Small Plane Down in East Patchogue, LI

[moose135]

From Newsday.com:


A plane crashed into the back yard of a home in East Patchogue on Tuesday with one confirmed fatality, police and fire officials said. The Federal Aviation Administration said police informed the agency that an aircraft crashed into a house on Camille Lane. FAA investigators are en route. Officials said it was not clear what kind of plane was involved -- or where the flight originated.


Full story:
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/after-east-patchogue-plane-crash-police-and-firefighters-responding-suffolk-fire-official-says-1.8473541

[moose135]

Update from above link:


Federal Aviation Administration records listed the aircraft as a Columbia Aircraft 400 registered to the Self-Wing Co. in Jamaica, Queens. The manufacturer has since been acquired by Cessna. The FAA said preliminary indications are that the flight originated at Republic Airport in East Farmingdale and was headed to Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma. Indications are that the pilot was the lone person aboard, the FAA said.
His identity was not immediately known Tuesday.

[megatop412]

Sounds like he did a great job avoiding hitting any houses. No sure I would have had the composure to do the same knowing I was doomed like that. RIP

[ch2tdriver]

I don't think he had much to do with it. This appears to be a case of continued VFR into IFR conditions. I listened to the audio archive at Live ATC. At 9AM 610MH contacts NY Approach and asks for help. The controller asks for his position and destination and 610MH replies that he is going to ISP but "doesn't have the visibility". The weather at 9AM at FRG was 10 miles and clear, but ISP was 7 miles and 700' overcast. Approach comes back and says ISP is IFR are you declaring an emergency? 610MH after hearing the emergency question keys his mic and steps on the controller with "no", but he never hears it as he kept talking. In the mean time approach tells another aircraft to report Brookhaven in site. To which they reply they can't because of a thick stratus layer below them, and they'd like to head to the north shore where its clear and come in underneath. The controller then calls 610MH and asks what his intentions are. 610MH says he is going back to FRG. Approach says that's a good idea and says to squawk 1200 frequency change approved. Two minutes later is the reported time of the crash. Presumably in the turn back westward. Studies show that it only takes 77 seconds for a VFR pilot to become disoriented while flying in IMC conditions. If the aircraft entered a steep descending spiral it was only a matter of luck that it impacted where it did.

[Mateo]

Why buy a top of the line Lancair with FIKI certification, synthetic vision, and all the bells and whistles if you can't fly it IFR? A half-mil to cruise at 230 knots with maybe 70% mission reliability in the Northeast?