It will be interesting to see the NTSB report on the weather at the time of
the accident. A severe thunderstorm is defined as surface winds of 50kts or
greater, hail 3/4" or larger, or a tornado, so 60mph winds certainly qualify
if they were being produced by a thunderstorm. I am a little surprised that
if the pilot took off in 60mph winds with a huge thunderstorm nearby that
nobody noted that fact.

Mike
MU-2


"Jeff" wrote in message
...
It was pretty nasty weather towards the evening and late into the night. I
was
at the airport today talking to the airport manager, he said winds were
clocked
at 60 mph at one point for about an hour, He said he thought a couple of
C-152's
were going to fly away in that wind, that they were "kite'ing around".
Even Air
Vegas stopped flying out to the canyon.
I didnt see the light show, but the next day the news said we had a good
lightining show that night. It was nasty stuff, came in from california.
The tropicana casino had their parking garage flood and the fire dept had
to
evacuate people from cars inside the garage (again on the news).

But the guy crashed near the Fiesta Casino, just inside the fence.

Mike Rapoport wrote:

Really? I've never heard of a severe thunderstorm in Las Vegas in
December.
Does your friend know what the definition of a severe thunderstorm is?

Mike
MU-2

"Shirley" wrote in message
...
Jeff Jeff@turboarrow3 wrote:

I dont know what the cause was, but yesterday,
a Bonanza took off from North Las Vegas airport,
4 adults and 2 children on board. [snip]
... again, not sure if it was overloaded since I dont
know anything about bonanzas, but its not worth
the risk in my opinion.

I don't know if it was overloaded or what the cause was either, but I
have
a
friend who lives near there and said there were severe thunderstorms
and
winds
near the airport at the time of the crash.