Mooney down in Washington

[mpg]

1 dead in small plane crash in Whatcom County

Updated: Feb 12, 2018 - 10:59 PM

 

 

A pilot was found dead after a small plane crash in Whatcom County on Monday evening, authorities said. 

Crews were called at about 9:45 p.m. after a plane had been reported missing at 8 p.m.

The plane wreckage was found near Fragrance Lake by Chuckanut Mountain. 

Authorities said the pilot was found dead inside the plane and it appears the pilot was the only one on board. 

According to the FAA, the aircraft was traveling from Paine Field to Bellingham. 

 

[Hank]

[mike_elliott]

@mpg 

I saw this on Kathrynsreport http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2018/02/fatal-accident-occurred-february-12.html but are we sure its a Mooney that went down?

[LANCECASPER]

Just now, mike_elliott said:

@mpg 

I saw this on Kathrynsreport http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2018/02/fatal-accident-occurred-february-12.html but are we sure its a Mooney that went down?

The newscast video said Mooney M20K.    http://www.king5.com/video/news/faa-investigating-plane-crash-near-bellingham/281-8006812

[mike_elliott]

Thanks, if anyone obtains any contact information to the surviving immediate family, please let me know.

 

[carqwik]

N123JN per Kathryn's Report...M20K 231

RIP

[MB65E]

God bless! At least they didn't suffer.

Sad deal,

-Matt

[mike_elliott]

We have the contact info for Don's wife Jo and will be reaching out to her

Godspeed, Don. 

[Marauder]

N123JN per Kathryn's Report...M20K 231
RIP

Track is available on FlightAware. Looks like a controlled descent. Anyone familiar with the area the plane went down in? Looks like a hill top.









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[adverseyaw]

I recently met Don over email when he offered to help me build instrument time as I work toward my rating. We were just scheduling over the weekend. He was so enthusiastic about helping out. Such a tragedy to hear.

I'm familiar with the hillside. It's prominent on the approach to BLI.

Rest well, Don.

[Hank]

One of the linked articles above said that he apparently clipped trees on approach to land . . . . The controlled descent shown above gives credence to that theory.

[thinwing]

Rip...cfit during Vfr approach at night or engine failure?

[Diesel 10]

So sad and very close to home.  KBLI is very popular destination for Pacific Northwest pilots.  The mountain is very visible in the day but  certainly is a real risk for CFIT at night.  One the the reports had ATC saying that the pilot said "the plane was going down".  At first reading I thought this meant there was an engine problem but I wonder if it just meant that the pilot was on descent into KBLI?

RIP

[thinwing]

I think it was simply following the magenta line direct inbound to 34... unfortunately the approach plate shows what would happen descending out of 2000 where he did :

[Cruiser]

I thought a report stated the pilot reported to ATC that he was going down?

[Marauder]

2 hours ago, thinwing said:

I think it was simply following the magenta line direct inbound to 34... unfortunately the approach plate shows what would happen descending out of 2000 where he did :

I plotted the lat and long from FlightAware. Using Google Maps with those lat and longs show the last signal received shows southwest of Lost Lake.

The topo shows some high points along that path including a ridge line.

[thinwing]

Sad...from south over Burlington and sedrowooley he is at 4200 in cruise...he got bright ground lights and maybe can see the glow of Bellingham lights in the distance...starts a 500 per min descent into a black hole ,rising terrain ahead and never notices the lights of Bellingham go out one by one on the descent.

[LANCECASPER]

35 minutes ago, thinwing said:

Sad...from south over Burlington and sedrowooley he is at 4200 in cruise...he got bright ground lights and maybe can see the glow of Bellingham lights in the distance...starts a 500 per min descent into a black hole ,rising terrain ahead and never notices the lights of Bellingham go out one by one on the descent.

It sounds like he lost power. 

“U.S. Coast Guard and local first responders began checking on reports of a small plane that had radio contact with air traffic control advising that the plane was going down. Radio contact was lost and the exact location was unknown,” Parks said in a statement.

Bellingham Fire’s fireboat Salish Star joined the initial search, which focused on the waters west of Bellingham between Eliza Island and Governors’ Point, according to emergency radio dispatches.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter crew found the wreckage in the mountains just east of the initial search area about 9:15 p.m. Monday and guided Bellingham and South Whatcom firefighters and other personnel to the scene, Parks said.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article199788349.html

[kortopates]

Without the report of going down I would have thought CFIT as Kelly suggest. But if he was going down why didn't his training kick in to trim for best glide and turn towards lower terrain and a better landing site. I can imagine darkness slowing down a change in direction but 147 kts in the descent and 750fpm down? FlightAware is usually pretty accurate.

 

 I sure don't mean to real critical of a pilot in distress, especially at this point if that was the case. But the numbers reported by FA sure don't look like a loss power event.

 

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[mpg]

seems he Just decended for the airport way too early!

[donkaye]

I have no idea what this pilot had on board regarding equipment, but most everyone has a GPS that shows terrain.   At night I always have terrain enabled.  If it wasn't a mechanical issue, that could have saved his life.

[jaylw314]

1 hour ago, LANCECASPER said:

It sounds like he lost power. 

“U.S. Coast Guard and local first responders began checking on reports of a small plane that had radio contact with air traffic control advising that the plane was going down. Radio contact was lost and the exact location was unknown,” Parks said in a statement.

Looking at the sheriff's reports, I speculate as to whether he might have clipped trees at the top, and had a few seconds to transmit before crashing farther down the north side of the hill.  The wreckage was reportedly scattered over a large area ("hundreds of feet"), so I imagine he did not hit the ground first--wreckage would be over a smaller area.

Conversely, it was unusually cold Monday night in the Northwest, but I'm not sure if that might be a factor

Also, if the maps are right, the crash sight is well off the approach path to the east, so he was either not on final approach, or well off course

Thoughts out to family

Edited February 16, 2018 by jaylw314

[Piloto]

An error on the altimeter setting combined with nighttime and maybe fog could be the cause of the crash. On situations like this I always switch to the terrain mode on my 530AW. On IMC approaches on final I always crosscheck my baro altitude with the GPS altitude, they should read the same. I think a pilot would only say "going down" when he is in trouble.

José

[thinwing]

If anything is to be learned from this unfortunate accident ,hopefully reminding the rest of us ,is night Vfr over any unlighted ,mountainous area carries its hazards.This sounds like so many last minute maintaince flights ,getting off late,not planning for IFR flight cause it is only a 100 miles back to home base from maintaince shop.Late departure cause traffic from Bellingham to Paine field to pickup the Mooney via I5 is like LA 405 traffic on a fri pm.Fly safe all

[LANCECASPER]

2 hours ago, jaylw314 said:

Looking at the sheriff's reports, I speculate as to whether he might have clipped trees at the top, and had a few seconds to transmit before crashing farther down the north side of the hill.  The wreckage was reportedly scattered over a large area ("hundreds of feet"), so I imagine he did not hit the ground first--wreckage would be over a smaller area.

Everyone is different, but if I had just clipped some trees, calling ATC would be the last thing I would think about doing.