On Thursday, August 9, 2012 7:42:24 PM UTC-4, Mxsmanic wrote:
A brand-new video showing a small airplane crash from inside the aircraft:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDu0jYiz-v8



The video claims that a combination of density altitude and an "air pocket"

brought the aircraft down into the trees, but all I see are effects of density

altitude and what looks like the beginning of a stall.



Everyone survived. The passengers walked away from the totaled aircraft, the

pilot was badly injured but will recover fully, and the cameras were

completely unaffected.



It's interesting that the FAA produced a corny but informative video on

density altitude half a century ago, and it's still pertinent today:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZCb6nw_T4U



It almost looks as if the movie were made in the same area as the crash.

This clip is getting our attention (flight safety workgroup) as a human factors issue.
Obviously there was poor planning for the takeoff. Density altitude and gross weight were indeed factors.
What has piqued our interest isn't what's obvious but rather how this pilot ignored so many visual cues and performance cues during the takeoff run, all of which should have been telling him to abort.
He ignored these clues over the extended run over terrain where the takeoff could have been aborted at any time.
Finally airborne, the aircraft was barely able to maintain level flight at an angle of attack so close to max Cl that ANY attempt at bank would have increased the stall speed to the max Cl thus causing a stall in turn which would most likely have been fatal at ground contact.
If anything is to be learned from this accident as far as our workgroup specifically is concerned, it will involve the human factors in play during the actual takeoff run.
It's interesting work.
Dudley Henriques