Mooney down in Petaluma CA

[kmyfm20s]

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/8197786-181/1-person-dead-in-crash?sba=AAS

So unfortunate! RIP

[wishboneash]

Last evening/night was the worst possible time to be up in the air in the SF Bay area region. It was not a cold storm, but very heavy precipitation.

[kmyfm20s]

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2018/04/mooney-m20-fatal-accident-occurred.html

[kerry]

I just looked at Petaluma's weather late afternoon and last night. It showed fog with 2-3 miles of visibility.

[Jerry 5TJ]

Leaving Petaluma towards the south IFR your first fix is often SGD, but you don’t want to turn direct after departure as Sonoma Mountain is in the way.  

  

[gsxrpilot]

The weather was just shocking here in the Bay Area last night. I was at SFO at 2am to pick up my wife who's flight was delayed 6 hours from 8pm because of weather. I couldn't imagine the decision making that went into making that flight.  Very unfortunate.

[carusoam]

Is Carl Morrison an  MSer? (Name given in one of the links)

@FlyDave is from Petaluma? (I believe)

@mike_elliott a heads up if you haven’t caught the news.

Prayers,

-a-

[mike_elliott]

@FlyDave If you can help me obtain Carl Morrison's wifes name and contact info, we would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

Mike Elliott

CEO

Mooney Summit, Inc.

[PTK]

May he rest in peace. Prayers and condolences for his loved ones.

Human decision making can be a scary thing... very scary indeed...

[FlyDave]

I flew commercial into SFO last night around 11:30. I was actually sleeping until they slowed to taxi speed but I can tell you the drive home was a bit hairy. Good thing my wife was driving because I would have nodded off and taken a bunch of something out!
Too bad about this guy that hit the hill north of Petaluma airport (my home drone). It's a treacherous valley at night in decent weather. IFR departures, as Jerry pointed out in the ODP, is a climb straight ahead off of 19 EDIT: 29 (I was still tired this morning - missed the RW heading at my home airport - sheesh!) to 1,500' then a climbing LEFT turn to SGD. He missed the LEFT turn part in the OBSTACLE (it's a big 'un) departure procedure.

Edited April 8, 2018 by FlyDave

[FlyDave]

Mike,

I don't know him and I'm not sure if he's based at o69.
Does anyone have an N-Number?

[FlyDave]

Other news reports state he is based in San Diego.
Anyone in that area know him?

[mike_elliott]

2 minutes ago, FlyDave said:

Mike,

I don't know him and I'm not sure if he's based at o69.
Does anyone have an N-Number?

Thanks Dave, I have an email into the reporter to see if he knows also.

[neilpilot]

I don't know N#, but here's a possible match based on a FAA database search:  

 

N9133Z

CARLETON H MORRISON  JR, 2224 VIA DEL ROBLES, FALLBROOK, CA

Carl has a law practice at the Fallbrook Airpark

[neilpilot]

4 minutes ago, neilpilot said:

I don't know N#, but here's a possible match based on a FAA database search:  

 

N9133Z

CARLETON H MORRISON  JR, 2224 VIA DEL ROBLES, FALLBROOK, CA

Carl has a law practice at the Fallbrook Airpark

Seems N9133Z did file for a 5pm departure O69 to L18, so this is the aircraft

[Bug Smasher]

I live in the area, we had very heavy precipitation all day yesterday and several road closures due to flooding. Terrible flying weather. It's nice and sunny here today. If only he had decided to delay his flight until morning....

[neilpilot]

1 minute ago, PTK said:

But FlightAware shows him having landed at L18.

Look carefully.  Flightaware is reporting landing based on the filed flight plan times, but the flight log shows no data.  Seems he may have had a departure clearance but was never activated.

[PTK]

31 minutes ago, neilpilot said:

Look carefully.  Flightaware is reporting landing based on the filed flight plan times, but the flight log shows no data.  Seems he may have had a departure clearance but was never activated.

Yes, I just noticed that. Thank you.

[PTK]

58 minutes ago, FlyDave said:

I flew commercial into SFO last night around 11:30. I was actually sleeping until they slowed to taxi speed but I can tell you the drive home was a bit hairy. Good thing my wife was driving because I would have nodded off and taken a bunch of something out!
Too bad about this guy that hit the hill north of Petaluma airport (my home drone). It's a treacherous valley at night in decent weather. IFR departures, as Jerry pointed out in the ODP, is a climb straight ahead off of 19 to 1,500' then a climbing LEFT turn to SGD. He missed the LEFT turn part in the OBSTACLE (it's a big 'un) departure procedure.

What’s also puzzling is that the crash site is NNE of the departure rw 29. Which suggests he may have made a right turn instead of straight ahead and then left as per DP. If he was departing 11 it appears he may have made a left turn instead of direct SGD.

[mike_elliott]

Perhaps we can avoid beating him up for what we think he did wrong on this thread. RIP Carl.

[PTK]

2 hours ago, mike_elliott said:

Perhaps we can avoid beating him up for what we think he did wrong on this thread. RIP Carl.

No one is beating up this tragic Mooney brother. He decided to depart in very bad wx conditions and his flight was cut short in a very bad way. Discussing the wx and the DP and asking questions is not beating up. But call it what you wish. You’re certainly entitled to your opinion.

[Skates97]

1 hour ago, neilpilot said:

I don't know N#, but here's a possible match based on a FAA database search:  

 

N9133Z

CARLETON H MORRISON  JR, 2224 VIA DEL ROBLES, FALLBROOK, CA

Carl has a law practice at the Fallbrook Airpark

@mike_elliott

Here is the website for his law practice. I imagine someone there could put you in touch with his wife. There are phone and email contacts listed on the site.

http://morrison-law.net/

[Bug Smasher]

I'm just commenting on the weather as I witnessed it here yesterday. RIP to the pilot and condolences to his family and friends.

[mike_elliott]

5 minutes ago, Skates97 said:

@mike_elliott

Here is the website for his law practice. I imagine someone there could put you in touch with his wife. There are phone and email contacts listed on the site.

http://morrison-law.net/

Thanks Richard

[Urs_Wildermuth]

From the pics it looks as if the airplane has not had much horizontal movement over the terrain when it hit but the damage appears to show that the cabin must have been pretty intact until consumed by the fire. I wonder what the orientation is and what track he was on when the accident occurred. It's also not clear on which runway the aircraft took off from. But from the departure procs posted above it does not appear that the location is in sync with any of them.

Clearly we don't know much at this stage but asking questions why is one way of coping with the news of the tragic loss of a fellow aviator and mooneyac. RIP and condolences to the family and friends...

The scenario reminds me of the loss of another Mooney in Italy a while back which hit a stone wall at the end of a runway. Onlookers fully expected the crew to evacuate the airplane as it was intact when a fire broke out and destroyed the cell before anyone could react.