231 down near Columbia River Gorge, Troutdale (KTTD)

[natdm]

https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/plane-crash-columbia-river-troutdale-06242024/amp/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR32WUhmiO0OMOv8W1Ap-ydY7LHFBwGZRnHTVqrog4Pfm9JFjOWhkeEGlYI_aem_6sFy7IBPtiX_X40lh7givg

Just happened Monday, not much to go off of yet. 

Edit to add: Pilot survived, walked/swam away.

[N201MKTurbo]

I wonder how much fuel was in the plane?

[Hank]

He turned base, lost the engine and was too far away to land . . . .

This is why so many people fuss at other pilots for flying bomber patterns. It's something that I have to watch, or I find myself well out of gliding range too, especially if the wind is 10 knots or more.

On the other hand, he apparently made a great emergency landing in the river, got out of the plane a d swam to the bank before Rescue arrived. Wonder if he raised the gear or not? We'll find out when the plane is raised.

Fly safe out there, ya'll!

[natdm]

12 minutes ago, Hank said:

He turned base, lost the engine and was too far away to land . . . .

This is why so many people fuss at other pilots for flying bomber patterns. It's something that I have to watch, or I find myself well out of gliding range too, especially if the wind is 10 knots or more.

On the other hand, he apparently made a great emergency landing in the river, got out of the plane a d swam to the bank before Rescue arrived. Wonder if he raised the gear or not? We'll find out when the plane is raised.

Fly safe out there, ya'll!

Yeah there's definitely not enough information in the article. We've all been pushed out on downwind by traffic doing straight-ins, getting cut off, someone doing an approach, or we were too fast and need to bleed off some speed, etc. Plenty of reasons to deviate from the norm just a bit. It's possible he just had an extended downwind for no reason, but who knows just yet. 

[toto]

https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/390029

[N201MKTurbo]

FWIW 

I was having lunch at Edgefield across the street from there week before last.

[RescueMunchkin]

I was curious to see how long he'd been in the air for, but both flightaware and asdbexchange are showing no activity on the tail number yesterday.  Anybody know of a better way?

[toto]

13 minutes ago, RescueMunchkin said:

I was curious to see how long he'd been in the air for, but both flightaware and asdbexchange are showing no activity on the tail number yesterday.  Anybody know of a better way?

I was curious about that, too - since the aircraft is apparently ADS-B compliant, I thought maybe he's a 978mhz ADS-B out user who normally runs in anonymous mode.

[PeteMc]

1 hour ago, RescueMunchkin said:

I was curious to see how long he'd been in the air for, but both flightaware and asdbexchange are showing no activity on the tail number yesterday.

I found other flights into TTD.  The last one I see was from June 14th.

 

[toto]

3 minutes ago, PeteMc said:

I found other flights into TTD.  The last one I see was from June 14th.

 

Really?  That one on June 14 was the only one I saw for this aircraft ever.  I thought maybe it was a discrete transponder code that required switching off anonymous mode.

ETA:  Sorry, there was also one in late July 2023 that had no details

[RescueMunchkin]

50 minutes ago, PeteMc said:

I found other flights into TTD.  The last one I see was from June 14th.

 

Yes, I meant that there's nothing from yesterday showing up at all, not that I checked yesterday (my statement was ambiguous)

[DCarlton]

Swam away.  Nice.  Wonder if he had the wheels up or down...  

[Hank]

4 hours ago, natdm said:

Yeah there's definitely not enough information in the article. We've all been pushed out on downwind by traffic doing straight-ins, getting cut off, someone doing an approach, or we were too fast and need to bleed off some speed, etc. Plenty of reasons to deviate from the norm just a bit. It's possible he just had an extended downwind for no reason, but who knows just yet. 

Isn't Troutdale towered? Tapes should clarify what happened. 

[RescueMunchkin]

52 minutes ago, Hank said:

Isn't Troutdale towered? Tapes should clarify what happened. 

Troutdale is supposed to be towered, but they are low on resources there and are sometimes untowered during daylight hours.  

Looks like they were towered when the pilot departed - at approx 2138 UTC the KTTD controller advised 1VM to contact PDX Tower after departing and over the north bank (WA side of the Columbia River)

All times approximate in UTC

2211 - 231VM calls TTD tower to advise he's over the north bank inbound for landing.  Tower tells to advise when over the Washougal River.  Google maps shows the Washougal River is just about abeam the RWY 25 threshold

2214 - 231VM calls TTD tower to state he's crossing the Washougal River.  TTD tower tells 231VM to enter right base and clears to land RWY 25, winds 270@8.  231VM asks tower to repeat, tower does so more slowly and succinctly and adds that winds are 270@7.

About 1 minute later, 231VM calls and advises he's lost power.  Tower points out some blue hangars and asks if he's able to make it.  231VM responds "No I can't"

About 45 seconds later, TTD controller calls Helicopter 48A and asks if he can offer assistance flying over the downed aircraft.

 

Edited June 25 by RescueMunchkin
Adding more details

[wombat]

Interesting.  I fly into KTTD occasionally so I'm somewhat familiar with the area.  It sounds like he was arriving from the North to land, and when I do that I always just fly the approach directly into base, but the news reports the pilot as saying "“I was coming downwind to land in Troutdale. As I was turning to base..."

So I'm a little confused what was going on.    I would expect the ATC radio traffic is a more clear picture.

 

A approach from the North with a base that far out is very typical, at the North side of the Columbia river the Portland class C has a floor of 1,700' and even further North is only has a floor of 2,000'.   It's easiest to stay further East of that so you can descend at a normal rate rather than having to stay down below the C for so long.

[1980Mooney]

It appears that three (3) Mooney M20K's owned by this pilot have been destroyed in the last 4 years. Two of the crashes are documented in the Aviation Safety Network Database.  The N number's are the same and they are both M20K's but the planes are different model years with different serial numbers.  The third M20K was purchased between the 2 crashes.  There is no record of anything happening to it; however it wound up at BAS with bent wings. It is currently being sold for parts.

• In February 2020 he crash-landed N231VM - it was a 1980 M20K ser. no. 25-0426
  • Loss of control Accident Mooney M20K N231VM, (flightsafety.org)
  • Kathryn's Report: Landing Gear Collapse: Mooney M20K, N231VM; accident occurred February 14, 2020 at Minden-Tahoe Airport (KMEV), Douglas County, Nevada (kathrynsreport.com)
  • Pilot, then 69 years old, admitted that he didn't use his checklist.  On Final at about 20 ft above the runway threshold, a plane holding for take off announced on the frequency "gear not down".  He pulled the gear switch, claimed he added power, and raised the nose.  The plane slammed into the runway and broke the nose gear off (it may not have been fully extended), hit several runway signs - possibly he stalled it.
  • The plane was scrapped.  Parts can be found on Arizona Air Salvage. https://azairsalvage.com/product-tag/m20/
• In December 2022 he purchased N1172W and renumbered it N231VM. It is a 1982 M20K ser. no. 25-0716.   He crashed it on Monday.
  • https://www.aircraft.com/aircraft/192905111/n1172w-1982-mooney-m20k-231
  • N1172W (1982 MOONEY AIRCRAFT CORP. M20K owned by BOETTCHER RICHARD) Aircraft Registration - FlightAware
  • Incident Mooney M20K 231 N231VM, (flightsafety.org)
• In November 2021, after the crash of N231VM and before the purchase of N1172 (the new N231VM), he purchased N57241, a 1984 M20K ser. no. 25-0797.  There is no record of an accident, but it wound up scrapped at BAS with bent wings.  It is currently being sold in parts.
  • https://www.aircraft.com/aircraft/205957049/n57241-1984-mooney-m20k-231se
  • https://www.flightaware.com/resources/registration/N57241
  • Mooney M20K Fuselage with airworthiness, bill of sale, data tag and log books (baspartsales.com)

First M20K

Second M20K  at 3,440 hours  https://www.aircraft.com/aircraft/205957049/n57241-1984-mooney-m20k-231se

Same plane at 3,445 hours

 

Third M20K

Before N-number change.

 

After

 

 

 

 

Edited June 26 by 1980Mooney

[Pinecone]

WOW.

[LANCECASPER]

9 hours ago, 1980Mooney said:

It appears that three (3) Mooney M20K's owned by this pilot have been destroyed in the last 4 years. Two of the crashes are documented in the Aviation Safety Network Database.  The N number's are the same and they are both M20K's but the planes are different model years with different serial numbers.  The third M20K was purchased between the 2 crashes.  There is no record of anything happening to it; however it wound up at BAS with bent wings. It is currently being sold for parts.

• In February 2020 he crash-landed N231VM - it was a 1980 M20K ser. no. 25-0426
  • Loss of control Accident Mooney M20K N231VM, (flightsafety.org)
  • Kathryn's Report: Landing Gear Collapse: Mooney M20K, N231VM; accident occurred February 14, 2020 at Minden-Tahoe Airport (KMEV), Douglas County, Nevada (kathrynsreport.com)
  • Pilot, then 69 years old, admitted that he didn't use his checklist.  On Final at about 20 ft above the runway threshold, a plane holding for take off announced on the frequency "gear not down".  He pulled the gear switch, claimed he added power, and raised the nose.  The plane slammed into the runway and broke the nose gear off (it may not have been fully extended), hit several runway signs - possibly he stalled it.
  • The plane was scrapped.  Parts can be found on Arizona Air Salvage. https://azairsalvage.com/product-tag/m20/
• In September 2023 he purchased N1172W and renumbered it N231VM. It is a 1982 M20K ser. no. 25-0716.   He crashed it on Monday.
  • https://www.aircraft.com/aircraft/192905111/n1172w-1982-mooney-m20k-231
  • Incident Mooney M20K 231 N231VM, (flightsafety.org)
• In November 2021, after the crash of N231VM and before the purchase of N1172 (the new N231VM), he purchased N57241, a 1984 M20K ser. no. 25-0797.  There is no record of an accident, but it wound up scrapped at BAS with bent wings.  It is currently being sold in parts.
  • https://www.aircraft.com/aircraft/205957049/n57241-1984-mooney-m20k-231se
  • https://www.flightaware.com/resources/registration/N57241
  • Mooney M20K Fuselage with airworthiness, bill of sale, data tag and log books (baspartsales.com)

First M20K

Second M20K  at 3,440 hours  https://www.aircraft.com/aircraft/205957049/n57241-1984-mooney-m20k-231se

Same plane at 3,445 hours

 

Third M20K

Before N-number change.

 

After

 

 

 

 

He has more lives than a cat. If he flies long enough he could wipe out the entire M20K fleet.

[jlunseth]

My reaction also. I don’t suppose he has insurance, probably can’t get it.

[1980Mooney]

16 hours ago, toto said:

Really?  That one on June 14 was the only one I saw for this aircraft ever.  I thought maybe it was a discrete transponder code that required switching off anonymous mode.

ETA:  Sorry, there was also one in late July 2023 that had no details

 

17 hours ago, RescueMunchkin said:

I was curious to see how long he'd been in the air for, but both flightaware and asdbexchange are showing no activity on the tail number yesterday.  Anybody know of a better way?

 

17 hours ago, toto said:

I was curious about that, too - since the aircraft is apparently ADS-B compliant, I thought maybe he's a 978mhz ADS-B out user who normally runs in anonymous mode.

 

16 hours ago, PeteMc said:

I found other flights into TTD.  The last one I see was from June 14th.

If you look at the specs of N1172W which he bought in  September 2023 and renumbered it N231VM, it has a GTX 330-ES.  That has ADSB-out in 1090 MHz Extended Squitter (1090ES) which makes sense since it is a turbo that can operate above 18,000 ft. https://www.aircraft.com/aircraft/192905111/n1172w-1982-mooney-m20k-231

Something is screwed up with his ADSB registration.  His flight on Firday June 14 shows up 2 ways on FligthAware.  One is with ADSB signitures but registered as N131VM.  The other is without any ADSB and is registered as N231VM.

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N231VM

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N131VM

 

 

 

[1980Mooney]

45 minutes ago, LANCECASPER said:

He has more lives than a cat. If he flies long enough he could wipe out the entire M20K fleet.

Interesting comments that he made to FAA/NTSB in March 2020 NTSB CAROL Docket:

• He reported that "he wasn't himself" and "not thinking"
• "Things were happening too fast. I think I pulled back pressure on the yoke and with the plane in landing configuration, I think I stalleded the airplane and dropped the airplane onto the runway, The mains were fully deployed, however, I think that I put too much stress on the nose gear, and it broke off at the axle. The wheel went bouncing off the runway, which I saw. If it wasn't such a catastrophe, it would have been kind of funny."

Comments he made to press on Monday:

• "I tried to restart the engine and it wouldn't restart, tried to switch tanks ... "
• "I don't know if it's a miracle or just good piloting techniques," Boettcher said. "I don't know what but I did the right thing."
• "I feel like I want to go home and go to bed and forget about it all," he said with a slight laugh.

These crashes don't seem to phase him.  I bet he buys another M20K.....

[redbaron1982]

I expect he is going to get a very personalized insurance premium.... I don't want to pay for his mishaps!

Edited June 26 by redbaron1982

[natdm]

How can he still even have a license after all these issues? Isn't there some point where they suspend it to investigate?

[LANCECASPER]

No information on a medical on his pilot records on the FAA site. I’ve never seen that before - I’ve seen expired and Basic Med, but never No Medical

[1980Mooney]

37 minutes ago, redbaron1982 said:

I expect he is going to get a very personalized insurance premium.... I don't want to pay for his mishaps!

N231VM (1982 MOONEY AIRCRAFT CORP. M20K owned by BOETTCHER RICHARD) Aircraft Registration - FlightAware

• Boettcher had owned the original 1980 M20K, 25-0426 since 2006
• 25-0426 crashed February 14, 2020
• 1982 M20K, 25-0716 appears on M231VM registration on June 19, 2024 although he owned it since December 2020.

N57241 (1983 MOONEY AIRCRAFT CORP. M20K owned by BAS PART SALES LLC) Aircraft Registration - FlightAware 

• Boettcher registered November 15, 2021 so purchased some time before. 
• BAS picture above shows they received the wreckage February 11, 2022. 

N1172W (1982 MOONEY AIRCRAFT CORP. M20K owned by BOETTCHER RICHARD) Aircraft Registration - FlightAware

• Boettcher registered December 6, 2022 so purchased some time before.
• Registration indicates he moved to Ridgefield, WA on or before September 4, 2023
• Changed N number to N231VM - some time after September 2023 and before this month.