Fatal Mooney Crash, N58156, 1986 M20J, Near Albany NY

[1980Mooney]

Occurred Sunday at about 6:07 PM EST. New owner, although a Commercial Pilot, identified as deceased.  Was flying dog rescue from Culpepper, VA (KCJR) to Albany, NY.  He had stopped at Harford County Airport (Churchville, MD) 0W3.  He departed Harford (Churchville) at 4:43 PM EST.  It appears he was flying night VFR.  Sunset at Churchville was 4:45 PM EST and last light was at 5:13 PM EST.

The weather at Albany (KALB), about 30 miles to the northeast showed broken clouds as low as 2,100 ft AGL and overcast as low as 3,800 ft AGL at times.  KALB elevation is only 285 ft.

Nov 24, 6:15 pm	39	34	81	33	W	10	10.00		FEW027 FEW047 BKN060		29.58	29.89
Nov 24, 6:10 pm	39	34	81	32	W	12	10.00		FEW022 SCT049 OVC060		29.58	29.89
Nov 24, 6:06 pm	40	33	76	32	W	14	10.00		FEW022 SCT027 OVC060		29.58	29.89	T
Nov 24, 6:05 pm	39	34	81	31	W	15	10.00		FEW022 SCT027 OVC065		29.58	29.89
Nov 24, 5:55 pm	39	34	81	32	WNW	13	10.00	Lt rain	FEW019 BKN027 OVC065		29.58	29.89
Nov 24, 5:51 pm	39	33	79	31	WNW	13	10.00	Lt rain	BKN021 BKN030 OVC060	1012.20	29.57	29.88	T
Nov 24, 5:50 pm	39	34	81	32	WNW	13	10.00	Lt rain	SCT021 BKN026		29.57	29.88
Nov 24, 5:45 pm	39	34	81	32	WNW	13	9.00	Lt rain	SCT021 BKN026 OVC038		29.57	29.88
Nov 24, 5:43 pm	40	33	76	32	WNW	14G23	9.00	Lt rain	SCT021 BKN026 OVC038		29.57	29.88	T
Nov 24, 5:40 pm	39	34	81	32	WNW	13G18	8.00	Lt rain	FEW019 BKN026 OVC038		29.57	29.88
Nov 24, 5:30 pm	41	32	70	33	WNW	15	10.00	Lt rain	FEW026 BKN038 OVC055		29.57	29.88
Nov 24, 5:20 pm	41	32	70	34	W	12	10.00	Lt rain	FEW026 SCT042 BKN055		29.56	29.87

His speed is highly erratic.  He may have been scud running. It appears that he crashed near Windham High Peak (3,528 ft. elevation).  One news report says that rescuers found wreckage on both sides of Escaprment Trail which goes to Windham High Peak.  Most of the trail is above 3,000 ft.

https://cnyhiking.com/EscarpmentTrail.htm

N58156 Flight Tracking and History 24-Nov-2024 (0W3 - FlightAware

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a77cc5&lat=42.230&lon=-74.255&zoom=12.0&showTrace=2024-11-24&trackLabels&timestamp=1732489651

Pilot identified in fatal Windham plane crash; recovery efforts ongoing

Seuk Kim's Obituary - Springfield, VA | Ever Loved
 

 

[NickG]

This is the worst possible news. I know him through the Mooney Pilots FB group. A super nice guy who loved to fly dog rescues. He just gave me some great tips on getting my dogs aboard my Ovation... RIP.

[KSMooniac]

This one is really sad.  I interacted with him a little bit on FB and he sure seemed like a genuine, enthusiastic person that really enjoyed using his new Mooney to help others.  I know he flew some Hurricane Helene relief flights and lots of Pilots 'n Paws trips after buying his J.  I hope a definitive cause can be determined.  RIP, Mr. Kim.

[Yetti]

not sure about scud running, but more challenging weather at the same level he was flying at.   Misty rainy as the day transitions to night can be a big challenge.    It's almost better for it to be night vs the transition.   I had this happen a couple weeks ago.    I got "lost" in the dark during touch down.    Found the runway a little harder than I wanted to.

[RescueMunchkin]

This is very sad given the pilot performed a lot of charity work using his plane. I just looked at his FB posts in the Mooney Pilots group. He posted on Oct 10 this year a set of pictures showing his new plane.

On October 11, he posted asking for recommendations for a CFI for Mooney transition training.  He never followed up in that post about whether he found anyone or did any transition training.

Looks like at least a recent plane of his was a Grumman AA-5

Edited yesterday at 01:35 AM by RescueMunchkin

[1980Mooney]

Perhaps we might ponder:

• Why would a Commercial rated pilot fly night VFR over mountainous terrain into overcast conditions rather than File?. 
• Why descend below MEL of 4,400 ft when still over mountainous area? 
• Did he lose situational awareness and believe that he had passed the high terrain?
• Equipment issues?  CO poisoning?

[Pinecone]

Crap, 0W3 is my home field.  Was not a great flying day on Sat due to winds,.

[NickG]

34 minutes ago, 1980Mooney said:

Perhaps we might ponder:

• Why would a Commercial rated pilot fly night VFR over mountainous terrain into overcast conditions rather than File?. 
• Why descend below MEL of 4,400 ft when still over mountainous area? 
• Did he lose situational awareness and believe that he had passed the high terrain?
• Equipment issues?  CO poisoning?

Those are all great questions I wish we had the answer to

[1980Mooney]

He started his final descent towards Albany while at 5,400 ft and well before crossing the 4,040 ft. Hunter Mountain range.  He was still about 40 nm. from Albany.

 

[jjsk784]

36 minutes ago, 1980Mooney said:

• Why would a Commercial rated pilot fly night VFR over mountainous terrain into overcast conditions rather than File?.

The IFR routing in this area would have required him to stay at the altitudes with freezing temperatures with a risk picking up ice in the clouds.  Not a good option.  The closest Tango route he was near has 6300 feet lowest altitude

[1980Mooney]

20 minutes ago, jjsk784 said:

The IFR routing in this area would have required him to stay at the altitudes with freezing temperatures with a risk picking up ice in the clouds.  Not a good option.  The closest Tango route he was near has 6300 feet lowest altitude

On Beechtalk someone commented that the Freezing Level was around 4,000 ft about the time.  You can't even clear the mountains at that altitude.  He should have spent the night at Churchville. 

[RescueMunchkin]

The medical cert that @1980Mooney posted a screen shot of shows it was a special issuance from what I googled about the limitation.  I had never seen one like that before.

[Ragsf15e]

Obviously it was pretty dark, but that mountain would have been obscured by an optical illusion anyway as he descended.  Its a dark mtn against a dark background.  Very difficult to see even in some light.  That’s a tough one.  Probably shouldn’t fly vfr night bad wx into an area we’re not really familiar with in the mountains.  There’s a lot of links in that chain.

[1980Mooney]

If you listen to LiveATC archive for KALB Albany Approach on 11-24 at 23:00 UTC (it starts at 22:50 actually), you can hear N58156 say at about 22:52 that he has information "Victor".  The pilot responds and sounds fine.  But the quality of the recording is terrible.  Later ATC asks "Are you still getting (unintelligible)".  I can't make out anything more.  Later ATC is asking other planes to try to contact N58156.

[MikeOH]

50 minutes ago, RescueMunchkin said:

The medical cert that @1980Mooney posted a screen shot of shows it was a special issuance from what I googled about the limitation.  I had never seen one like that before.

And your point is what, exactly?

[Pinecone]

9 hours ago, RescueMunchkin said:

The medical cert that @1980Mooney posted a screen shot of shows it was a special issuance from what I googled about the limitation.  I had never seen one like that before.

What haven't you seen before?  AFAIK all SI medicals have the not valid after date on them.

[jetdriven]

We fly that way a bunch going up to Vermont, and if you just go about 15 or 20 miles East of there you're over the Hudson River Valley, and there's tons of airports and the terrain is far lower. It's even not much that further out of the way.  

[jjsk784]

50 minutes ago, jetdriven said:

We fly that way a bunch going up to Vermont, and if you just go about 15 or 20 miles East of there you're over the Hudson River Valley, and there's tons of airports and the terrain is far lower. It's even not much that further out of the way.  

0W3 KSWF  KALB adds just 7 miles to a 220 mile flight and avoids 100% of the terrain.  What made the pilot overlook this possibility...  There was no escape route once he committed to fly over the mountains

[Pinecone]

Especially when the freezing level is lower than the tops of the terrain.

[jetdriven]

14 minutes ago, Pinecone said:

Especially when the freezing level is lower than the tops of the terrain.

That’s a whole problem going up to Vermont for example, a mooney really isn’t the kind of plane to be flying up there if you’re gonna do it IFR and the temperature is below freezing. You start getting ice there’s literally nowhere to go for 100 miles.  One person on this board tried, with near- disastrous results.