> Hmmm, that's sad. I see that John Tune has an ILS/DME for approaches and
> PAPIs on the runway so it's pretty well equipped. It sounds as if the chap
> became disorientated in the weather; a night weather approach is going to be
> tricky for someone who has limited experience -- if that was the case.
Jim's initial comments that it was near freezing and raining seems to
be the crux of it for me. 02 is a RNAV/GPS approach. I don't know what
FlightAware showed for a ground track, but I'll assume for a minute
that his GPS was set correctly and he was inbound for approach number
two. The AeroCommanders are known for being downright evil when it
comes to icing. Icing has probably taken more of them out of the sky
than anything else--including wing-spar failures. Killed a few famous
people too. Even full deice protection, with an AeroCommander, is more
of a tool for getting you out of the conditions than letting you
proceed through them. As the crash occured at or near the point where
you start down the glideslope, he would have just slowed down to his
approach speed and started the clock. With wing icing, he would have
needed to maintain a fast approach speed (it's in the 690 series
checklist) as stall speed is much higher in this particular airplane.
I did just look at the FlightAware groundtrack. It clearly shows the
first attempt and his attempt to get lined back up, but was
maintaining a slow left turn after a pretty abrupt left hander to get
back towards the fix. While still turning to the left and at the point
where he would be pulling back on the throttles and slowing things up,
it spiraled in. Looks like a classic stall/spin signature. Such a
prolonged left turn like that, combined with low speeds in icing
conditions would not be good.
Ignore the witnesses that reported that the engines sputtered. Turbine
engines don't sputter. But airplanes coming down at you in a spin do
make weird noises.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
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