Mooney M20E N79338 destroyed in Saratoga, NY - one fatality, one injured

[LANCECASPER]

 

https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/561073

https://www.beechtalk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=242286

https://www.news10.com/news/saratoga-county/plane-crashes-near-saratoga-county-airport/

https://www.news10.com/news/saratoga-county/authorities-identify-victims-of-deadly-milton-plane-crash/amp/

 

 

[Ragsf15e]

It’ll be interesting to see what’s in the fuel servo and filters if the ntsb takes them apart.

[toto]

Yuck

[EricJ]

5 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

It’ll be interesting to see what’s in the fuel servo and filters if the ntsb takes them apart.

I hope there is sufficient analysis done on this by somebody to find out what happened.    Very sad.   :'(

 

[DCarlton]

This was Freddbe34 (Right out of the gate)?  If so, F'ing horrendous.  I thought it was a Mooney when I saw the news cast.  

[LANCECASPER]

1 hour ago, DCarlton said:

This was Freddbe34 (Right out of the gate)?  If so, F'ing horrendous.  I thought it was a Mooney when I saw the news cast.  

"Frederick M. Baber, 58, of Port Charlotte FL was killed when the plane he was piloting crashed as it was taking off from the Saratoga County Airport."

"A passenger on the plane, Alexander Hoff, 39, of Hollis, New Hampshire, was seriously injured in the crash and remained hospitalized at Albany Medical Center on Saturday, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff's Office."

@mike_elliott I figured you would want to know.

[LANCECASPER]

 

 

Baber remembered as beloved grandfather and passionate flyer, screenwriter

Baber is survived by his wife, Janice Baber, two children and two step-children. According to his daughter, Caitlyn Mallo, of Charleston, S.C., the longtime pilot bought a faster plane about a month ago to reduce the amount of time it took to visit Mallo and his grandson, Alexander.

She said her father loved seeing him. “It’s just really sad, and you know, I’ve got a 1-year-old who is not going to see his pawpaw anymore,” Mallo said.

Mallo told the Times Union she flew with Baber a few years ago and always felt safe. She called his love of flying “more than a hobby” and described him as a passive pilot.

On the ground, the Ohio-born man had a passion for screenwriting. He was involved in several independent films, including “Trial by Ordeal,” “Alibi Witness,” and “Tragic.”

“He just found it fascinating,” Mallo said.

On Saturday, Mallo wrote in a tribute to her father on Facebook about the difficulty of the previous 24 hours.

“I know in your last moments you did everything you could,” she wrote. “I wish that I told you I loved you one last time. I wish you could come home. I promise I’m going to be okay. We’re going to be okay. I know you’re going to be watching down on us every day.”

She ended the post with: “I’ll see you later alligator, roger that. Over and out.”

[LANCECASPER]

This is the injured passenger Alexander Hoff who is in a hospital in Albany, NY:

[Echo]

We are going to know what really happened.  I am thankful for that.

[DXB]

I got finished reading all of Mr Baber's posts in his recent thread on here regarding the prior engine issue.  He sounds like a thoughtful and humble guy who handled the event carefully and intelligently.  The sediment in the left tank sounded like the culprit, the approach to addressing it seemed fairly meticulous.  It's very sad his efforts and those of his A&P weren't enough to keep him safe. What an awful tragedy. RIP

Also f*ck the folks who immediately want to point the finger at him without knowing sh*t.

[MikeOH]

3 hours ago, DXB said:

Also f*ck the folks who immediately want to point the finger at him without knowing sh*t.

^^^ THIS ^^^

[IvanP]

Very sad end for a new Mooney owner. Hopefully we will some day learn what was the cause of this tragic event, the various conjectures published here and elsequere notwithstanding. It is possible that the fuel system issues discussed on MS forum earlier were nt resplved and may have been the cause of this accident, but it is also possible that some other factors were involved. Too early to tell with any reasonable degree of certainty, but celarly the absence of facts will not prevent various "experts" from publishing conjectures and speculations.  

[carusoam]

A  YouTube channel I frequent, hoping to NOT see my Mooney friends making the news…

The YTer is Keoni, an AARF fire fighter at an airport in Hawaii…

prayers for the lost and especially, the injured airman…

Best regards,

-a-

[carusoam]

Inviting @mike_elliott to this thread…

-a-

[GoDemonDeacons]

Sad tragedy all around. Prayers up. 

[JBlueSkys]

So this one hits close to home for me. Earlier this year in my hunt for a Mooney to buy, I saw this one at our local airport and snapped a picture of it. It had sat outside for years, I was told. So was shocked to hear this one was involved in an accident.
Prayers for the families involved!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Utah20Gflyer]

What a tragic situation!  RIP Fred! He came across as a really nice guy.  

When I bought my Mooney I took the attitude that until proven otherwise my new plane was trying to kill me.  It never did and eventually with some time I decided to give it some additional trust.  Not total trust though, I still won’t fly over sustained mountainous terrain and limit my flying at night.  

Additionally I assumed I might do something stupid as a result of my inexperience and the plane could fairly assume I might be trying to kill it.  Both the plane and I are fallible parts of a system.  
 

I don’t know what the facts of this accident are, but to me it is a reminder that extreme caution is warranted when a new combination of pilot and airplane come together.
 

An intermittent mechanical problem can be confusing and presents a huge challenge to a new owner.  It complicates diagnosis and makes it difficult to confirm the problem is fixed.   It’s really a worst case scenario for someone who just bought a plane.   It could be the accident wasn’t a result of a mechanical failure, but witness accounts have indicated the engine wasn’t making sound when it impacted the ground.   So maybe it was.  We will have to see what gets revealed in the investigation.

[DXB]

Fred Baber's story makes me think of my  own early days after getting a C model, 10 years ago now. Unlike him, I was an 80 hr newly minted VFR wonder who also knew nothing about aircraft mechanical workings.  The plane was flying when I got it but had been underused and had a handful of gremlins. I was nervously hyper-vigilant about these issues and was reading Mike Busch's stuff voraciously. But my ignorance and inexperience at that point made me ineffectual and also drove A&Ps and shop owners crazy.

My point is that even if one is thoughtful, cautious, and a rule follower, progressing in aviation means entering situations that are more tenuous than otherwise encountered in routine daily life.  I recall the fuel pressure in my C had a habit of  dropping to 0 during climbout once in a while, in the days before I had a fuel flow gauge.  We chased that issue ad nauseam before concluding in was just vapor lock in the pressure line,  in absence of any other viable explanation.  That assessment could easily have been wrong and cost me my life - perhaps not unlike what happened to Fred Baber here.

 

[mike_elliott]

I have been out if pocket training and just saw this thread 

Rip Fred

if anyone can verify Fred’s spouse and mailing address please forward

[LANCECASPER]

I have been out if pocket training and just saw this thread 
Rip Fred
if anyone can verify Fred’s spouse and mailing address please forward

Here’s the address: