Superstitions (PHX) Plane Crash

[Murdoughnut]

When a parent loses a child like that, it's pretty common to be unable to 'process' the kid's stuff. Often they'll just close the door to the kid's room and simply never go in there again. They usually need a family member or friend to do it for them, if it's to be done at all. I can't imagine having to go through my kids' rooms if something like that happened to me. Though honestly, if it were me, I'd want to do it fairly soon afterwards, and just get it over with. If it's left to sit, it'll just rip open those emotional wounds all over again when it eventually HAS to be done.

Our middle school band director's son was 2 years older than me, and died of complications during an epileptic seizure at age 16. He never recovered from that loss. They had to move from their house, not because of foreclosure or anything but because they simply couldn't stay in that house with the memories of Robbie [the son]. So they moved across town within a year. He had been a happy, energetic, spritely guy who was always fast with a joke... he died of cancer less than 10 years later, a hollow, empty, shell of a person. Very, very sad. When my cousin (3 days older than me) died in 2003 his mom (my aunt) would go and sit in his house for weeks afterwards... wouldn't clean it out, wash anything, etc. It took a while for them to be able to clean out the house & do what needed to be done.

In this particular case, it kind of sounds like there were financial issues already present before the accident even happened. Sadly fairly common in divorce... I know it sounds harsh, but I do think she'd probably be better off in the long run getting rid of the big, expensive, memory-filled house. It sucks to have it taken away in a foreclosure situation on the heels of losing your kids like that though.

I can't even imagine how people in that situation get up in the morning. We had two officers killed in the line of duty here last year in a single incident. One officer had a wife and two children. The other had a wife and no children. From talking to my police friends, the one with kids is actually doing pretty well all things considered - probably because she has the kids to live for. The one without kids is in a state similar to the gentleman you mentioned above.

I'm still a couple of months away from my two showing up, but I can't even imagine what it's like to lose a child.

 

[A Life Aloft]

This is where family is everything. She needs some help...from family, from friends, etc. She is just to paralyzed with grief, loss and depression to move forward or even take care of the basics it seems. She may be hanging on to the past, because it's all she has. Her entire world went to crap in a moment. I cannot imagine the suffering and the pain from a loss of a child. It has to be one of the worst things on earth to have happen to you and she lost ALL of her children, in an instant.

As for the mortgage holder, well heartless -------- (fill in the blanks here). They really need to sit on one more foreclosed property along with the thousands they already have? Seriously? Work with her!!! Damn!

Her kids were everything to her obviously and with a divorce and now this to deal with, it's a bit much for anyone to cope with and this quickly. Maybe she doesn't even have a career to help keep her occupied/going. I wonder where the children's Father's family is? This is just very sad. I hope getting some press now, she will get that help and get it quickly.

 

[MikeD]

Leaked FAA memo describes FAA knowledge of tight airspace in PHX Class B area.

My opinion on this: As someone who has flown in the PHX airspace ever since it was only a TRSA, I agree that there are some tight areas of the PHX Class B where the shelf nears some higher terrain, they're not impossible to navigate using a little pre-planning and situational awareness. The former for those not as familiar with the surrounding airspace, and the latter for those both familiar as well as not. Regardless of the airspace configuration, the terrain obstacles don't change, are charted and known, and can be navigated around via any number of methods; regardless of the availability of flight following from PHX TRACON or not. Both the cited accidents of the 2003 Piper Aerostar on the McDowell mountains, as well as this particular accident; the common denominator of CFIT is failure to avoid the ground and all things attached to it. Both of these areas where the above accidents occurred are not box canyons that have no escape; they just require SA of one's position relative to them, and a very basic plan to get around them. Could the airspace be redesigned? It could, with likely little ramification; but as-is, it just required more attention to detail in order to avoid obstacles that have been located in the same place for a very long time.

APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz. - The night before thanksgiving, while most families were preparing to spend the holiday together, a plane crashed into the Superstition Mountains in the east valley. All on board were killed, including these 3 young children and their father.

The official cause of the crash won't be known for months, but tonight we have new troubling information that raises the question -- did this have to happen? Did they have to die?

We've learned FAA safety investigators believe the air space around the Superstition Mountains may have contributed to this deadly crash.

A problem they have known about for years.

The FAA's findings have never been made public until now. Something else that's never been made public until now -- haunting images of those kids just before their flight.

These are the final images taken of the Perry kids arriving at Falcon Field on the evening of November 23, 2011.

Pictures show Logan, 8, Luke, 6, followed by their 9-year-old sister Morgan, enter the executive terminal. Its 6 o'clock. In 30 minutes they will all be gone.

They wait to meet their father Shawn who's flying in from Safford.

As the plane arrives, it's already dark. They plan to fly back to Safford to spend thanksgiving with dad.

Dad climbs in back with the kids. Russell Hardy takes the left pilot seat. Joseph Hardwick, a mechanic, takes the right seat.

The plane taxis out to the runway. The Rockwell 690 takes off from runway 4R, heading northeast.

90 seconds later, it's approved for a right turn, bound for Safford.

Travelling at 200 miles an hour, the plane is at 45-hundred feet.

For the next 3 minutes -- it flies straight and level.

No signs of any trouble as it plows directly into Ship Rock.

911 callers: "A plane just crashed into the Superstition Mountains… and it just kind of flew right into the fricken mountain… it looked like they didn't know Ship Rock was there!"

When the NTSB issues its final report on the crash, pilot error will almost certainly be the primary cause. Loss of "situational awareness," meaning the pilot simply lost track of where he was.

And you can see how easily it could happen. He was flying visual flight rules, and he did not file a flight plan. And the majestic superstitions on a moonless night would simply vanish in the distance. He didn't see the mountain until it was too late.

"0k now we're up here in the crevice where it looks like the plane maybe first hit."

Karen Perry lost her entire family in the crash. Since that day, she has searched for answers, sometimes finding them here on the mountain.

"Obviously some kind soul that came left a memorial here and left some toys and pictures," she says.

The mountain makes her feel closer to her children. She sees it everyday. It's right outside her front door.

"I walked away without my children's bodies without any clear evidence they were actually gone," says Perry. "It's a comfort to at least know what happened to them."

But there's one question that continues to haunt her. Did something else contribute to this crash? Something that could have prevented the terrible loss of life?

The answer may lie here: in this internal memo from the FAA obtained by FOX 10 news.

A document the agency did not want you to see.

In it, three top investigators from the FAA's Scottsdale office conclude the airspace design in the area of the crash is insufficient.

In it, the FAA writes: "The airspace design with regard to obstacle (terrain) clearance is not sufficient to ensure a margin of safety necessary to preclude the possibility of an accident similar to the one that occurred on November 23, 2011."

In other words, the airspace design near the Superstitions is putting pilots at risk -- and future accidents could happen if it's not fixed.

"It was an accident that I feel badly making the statement it was going to happen and it had to happen, it's something that should not have happened," says Jim Timm, executive director of the Arizona Pilots Association.

For years he warned the FAA the airspace around the Superstitions is dangerous.

The FAA ignored him and denied there was a problem. Now its own investigators admit Jim Timm was right all along.

"Its pretty shocking these inspectors what they've written here is verbatim what I've been saying in meetings and written in memos."

Back in 2006, Timm's group warned, "Between the Superstition Mountains to the east and Falcon Field to the west, there is literally nowhere for GA (general aviation) pilots to (go)." (continued)

Story and video here:

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/new...n-superstition-mountains-plane-crash-5-9-2012

 

[Bernoulli Fan]

Wow, that is yellow journalism at its finest. "A document the agency did not want you to see." Who knows how many dissenting opinions on redesigning the airspace existed between airspace guys before this accident?

A sad accident no matter the primary cause.

 

[GX]

When I was starting to fly the Cirrus a lot on flights out to New Mexico, I was flying home at night a lot, and there were multiple occasions of the controller asking me to descend, and I declined due to the low altitude of the Superstitions. There are few places so dark at night....

 

[inigo88]

I don't think I've ever seen any other example of the floor of Class B pressing up against a mountain range like that. Looking at the IAP for the ILS 25L at PHX, there's really no reason to have aircraft at 5000 ft at FIXAR (20 DME) if they're not going to intercept the glideslope until 4000 ft at GIPSE (9.3 DME). The airlines probably don't like it either because that's 10 extra miles of flying down low with a higher fuel burn. This airspace design is moronic.

 

[MikeD]

I don't think I've ever seen any other example of the floor of Class B pressing up against a mountain range like that. Looking at the IAP for the ILS 25L at PHX, there's really no reason to have aircraft at 5000 ft at FIXAR (20 DME) if they're not going to intercept the glideslope until 4000 ft at GIPSE (9.3 DME). The airlines probably don't like it either because that's 10 extra miles of flying down low with a higher fuel burn. This airspace design is moronic.

The airspace design wasn't impossible, however. Not for a pilot who wanted to stay below the Class B and put a little bit of time into planning and keeping SA on where they were and what was ahead. It wasn't a box canyon that one couldn't get out of. Have been through there any number of nights low level like that. Maneuvering south/southeast over Apache Junction as well as Gold Canyon, both of which are well lit at night, shouldn't have been difficult. The Aerostar that went into the McDowells in 2003 actually had less visual cues on it's departure route off of SDL, but still should've been able to easily clear the terrain in altitude; whereas the Aero Commander would've been horizontal deconfliction.

 

[Maximilian_Jenius]

Wow, that is yellow journalism at its finest. "A document the agency did not want you to see." Who knows how many dissenting opinions on redesigning the airspace existed between airspace guys before this accident?

A sad accident no matter the primary cause.

It's May so that means, it's sweeps month!