Ferry Pilot Down

Jay Honeck wrote:
Just got off the phone with NWPilot, calling me from a wake (at Hooters)
for a fellow ferry pilot who went down today in the North Atlantic, 50
miles short of Keflavik, Iceland.

Here's the story, from Airliners.net:
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At 15:50 local time, contact was made with RKV ICG centre from a Cessna
310, arriving from Narsarsuaq, which had lost power in one of its
engines, 60 miles off Keflavik. In an effort to pump fuel between tanks
its feared both engines failed and the pilot had to rely on gliding the
aircraft. At the time he was descending through 7000 ft heading towards
Reykjavik.

RKV ATC Centre initiated emergency status in KEF and the ICG Centre sent
its Super Pumas, TF-GNA and TF-LIF out to the incident site.

At 16:10 the Cessna 310 disappeared from radar, around 50 miles from
Keflavik.

A Challenger 604 from the Danish Air Force was sent straight to the
scene of the incident and a full search was carried out from that point.

TF-LIF arrived at the scene around 17:00. No sighting of the Cessna 310
had been made and no signal from the emergency transmitter was noticed.

Three trawlers which were near the scene of the incident where called
immediately into action and a full scale search was underway. A Cessna
172 aircraft was also involved in the search operation as well as
various rescue boats from Slysavarnarfelagid Landsbjorg.

ICGs own F27 TF-SYN was sent out as a surveillance aircraft to replace
the efforts of the DAF CL604. A patrol vessel from the ICG was also sent
out to help the search efforts.
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Pretty much a worst-case scenario. High seas, ice cold water, gliding a
dead stick C-310 into 40-foot swells. NWPilot says he didn't start
drinking until 3 hours after the crash -- survival time in the water is
estimated at 2 hours, maximum, in a survival suit. The pilot's name was
Jeff Hall, and he helped NW get into the biz.

Raise a toast to a brave man, gents....

These long over water ferry flights are much more dangerous than the
average person might expect. The pilots engaged in this line of work
deserve a lot of respect.
I sincerely hope there was something friendly under him if he went down
but I doubt that will be the case.
Others have correctly stated the dangers.
It's a shame about this pilot. NW Pilot has my sincere condolences with
this. I know what it feels like to go through these things.

--
Dudley Henriques