Mooney down near PIA

[The Other Red Baron]

https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/local-news/aircraft-crash-closes-road-in-hanna-city/

[Marauder]

https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/local-news/aircraft-crash-closes-road-in-hanna-city/

That’s not good. Does that look like an Ovation 3?


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[aviatoreb]

Ugh - from the picture with the fuselage entirely intact and flat on its belly at first glance I was hoping it was a success.  How sad.

[eyes_skyward]

Yeah, this is very sad. Looks like N30EV, a K coming from New Mexico according to FlightRadar24. I'm in Illinois and had to make sure to alert certain people that this was not me before they started to worry.

[Marauder]

Yeah, this is very sad. Looks like N30EV, a K coming from New Mexico according to FlightRadar24. I'm in Illinois and had to make sure to alert certain people that this was not me before they started to worry.

Paint job looks the same as the news article.



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[The Other Red Baron]

@RJBrown's post

 In 1993 I looked at M20K-0708. At the time it wore N1171J. In my investigation I discovered it had been underwater while in its hanger. The Mississippi river had flooded the airport where it lived. I ended up talking to the insurance adjuster at Avemco. He told me everything except what it sold for salvage. The seller had done some repairs but was trying to hide the real story. I called AOPA to inform them of what I knew and found they had closed a deal on that plane just the day before.

I continue to follow this plane. Each time it changed hands I would call the new owner to let them know the history. Most people were at least glad to know why it had the problems it did. The latest owner was angry at me when I called him. Said I was an arrogant busybody. I told him that each prior owner knew and so would each subsequent one. The new N number is N30EV.Consider this a submarine warning.
I also notified the FAA and they could not care less. So much for protecting the public.  

[GMBrown]

Flight Aware has a flight for N30EV from SAF to a point "near" Peoria this morning.  It lasted almost 5 hours at approximately 15,000 feet and total flight miles was indicated to be 967 miles.  That's a long haul for a K.  The track looks normal until the last portion of flight when ADSB data shows substantial fluctuation in airspeed as it descended.   Fuel and/or Carbon Monoxide come immediately to mind.  There was also some cumulus buildup and potentially T-Storm weather just north of the area.  Maybe sometime in 2023 we'll know what happened.  Beautiful plane.

Sad.

 

Edited August 13, 2022 by GMBrown
add weather info

[carusoam]

Let’s invite some people to the discussion…

@mike_elliott (Mooney down…)

@1980Mooney because he is really good at handling ADSB data…

Prayers for the lost airmen,

-a-

[kortopates]

Live ATC KPIA, indicates pilot and tower where in contact. About 6 min after pilot had checked in with tower, the pilot announced engine out with an estimated 10 gal remaining. ATC suggested hiway below when pilot said he couldn’t make airport. don’t know yet what altitude this started at but descent rate was in excess of 180 kts till 2400’ and then near Vg from 2000’ down.

If it’s possible to correlate flight aware track time to Live ATC recording, it’s suggest engine out was reported at 27min in, which puts it about 2400’ when aircraft slowed down and only about 3 min from end of flight.
i am assuming it hit something near the ground to cause 2 fatals.

very sad loss.

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[Shadrach]

1 hour ago, The Other Red Baron said:

@RJBrown's post

 In 1993 I looked at M20K-0708. At the time it wore N1171J. In my investigation I discovered it had been underwater while in its hanger. The Mississippi river had flooded the airport where it lived. I ended up talking to the insurance adjuster at Avemco. He told me everything except what it sold for salvage. The seller had done some repairs but was trying to hide the real story. I called AOPA to inform them of what I knew and found they had closed a deal on that plane just the day before.

I continue to follow this plane. Each time it changed hands I would call the new owner to let them know the history. Most people were at least glad to know why it had the problems it did. The latest owner was angry at me when I called him. Said I was an arrogant busybody. I told him that each prior owner knew and so would each subsequent one. The new N number is N30EV.Consider this a submarine warning.
I also notified the FAA and they could not care less. So much for protecting the public.  

Current owner has been flying it for 16 years. I am skeptical that it’s previous U-boat service brought it down. Lack of fire surprising.

[The Other Red Baron]

19 minutes ago, Shadrach said:

Current owner has been flying it for 16 years. I am skeptical that it’s previous U-boat service brought it down. Lack of fire surprising.

True, I just found it odd when I went googling and that popped up.

[Ragsf15e]

6 minutes ago, The Other Red Baron said:

True, I just found it odd when I went googling and that popped up.

Also, the ebay add says it’s an M20E, but its registration is definitely a 1982 K.

[toto]

The aircraft had been in Santa Fe for two months, and hadn’t apparently flown until a four-minute long flight three days ago. It does make me curious whether the four-minute flight was post-maintenance.

Flying for five hours definitely suggests that the plane was operating well, although it’s certainly possible that there was maintenance performed that would have affected the fuel system or quantity indication.

 

The photos of the crash site make me wonder why the pilot chose a street surrounded by power lines. Central Illinois is one big grassy field.

Ultimately this feels like a fuel starvation incident, a controlled descent for 30 minutes (with best glide for the last bit as kortopates mentioned above), and then a very inhospitable landing area. 
 

[Yetti]

The one picture I saw was Nose bent in and left wing damage indicative of a stall spin.  Maybe tried to extend the glide too much.

[carusoam]

Picture in Reddit….

 

 

[carusoam]

More eyewitness accounts…

https://www.pjstar.com/story/news/2022/08/13/small-plane-crashes-in-hanna-city-illinois/65402753007/

Missing corner of the building may have something to do with the accident….

[LANCECASPER]

13 hours ago, toto said:

Ultimately this feels like a fuel starvation incident, a controlled descent for 30 minutes (with best glide for the last bit as kortopates mentioned above), and then a very inhospitable landing area. 

Flying non-stop across the country from Santa Fe NM to Peoria IL is a nice way to travel, and if it works out pretty amazing compared to the way the airlines would get you from KSAF to KPIA. But one thing I have to remind myself of is not to try to stretch the range. A fuel stop can be a nice break to a long trip. 

[larrynimmo]

I have never flown with an engine out…

what I have read was to expect a descent rate of 800’ per minute to maintain glide airspeed to achieve the furthest distance.

but it may be possible to glide more time in the air if pilot some speed above stall speed

regardless of ground speed listed, I am shock to see descent rates under 500’ per minute…I wouldn’t think that would be sustainable 

[toto]

2 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

Flying non-stop across the country from Santa Fe NM to Peoria IL is a nice way to travel, and if it works out pretty amazing compared to the way the airlines would get you from KSAF to KPIA. But one thing I have to remind myself of is not to try to stretch the range. A fuel stop can be a nice break to a long trip. 

I don’t like trying to deconstruct a person’s life in an accident thread, but just for the sake of the “range” discussion … it looked to me like the airplane had traveled between NY and Santa Fe before, in three hops over one day - returning Santa Fe to Missouri to Ohio to NY.

It could be that the accident flight was an experiment to do the trip in two hops, from Santa Fe to Illinois to NY. 

[larrynimmo]

https://www.facebook.com/100000522270114/posts/5953378894689461/?extid=0&d=n

[toto]

Just now, larrynimmo said:

https://www.facebook.com/100000522270114/posts/5953378894689461/?extid=0&d=n

This is pretty tough to watch. 

[Danb]

2 hours ago, larrynimmo said:

https://www.facebook.com/100000522270114/posts/5953378894689461/?extid=0&d=n

Sickening to see, pray for there soul’s, they almost made it.

[Danb]

1 hour ago, 1980Mooney said:

It appears to have the intercooler mod by Turboplus with the NACA duct.

Beautiful plane

[MikeOH]

Damn!  Looks to me like he was delibrately maneuvering left to avoid hitting the car on the right, caught the building, snapped around and slammed the nose/cabin into the solid brick.

If that car hadn't have been there it would have been a perfect landing/outcome.

[ilovecornfields]

Well, I guess everyone was wrong about the water damage…

Watched that Facebook video. I wonder if landing gear-up would have made a difference.