Accident Update N7100Q (KPIE)

Murdoughnut

Murdoughnut

Well sized member
Just wanted to update you guys on what we've heard about the accident at KPIE on Saturday involving the Pinellas Pilot's Association's aircraft (the shared ownership group I belong to). For those that didn't hear the story, our Skyhawk crashed about 150 yards short of runway 22 at KPIE, killing my friend Joe and his parents. Joe and I had swapped emails the morning of the accident about a trip we were going to take to Venice on Tuesday.

Although it's early in the investigation, witness accounts from tower staff seem to indicate that Joe was cleared to land on 22, but had lined up for an approach to 27. We don't typically have to make approaches from the east side of the field, so it's likely that Joe had not approached from this end in quite some time and got confused. When the tower controller questioned his alignment, Joe immediately tried to salvage a landing to 22. According to witnesses, he banked the plane considerably in trying to do so, pitched up,and then appeared to stall and spin into the water.

As of this morning, our plane is still in the water - they're going to pull it out today and send it somewhere to take it apart. We are a very safety conscious flying club, and very meticulous about the condition and safety of our aircraft - I highly doubt any type of mechanical failure will be discovered.

Fly safe people.
 
The Tower controller decided to interrupt the final approach at 150 yards? Kind of a critical point to decide to throw that kind of variable in IMO.

Deepest sympathies MurDough
 
Sorry to hear about this.

Thanks for keeping us informed, hopefully someone will be able to learn something from this tragedy.
 
LoadMasterC141 said:
The Tower controller decided to interrupt the final approach at 150 yards? Kind of a critical point to decide to throw that kind of variable in IMO.

Deepest sympathies MurDough
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I doubt the inquiry from the tower was at 150 yds.....

...our Skyhawk crashed about 150 yards short of runway 22 at KPIE.....
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The inquiry would have happened before.

.....Although it's early in the investigation, witness accounts from tower staff seem to indicate that Joe was cleared to land on 22, but had lined up for an approach to 27.
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If a person is cleared to land on 'A' but lined up for 'B' the tower should interrupt. Suppose 'B' was closed or something.........Better to interrupt than have a pilot land on a 'non-active' runway.

MrD. Condolences to all!
 
What a tragedy. So sorry for your loss. My wife and I saw this on the news yesterday and were wondering what happened. I figured it had to be a stall on final, so sad.
 
If you take a look at the airport chart, it looks like he was probably still a ways out from 27 when the accident happened. The crash occurred about 150 yards east of the end of 22. Apparently he had been given a LHS directive for traffic on 17L - he might have confused that with a landing on 27.
 

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Looks like it would be easy to get mixed up uder those circumstances. Did he have much experience at that airport? Do you have any idea what his times were? Please keep us posted, I hope we can all learn something from this tragedy.
 
38bat said:
Looks like it would be easy to get mixed up uder those circumstances. Did he have much experience at that airport? Do you have any idea what his times were? Please keep us posted, I hope we can all learn something from this tragedy.
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Yeah, we rarely come in from that side just because on the other side of the bay is KTPA.

Here's the thing - Joe had sent me an email the day before the accident wanting to fly together some time. He said he couldn't go up with our instructor because he (the instructor) had too many students right now, and that he hated flying by himself. According to one report I read, he flew about once a month.

We have two instructors in the club - but one lost his medical. The remaining instructor is my CFII - and he has very limited hours he can fly. Only from 10-3 a few days during the week, and select Saturday's. The kicker is, our insurance policy prohibits us from flying with a non-club instructor. Joe, like me, worked 9-5 during the week so he wouldn't have had much time to go up with our instructor.

I casually mentioned the conflict this policy caused in a previous email to our treasurer. I hate to think that Joe really needed to go up with an instructor and couldn't because of a lack of availability.
 
Wow, that makes it even more tragic. I really don't understand the logic of limiting recurrent training to one instructor. I would think that it would be hard to be real comfortable if you were only flying once a month. Hopefully your club can add a couple of "approved" instructors or maybe your insurance will change their policy.
 
38bat said:
Looks like it would be easy to get mixed up uder those circumstances. Did he have much experience at that airport? Do you have any idea what his times were? Please keep us posted, I hope we can all learn something from this tragedy.
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I used to fly into KPIE a lot when I was getting my ratings and instructing. It took me a couple of times to get the sight picture down. I got the two runways confused a couple of times myself. I was fortunate both times in that I was able to catch it early enough and get realigned on the correct runway.

It can be confusing when you're a realtive newbie.

RIP to your friend and his family, Murdough! My condolences.

R2F
 
The club insurance policy sounds a bit strange. I can see it preventing primary instruction by a non club member, but if there is a properly rated pilot that is covered by the policy in the left seat, I would think that would be enough. Also, in that case, the CFI without a medical could indeed teach since he would not have to be PIC.

As for the accident itself, we usually see a longer chain of mistakes before the final blow. This one happened pretty quick - other than setting up for the wrong runway. I will make a note to stress to my students that anything weird below 500 feet is a go around. Part of that stabilized approach thing.

My sincerest condolences...
 
Schinpop said:
The club insurance policy sounds a bit strange. I can see it preventing primary instruction by a non club member, but if there is a properly rated pilot that is covered by the policy in the left seat, I would think that would be enough. Also, in that case, the CFI without a medical could indeed teach since he would not have to be PIC.

As for the accident itself, we usually see a longer chain of mistakes before the final blow. This one happened pretty quick - other than setting up for the wrong runway. I will make a note to stress to my students that anything weird below 500 feet is a go around. Part of that stabilized approach thing.

My sincerest condolences...
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Thanks - yeah, the policy was set up to ensure instructor quality - the problem is that it limits instructor availability. You're right, though - he could have hired another instructor to ride with, as long as he wasn't providing dual. I guess that's part of the reason he wanted me to fly with him.
 
Sorry this had to happen to you and your club. My deepest sympathies to any remaining family of the victims. Everyone be safe, and remember that a go around is the best way to salvage a bad approach.
 
Sorry to hear about this bro, RIP.

Remember ya'll, it's almost never too late to go around in a GA aircraft. If things don't look right, go around. I'll be honest in that I've tried too hard to save some landings in the past and I've been lucky that I haven't been bitten yet. Remember it's almost always safer to pour the coals on, recover the aircraft straight ahead and give it another shot. As long as you maintain control of the aircraft you're most likely in good shape.
 
Sorry to hear of your loss.

It has been several decades since I did primary instruction, but I always made sure that when the student heard what runway to plan on, he/she put either the heading bug or course selector on that number, and made sure to "visualize" the situation. Not sure if something like that was a factor here, but lowtimers, take that to heart!
 
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