Weird Day...think I found wreckage on a mountainside

TUCRACEMAN

TUCRACEMAN

Well-Known Member
So I went flying today and on my way back to Tucson, my friend points out that something on the side of the mountain looks like a airplane. I told him "yeah right" then took a better look. It was odd looking. I swung the plane around and took a better look. I have no idea if my eyes were deceiving me but it sure looked like a airplane. I tried to get as close as I could safely but the winds were a bit shifty and I didn't want to get too close to the mountains. Once I was able to contact Tucson Approach I told them what I saw and the knew nothing of a plane that had gone down there. They took a bit of information from me as to where I was when I saw it and that was it. When I got home I checked the NTSB and found a Mooney that hit a mountainside at 6100 MSL (which sounded about right) somewhere near Wilcox Arizona (I was about 20 miles southwest of Wicox). However, on the accident description it says that the Missing Aircraft was "Later Recovered". Now I'm pretty sure of where I was and I cannot see anything on Google Earth anywhere around Little Dragoon or the Mae West Peaks (heehee).

NTSB report the lost Mooney:
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=55889&key=0

Anyway, I shot a text over to my old flight instructor who is a controller at Tucson so hopefully he'll get back to me tomorrow. I don't really know what else to say other than I've been trying to go to sleep and I just can't over the thought that maybe that really was a plane.




http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou....12426&spn=0.005481,0.011255&t=h&z=17&iwloc=A

~D
 
Now I'm pretty sure of where I was and I cannot see anything on Google Earth anywhere around Little Dragoon or the Mae West Peaks (heehee).

:drool:Oh come on man, you can't see around the Mae West Peaks? Whats up with that? Sounds like you could do no more re: reporting other than to check with the Police for missing persons.
 
ChasenSFO said:
If I can go my whole life without ever finding wreckage somewhere, I'll be happy man.
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I found a dead body on a runway one morning. In a perverse way, it actually helped in my interview with Southernjets. I had put a note in my logbook, and when the captain saw it, wanted to know what happened. It took up most of the interview time to tell the story.
 
ChasenSFO said:
If I can go my whole life without ever finding wreckage somewhere, I'll be happy man.
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If I can help locate a missing aircraft with the possibility of finding survivors, I will indeed be a happy man. In the scenario described, there is no way to know how long the suspected wreckage was there. Could have just happened. Could be survivors. Check 121.5 for an ELT. Let ATC/FSS know what you saw.

BTW, monitor 121.5 on your XCs if you have two radios. The satellites are turned off.
 
Cptnchia said:
I found a dead body on a runway one morning. In a perverse way, it actually helped in my interview with Southernjets. I had put a note in my logbook, and when the captain saw it, wanted to know what happened. It took up most of the interview time to tell the story.
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Can we get the cliff notes version then? I've found a dead body on the highway before, but never on a runway.
 
There a good number of aircraft wrecks still remaining in AZ; from WWII until now. Normally, because of the terrain, only the bodies will be recovered or survivors rescued, and if the wreckage isn't needed for further investigative purposes, it will be left in place. I could take you on a tour around the Tucson area of 5 wrecks that are just in the Catalina's/Rincon's themselves.
 
Once found a dead guy in his car in my apt parking lot. He'd capped himself in front of his lady's apartment and kinda slumped over against the driver's door. Been there a while, too- everyone else just passed him by, but hey-what did he care?
Actually, now I recall two other friends/acquaintances that did themselves in, but at least I didn't find them,...
 
Something else it may is just simply junk. I know the guy I live with has a junked airplane in his backyard. Maybe some one just happened to come across some airplane wreckage and thought it was to good to pass up and decided to keep it. He took it home and wife said "no way you are putting that in my front yard. Get rid of it!"

So he ordered by his wife to discard his favorite piece of junk, he takes it deep into the wilderness that makes up his land and deposits it in a place his wife will never find. A place where he can visit in secret.

Ok it could happen.
 
MikeD said:
There a good number of aircraft wrecks still remaining in AZ; from WWII until now. Normally, because of the terrain, only the bodies will be recovered or survivors rescued, and if the wreckage isn't needed for further investigative purposes, it will be left in place. I could take you on a tour around the Tucson area of 5 wrecks that are just in the Catalina's/Rincon's themselves.
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Don't they try to mark wreckage so it's visible from the air - like a yellow X or something? Could wear off over time, but I would think stuff would be pretty visible in the desert, and ATC could get quite a few reports to wade through.
 
Schinpop said:
Don't they try to mark wreckage so it's visible from the air - like a yellow X or something? Could wear off over time, but I would think stuff would be pretty visible in the desert, and ATC could get quite a few reports to wade through.
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Yes. Yellow Xs are the marker. Does fade over time, but I've seen some accidents from the 60s that still have their faded Xs over them that you can still tell. They do generate reports to ATC every now and again still though.
 
BillErvin said:
You'd be a wasting your time Doug
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I'm the eternal optimist. if I wasn't, I surely wouldn't be wasting my time running an aviation website! Especially when it's warm, sunny, delicioius outside and I'm on vacay.
 
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