On Sunday, February 23, 2014 4:11:56 PM UTC-5, wrote:
OK guys. I guess it's time to post some of what we really know. I'm the president of Southern eagles Soaring Club at LaGrange. We were not operating Saturday and I was not at the field. The Civil Air Patrol had been operating their L23 towed by their 172, for several hours from runway 3.



The Baron had been doing ILS low approaches to runway 31. They landed and refueled. There were various reports of what the Baron was doing before it crashed, including a missed approach from a practice ILS, a take off, and a go around. With all these reports, you can judge for your self the accuracy. Everyone agreed that they did not hear any radio calls from the Baron.



The 172 and L23 were stopped on runway 3, south of runway 31. They never crossed the runway. The crews were very experienced, with 2 CFIG's in the L23 and a retired Air Force pilot and now Delta Captain flying the 172. One of the CFIGs is also a club member.



The crews saw the Baron at low altitude along runway 31. It pulled up very nose high, rolled to the left from 100-200 feet, and crashed in an approximate 60 degree nose down attitude. The front seat pilots were killed on impact. The passenger in the back later died at the hospital.



We do not now, nor will we ever know what made the PIC take the action that he did. They could have been flying simulated instruments, practicing single engine, had an engine failure, or any of a number of things.



Since the names have been release, we do know that the two co-owners were in the aircraft along with another pilot. Records show one of the co-owners was multi-engine rated. No records on the other co-owner. The third person did hold an ATP and instructors rating. We do not know the seating arrangement or who was at the controls.



All the noise about a glider being involved was from one person that was interviewed by two TV stations. He said the Baron was trying to avoid a glider. It unclear as to his actually seeing the crash. The only glider operating that day was sitting on runway 3 behind the tow plane.



Also to show the accuracy of the reporting, one of the stations reported the Baron had flown from Panama City, FL to LaGrange that morning. They used a screen shot from flightAware.com to confirm it. When we checked flightaware, it did indeed show a flight from Panama City as being the last flight they had recorded. Of course, That flight took place in October, 2013!



If any FACTS become available, I'll let you know. However, conjecture will not accomplish anything and could hurt our sport.



Charlie

please expound on "everyone" in your statement "agreed that they did not hear any radio calls from the Baron" because i have two witnesses who said they "distinctly" heard multiple radio calls from the baron 55 pertaining to traffic pattern radio calls. So your credibility of your "facts" directly conflict with mine, and i will tell you one thing, the hundreds of hours that i flew with my father, the pilot of the baron 55 who was killed, i can never recall a time when he failed to report an approach radio call, so either he screwed up that day or the CAP tow pilot was to incompetent to hear the oncoming traffic. PS. im always open for more info to find out if my dad screwed up bad or not, i just wanna know, and providing falsified information will not help.