. Reports indicate one fatality. Not something you want to hear thanksgiving day. Have not seen a tail number reported yet. If anyone finds something post it here. I live very close by so if I can provide any assistance to the family I’ll be more than glad to assist.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kpaul]

The flight track does not look good (bottom link)

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2017/11/mooney-m20c-n6894n-fatal-accident.html

https://flightaware.com/resources/registration/N6894N

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N6894N

[bradp]

https://www.beechtalk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=145915&view=unread#unread

[Hector]

Weather was not great most of the day today. Low ceilings, rain. Flight track does look erratic.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[bradp]

Looks like the aircraft was registered to an individual - private pilot with an instrument rating.  However the plane has not been flown “in the system” very much over the last 5 months.

 

 

Something very not right avout that track from from the beginning of the flight on. 

 

 

Seems specific to that flight in particular - he flew in to OCF a couple of hours earlier.  Wonder fin VQQ was the intended destination all along?  Weather was not looking favorable for that trip overall.  

 

[Raptor05121]

I heard about this while I was eating dinner. Weather here has been solid layer at 400ft all day, cold ass rain. I can only imagine what the freezing level was. I would not want to be flying in this, IFR or not. 

[Raptor05121]

@mike_elliott

[exM20K]

my comments at beechtalk:

Plane is in a cached controller.com ad from October. It's possible the instrument rated owner listed in the registration had sold it and the registration is not updated yet.

at 10:00 ATC: "Are you able to climb and turn?" Pilot: "I need to go out and do a long, flat approach" That doesn't sound like an instrument rated pilot with a vacuum failure to me.
Controller ad
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/ ... clnk&gl=us

[Browncbr1]

Yikes that track log is scary. RIP

[MyNameIsNobody]

 

[mike_elliott]

2 hours ago, Browncbr1 said:

Yikes that track log is scary. RIP

The plane owner is from Knoxville Herman Steele per the FAA registration. It looks like he purchased the plane in May. Any chance you know of him, or more importantly, do you know how we can get in touch with his family?

 

[Browncbr1]

1 minute ago, mike_elliott said:

The plane owner is from Knoxville Herman Steele per the FAA registration. It looks like he purchased the plane in May. Any chance you know of him, or more importantly, do you know how we can get in touch with his family?

 

I had never heard of him. I saw it was registered in Maury county which is south of Nashville.   Address in FAA.gov shows Mt Pleasant, TN.  I don’t recall seeing this C around Knoxville lately.  

I did find the previous owner was :

FIRST COAST FLIGHT SERVICE INC
2202 BLUE HERON COVE DR, ORANGE PARK, FL, 320034931

 

i also found that it appears that mr Steele was trying to sell this plane and also his house..    

http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2017/11/pilot-herman-e-steele-killed-after-his.html?m=1

[exM20K]

Clay County Sheriff's Office has identified the deceased as Herman Steele. RIP.

http://jacksonville.com/news/public-safety/2017-11-24/pilot-identified-fatal-crash-camp-blanding 

Vacuum Failure?

 

[Raptor05121]

RIP

[mike_elliott]

On 11/23/2017 at 8:55 PM, Raptor05121 said:

@mike_elliott

Ron Dubin, Neil Cohen and I are actively seeking contact info on Herman Steele's surviving family. Deb tipped me off Late Thursday. If anyone from the TN area knew Mr. Steele or knows how to contact his family,  please let one of us know. Ron has already contacted the Maury Co airport where he was based.

EDIT

Ron has spoken with Terry Steele, Herman's daughter. The Mooney Summit will be offering her support and assistance in this most difficult time for her.

[Raptor05121]

Very good, I was able to track down his sister on Facebook, he has family in the Jax area, I was about to notify you but looks like you made contact. Great job.

[Raptor05121]

RIP Gene Steele. Photo Courtesy of his friend Scott, taken Osh '16

[mike_elliott]

17 minutes ago, Raptor05121 said:

Very good, I was able to track down his sister on Facebook, he has family in the Jax area, I was about to notify you but looks like you made contact. Great job.

Alice spoke to Terri yesterday evening. She is very thankful and appreciative of the support the Mooney Summit's Bill Gilliland foundation can offer her.

Thanks to all of you and all of our sponsors of the Mooney Summit for your kind donations that enable us to do this. Ron  texted me last night "I feel really good about what we are doing" I agree. Unfortunately, we are not fiscally capable of doing this for all marks, Perhaps someone in the Piper, Cessna, Cirrus, etc worlds will step up and do something similar.