Mike Marron wrote:

fudog50 wrote:

Mike Marron wrote:


Back in 1999 I happened to be renting hangar space from the pilot
who trained the Capt. of the Learjet that Stewart was flying in when
it crashed.


Stewart's Capt. was a highly experienced ex-military type who flew
tankers in the Air Force. My pilot friend whom I was renting hangar
space from had also flown the exact same jet (47BA) to the Caribbean
the previous week.


According to him, the jet was well maintained and he was absolutely
baffled by the whole Payne Stewart incident. A sudden decompression
at FL 230 should still give a person more than enough time to don a
mask and the only thing he knew was that the Learjet had just taken
off from Orlando and was at FL 230 over Gainseville (Florida) and
cleared to FL 390 when they lost radio contact with ATC.


In any event, it must've been an eerie sight for the F-16 jocks who
interecepted the Learjet and saw the bodies slumped over, frost on
the windows from the frozen water vapor inside the cabin.


Yes,
I agree, and as an undergrad of ERAU, and now grad student, along with
22 years active duty, the Payne Stewart accident has been gone over
time and again, if I ever see another Power Point presentation on it,
I'll puke. (that and the aloha air incident, concorde, TWA flight 800,
swissair 111, etc.) but, with a failure (leak) in the
pressurization/oxygen system at a lower level, it would have induced
hypoxia, and in a lot of cases, unless you know it is happening,
everyone that has ever experienced this or looked at test results know
that the reactions to hypoxia are totally uncontrolled. Who is to say
that anyone would have donned an O2 mask if they didn't know what was
happening?? The crew then passed out, and the aircraft continued to
climb and cruise until the leak resulted in internal freezing of the
cabin. I agree there was no "explosive decompression".


As I mentioned, the Capt. was a highly trained, extremely experienced
ex-military pilot whom had undergone chamber training so no matter
how insidious, he undoubtedly knew how to recognize the telltale
symptoms of hypoxia (e.g: degraded vision, lightheadedness,
discoloration of the fingernails and lips, etc.) AFAIK, it remains a
mystery as to precisely what happened on that incredibly strange day
in 1999.

I reckon the pilots weren't wearing O2 masks. ISTR on a small plane at
high alt, at least one is supposed to wear one at all times, to prevent
just this type of crash.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/1999/991025-1.htm

Crew incapacitation due to a loss of cabin pressurization about 20mins
after departure. Continued flight for almost 2h40min before spiralling
out of control, crashing in an open field. Among the passengers was
professional golfer Payne Stewart.
PROBABLE CAUSE: "Incapacitation of the flight crewmembers as a result of
their failure to receive supplemental oxygen following a loss of cabin
pressurization, for undetermined reasons. "