C172 crash at Coney Island

"Montblack" wrote in message
...
("Matt Whiting" wrote)
Are you sure the engine quit?

Yes. CBS Evening news (Saturday evening) said the engine stalled.

That's not really helpful evidence unless they said how they reached that
conclusion.

--Gary

Montblack wrote:

("Matt Whiting" wrote)

Are you sure the engine quit?



Yes. CBS Evening news (Saturday evening) said the engine stalled.

Ha, ha, ha. Yep, I'd sure take a CBS News report to the bank ... NOT.

It will be interesting to see what the real investigation turns up.


Matt

"Gary Drescher" wrote:

Subsequent updates are emphasizing witness reports that the engine
sounded like it was sputtering,

Witnesses often say that, particularly if the airplane was spinning.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"Gary Drescher" wrote:

Subsequent updates are emphasizing witness reports that the engine
sounded like it was sputtering,

Witnesses often say that, particularly if the airplane was spinning.

Yup. At least one witness was quoted as saying that the engine sputtered
while the plane "circled", but he could've been referring to spinning. Also,
if the plane entered a spin, the proper response would've included retarding
the throttle, which might be what the witnesses heard.

It's perplexing that an 1800-hour CFI would have a stall/spin crash on a
sightseeing flight, with or without an engine failure.

--Gary

I get suspicious about these - a low time pilot, no experience or
instruction with aft CG, maybe a little show-off to the many friends on
board. I shouldn't speculate until the NTSB gets done.

But why is it that a disproportionate number of crashes happen with all
the seats filled? Do instructors cover that situation (both technical
and psycological(sp?)) in a private pilot course? They should.

"nrp" wrote in message
oups.com...
I get suspicious about these - a low time pilot, no experience or
instruction with aft CG, maybe a little show-off to the many friends on
board.

This was an 1800-hour CFI with paying customers on board.

--Gary

I suspect that the plane stalled (aerodynamically), a witness reported
it as such to the media, and the media rep, upon hearing the word
'stalled' assumed that they must be talking about the engine. One guy
reports that the engine stalled, then all the other reporters
immediately chime in with the same stuff because person A spoke with
such authority.

"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
...
"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"Gary Drescher" wrote:

Subsequent updates are emphasizing witness reports that the engine
sounded like it was sputtering,

Witnesses often say that, particularly if the airplane was spinning.

Yup. At least one witness was quoted as saying that the engine sputtered
while the plane "circled", but he could've been referring to spinning.
Also,
if the plane entered a spin, the proper response would've included
retarding
the throttle, which might be what the witnesses heard.

It's perplexing that an 1800-hour CFI would have a stall/spin crash on a
sightseeing flight, with or without an engine failure.

I was going to say that.
He is also CFII, MEI

"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
...
"nrp" wrote in message
oups.com...
I get suspicious about these - a low time pilot, no experience or
instruction with aft CG, maybe a little show-off to the many friends on
board.

This was an 1800-hour CFI with paying customers on board.

CFII, MEI

"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
...
"Ernest C. Evans" wrote in message
...
I'm not a pilot but I was wondering why this plane went down "nose
first"
??? I'm thinkin', don't these things have some gliding ability ???

i guess the pilot must've been too low to recover ..... Having an
engine
quit on you is bad enough luck ..... but having it happened when you
just
happen to be at a low altitude is even worse luck ! (

Actually, having an engine quit would *not* cause a plane to fall. As you
say, it would just glide instead.

Speaking about common misconceptions, yea, unfortunately a chunk of people
seem to believe that the airplane is being held in the air by the propeller
itself.
I remember I once saw a movie (a few years ago; I thought the name was
"trapped", about a girl who gets kidnapped, but I cannot find it with that
name).
In this movie there was a scene where some people were flying in a seaplane,
and for some reason they needed to turn off the engine of the plane for a
few minutes. This was a ridiculous scene because once they shutdown the
engine the airplane just started falling off the sky. There was a shot of
the altimeter and it showed a descent of about 500 ft/SECOND!!!! (the pilot
tells the passenger that they have about 2 minutes to make a phone call, but
this means that they needed to be at about 30000 ft at that descent rate).
Then when they are done, he turns on the engine about 200 ft from the ground
and the airplane immediately goes into straight and level flight. The movie
was being pretty bad, but after that, I just started laughing, concerned
though, that it'll feed common misconceptions that people have about engine
failures in airplanes.
Has anyone seen that stupid movie or remembers the name ?