Accidents and Incidents
On 22 March 2009, a PC-12/45 with the aircraft registration number N128CM, owned by the Eagle Cap Leasing of Enterprise, Oregon, crashed on approach to the Bert Mooney Airport in Butte, Montana. The aircraft had departed from Oroville, California, and diverted from the original destination of Bozeman, Montana for unknown reasons. The NTSB recovered a computer memory chip from the aircraft that contained essential aircraft and engine performance data. From it, they concluded that icing in the fuel system had prevented the normally balanced flow of fuel from the wings. The pilot had delayed a precautionary landing until one wing was full of fuel and the other was empty, and then lost control of the PC-12 while maneuvering to land. All 14 people on board were killed: one pilot and 13 passengers, seven of whom were young children.
On 5 July 2009, a Pilatus PC-12 crashed in Rockbridge County, Va., after the pilot reported the loss of the instrument panel and subsequently requested vectors to get out of weather. The pilot, Daniel Dorsch, owner of Papa John's Pizza chain in Florida, Fun Bike Center of Lakeland, FL and former CEO of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants (1999–2003), his wife Cynthia Dorsch and at least two other passengers were killed. According to ATC, the pilot was flying above the max altitude of the aircraft at 31,000' when he reported his loss of the instrument panel. On 24 July 2009, the NTSB issued its preliminary report on the Rockbridge County, Virginia accident. On 25 July 2009, the Roanoke Times published an analysis of the NTSB report subtitled Without being conclusive, it suggests failure of navigational instruments as the main cause. This article argues that the accident was caused not by the loss of a structural panel from the aircraft, as had been suggested by early accounts, but from the failure of the pilot's "primary instrument panel." This failure, the author speculates, resulted in the pilot's becoming spatially disoriented, which consequently caused him to lose control of the aircraft.
On 8 February 2011 at 4:31, a Pilatus PC-12, operated by Majuba Aviation, disappeared from Air Traffic Control's radar. On Wednesday 9 February, wreckage believed to be that of the missing plane was found just off the shore of Robberg Nature Reserve, close to Plettenberg Bay. Both crew members and all seven passengers, including Italtile CEO Gianpaolo Ravazzotti and Prima Bella MD Salvatore Di Bella, were killed in the accident.
On 18 February 2012, a USAF U-28A of the 34 SOS crashed in Djibouti. The crash killed Capts. Ryan P. Hall and Nicholas S. Whitlock and 1st Lt. Justin J. Wilkens of the 34th Special Operations Squadron and Senior Airman Julian S. Scholten of the 25th Intelligence Squadron. It was the first fatal crash of a U-28.
"The accident investigation found the crew never lost control of the aircraft. There were no indications of mechanical malfunction. The evidence demonstrated the crew did not recognize the position of the aircraft. There were no indications the crew took any actions to control the descent rate and nose down attitude of the aircraft."
Read more about this topic: Pilatus PC-12
Famous quotes containing the words accidents and/or incidents:
“Depression moods lead, almost invariably, to accidents. But, when they occur, our mood changes again, since the accident shows we can draw the world in our wake, and that we still retain some degree of power even when our spirits are low. A series of accidents creates a positively light-hearted state, out of consideration for this strange power.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)