PC-12 crash in Montana

[Baradium]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/22/montana.plane.crash/index.html

CNN) -- A single-engine airplane crashed near Butte, Montana, on Sunday, killing at least 17 people, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

The Pilatus PC-12 left Orville, California, at 11 a.m. PT for Bozeman, Montana, but rerouted to Butte instead, FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said. The plane crashed 500 feet short of the runway at Bert Mooney Airport.

The plane, manufactured in 2001, was registered to Eagle Cap Leasing in Enterprise, Oregon, according to the FAA. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were at the scene.

According to The Montana Standard newspaper, a fireman said the plane may have been carrying several children on their way to a ski vacation.

Martha Guidoni told CNN she and her husband were driving near the airport when they "watched this plane just take a nosedive."

"We drove [there] to see if there was any way my husband could help someone, and we were too late," Guidoni said. "There was nothing to help."

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board were at the crash site Sunday afternoon, Fergus said

Story originally said it was a twin engined aircraft.

[Oddball]

Read in the local newspaper apparently the PC-12 crashed into a cemetery.    Now the BBC one o' clock news says 14 died on board.

[Skygal]

I do not know the PC12 well so I'd like to ask, will it carry 14 (even small ones) and still carry enough fuel for a 3 hour flight with a 30 minute reserve?
After tracing their route from Oroville to Bozeman, it seems that there were few airports along the way with JetA.  Would an intended landing 75 miles short of the destination indicate a low fuel problem?  Hope is a dangerous emotion when we are talking fuel reserves.   

just some thoughts..

[Baradium]

I do not know the PC12 well so I'd like to ask, will it carry 14 (even small ones) and still carry enough fuel for a 3 hour flight with a 30 minute reserve?
After tracing their route from Oroville to Bozeman, it seems that there were few airports along the way with JetA.  Would an intended landing 75 miles short of the destination indicate a low fuel problem?  Hope is a dangerous emotion when we are talking fuel reserves.   

just some thoughts..

From what they're talking about now, I'm not sure it's supposed to ever carry 14...

There was a post impact fire, so it at least sounds like there was some fuel in the tanks.

[Rooster Cruiser]

I'm afraid I've been busy with other projects, so I did not see this thread until tonight.  I'll bring everyone up to date as best I can:

I believe that in the USA the PC12 is certified to carry a maximum of 11 souls in the commuter configuration.  This particular airplane had 10 seats/seatbelts in an executive configuration.  Yes, they had too many souls on board.  Of the 14 aboard, 7 were adults and 7 were children under the age of 10.  Only one was under the age of 2, which according to FAA regs would be a child that could legally sit in someones lap.  When you add it all up, there were three more souls than seatbelts.  I am saddened by the pilot's lapse of judgement.

Even with this many souls on board and the likely large amount of baggage, it is unlikely that the airplane was either over gross or out of CG envelope on takeoff with 4 hours fuel or better.  I have logged 2250hrs in the PC12, and I will attest that the airplane is literally an Escalade with wings.  Its kinda like a Cessna single...  if you can close the doors on it and not have the tail hit the ramp, it'll fly.

It has been reported that the NTSB is looking into the possibility of pilot incapacitation.  The PIC was 65 years of age after all.  I am hearing whispers from sources that the ATC tapes have been reviewed and the pilots voice had very heightened levels of stress when he requested his diversion from Bozeman to Butte.  It has been suggested that this change in his voice may indicate he was having a heart attack while in flight.  Other sources are wondering if the pilot was still conscious at the time of the loss of control, or if he may have lost consciousness and a passenger was trying to land the airplane at the last minute.

Here is a link to the NTSB preliminary report.  http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20090322X90442&key=1

The quote here is most interesting:

One witness with aviation experience reported that the airplane was west of the runway centerline and appeared too high to land on the runway. The witness then saw the airplane bank to the left and fly farther west when it rolled, pitched down, and descended out of his view.

Finally, I am saddened by a loss of a colleague.  I knew the PIC from business dealings over the phone but I never met him in person or flew with him.  His employer and my last full time employer knew each other and we had an informal time-swap agreement between us.  He'd fly for us when we were down for Mx and vice versa.  A mutual friend told me that he was a great guy and an excellent pilot.

I am even more saddened by the loss of the owner's family in the accident.  The owner of the PC12 in question was an occasional passenger of mine.  He was waiting for his family to arrive in Bozeman when he received the news that they went down in Butte.  He is a wonderful gentleman and a respected dentist, businessman, and racing enthusiast.  In this accident he lost two daughters, two sons in law, four or more grandchildren, and another family that was very close to his.  I am incapable of comprehending the magnitude of his loss.

RIP Budd.  I've already faced west.   

RC

[Oddball]

 

[Frank N. O.]

My condolences

Frank