207 Down in Page AZ

[touch-n-go]

Looks from the picture like one of American Aviation or Air Grand Canyon's green 207's. Fatal!

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/25484832/2014/05/11/one-dead-in-arizona-plane-crash

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By FOX 10 News Staff

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A French tour group was involved in a plane crash Saturday afternoon in Page. According to police, one person was killed in the accident and another was flown in critical condition to a hospital in Flagstaff.

Page Police say the plane was coming into the Page Municipal Airport from the north. High wind forced the plane’s tail down early into the sand before the runway, causing the plane to flip. Six people were onboard, one pilot and the five from France.

According to the FAA’s website, the plane is owned by American Aviation, Inc. out of Salt Lake City, Utah. The American Aviation website says they give scenic tour flights over Lake Powell, the Colorado River, Horseshoe Bend, and Wahweap Marina.

The name of the victim has not been released.



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[Stomp16]

"High wind forced the plane’s tail down early into the sand before the runway, causing the plane to flip."

Say what?? Not understanding this explanation at all. Did they mean to say the nose was forced into the dirt causing the flip?? I don't understand how you could strike a tail and flip unless the flip was a result of locking the brakes up due to the unusual circumstance the pilot found himself in.

 

[fholbert]

"High wind forced the plane’s tail down early into the sand before the runway, causing the plane to flip.".

I hate when that happens!

 

[RICHARD5]

Unless something remarkable has occurred the aircraft shown in the pic is not American Aviation. GCA has the green planes.
Landing RWY 15 KPGA features down drafts due to the rise in terrain to the mesa upon which the aprt is built. It is best to remain slightly high in order to counter the increased sink rate. Being slightly high also avoids being exposed to the strongest portion of the descending air. I'm going to speculate that the pilot was on normal glide path or a bit low and he tried to arrest the sink rate with elevator. This resulted in a tail low impact. That's all the speculation I'll engage in.

 

[🦈💜]

Poor 207. :<

 

[Stomp16]

Unless something remarkable has occurred the aircraft shown in the pic is not American Aviation. GCA has the green planes.
Landing RWY 15 KPGA features down drafts due to the rise in terrain to the mesa upon which the aprt is built. It is best to remain slightly high in order to counter the increased sink rate. Being slightly high also avoids being exposed to the strongest portion of the descending air. I'm going to speculate that the pilot was on normal glide path or a bit low and he tried to arrest the sink rate with elevator. This resulted in a tail low impact. That's all the speculation I'll engage in.

I can buy that all day long. If he hit in a nose up/tail low attitude, how did it flip?

 

[KSCessnaDriver]

I've been into PGA all of once, but it was a tricky place. Really neat place at the same time. Sucks for the tourists.

 

[Finny]

Maybe if the tail struck hard, it whipped the nose down hard too, forcing the nose to dig into the ground and flip the aircraft? That's one scenario I could think of involving a tail-strike on a soft surface. Who knows when it comes to these, "eyewitness accounts."

 

[touch-n-go]

Unless something remarkable has occurred the aircraft shown in the pic is not American Aviation. GCA has the green planes.
Landing RWY 15 KPGA features down drafts due to the rise in terrain to the mesa upon which the aprt is built. It is best to remain slightly high in order to counter the increased sink rate. Being slightly high also avoids being exposed to the strongest portion of the descending air. I'm going to speculate that the pilot was on normal glide path or a bit low and he tried to arrest the sink rate with elevator. This resulted in a tail low impact. That's all the speculation I'll engage in.

I thought it was a GCA plane (Air Grand Canyon)as well, but the report said it was American Aviation which confused me. Strange.

 

[RICHARD5]

I can buy that all day long. If he hit in a nose up/tail low attitude, how did it flip?

I will not speculate any further.

BTW: Apparently the remarkable did occur. A highly credible independent source did confirm that AA bought those green planes from GCA.

 

[RICHARD5]

I don't understand how you could strike a tail and flip unless the flip was a result of locking the brakes up due to the unusual circumstance the pilot found himself in.

Ok, because this is not specific to any particular accident I will comment. An aircraft with a nose wheel that impacts a soft surface will likely collapse the nose wheel rendering the aircraft unstable about it's CG envelope. Too, the weight of the engine would act to drive the nose further into the surface. If the aircraft is carrying sufficient kinetic energy at that point (energy which has not yet uncoupled from the aircraft through the initial impact) the aircraft will tend to 'trip' forward over the nose. A 'soft' or glancing impact (relatively speaking) would stand less risk of the aircraft overturning than would a solid impact.

The above could apply to most any aircraft. I will not speculate on pilot technique including the possibility of braking action or stall. It may help your understanding if you do not speculate on the aircraft impacting the ground tail first.

 

[scooter2525]

Pilot in my crashpad saw it happened. RIP fellow aviator.

 

[RICHARD5]

Given there are more passengers than pilot, the front seats are closer to center of rotation, and the empennage is broken, I assumed a tourist was the deceased.

 

[JayAre]

Page isn't that tricky of a place. But yeah winds can get a little squirmy at times.

Here is a pick of a closer look
http://m.ksl.com/index/story/sid/29845820

This was the second fatal accident within days. The other was a 150 out of KSGU
http://m.ksl.com/index/story/sid/29797432

Be careful folks

 

[RICHARD5]

Read the NTSB reports by month. There are many instances of multiple fatal accidents on a single day. IIRC, Saturday seems to lead in that category. Then again, there are many days, even a whole string of days when no one died. I like to see those.

 

[Inverted]

I remember that plane, very sad. We just went in there with the Lear a couple weeks ago and that plane was flying all week.

 

[GX]

"High wind forced the plane’s tail down early into the sand before the runway, causing the plane to flip."

Say what?? Not understanding this explanation at all. Did they mean to say the nose was forced into the dirt causing the flip?? I don't understand how you could strike a tail and flip unless the flip was a result of locking the brakes up due to the unusual circumstance the pilot found himself in.

It's the media, bro.....

 

[desertdog71]

I flew the weenies in 07 and 09. This makes two down in the past few years. Conditions can be challenging there and especially at Monument Valley.

 

[Roger Roger]

I flew the weenies in 07 and 09. This makes two down in the past few years. Conditions can be challenging there and especially at Monument Valley.

Naw man local weather effects don't exist and the challenges there are the same as everywhere else.

In all seriousness, RIP sled driver.

 

[ppragman]

It's the media, bro.....

Dude, is that a boulder of salt?