Citation 550 Crashes Into Naval Housing.

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

This accident is weird. 




https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/specia...e5c8610e54

The Cessna Citation 550 crashed two miles short of the Runway in a Naval Housing neighborhood.

At least 3 (likely all on board), including Talent Agent Dave Shapiro are dead. No deaths on the ground. The Pilot was likely the talent agent himself, who had multiple certifications and owned an Aviation Company along with a record label. 

Here's the weirdness. Fog is a given at any point of the year, especially May/June. Fog/poor visability is the one type of weather our airports get. 

Looking up field info:

Instrument Approaches: ILS OR LOC RWY 28R (111.95), RNAV (GPS) RWY 28R

Yet, he went for the RNAV? WTF? 

I cant find anything for the ILS not being operational, and I'm likely missing some reason why he used RNAV GPS approach, it just doesn't seem the best option if you have a fixed beacon glideslope at your disposal.  Does there have to be a controller present in the tower to use the ILS? 

I wouldn't trust satellites with 1/2 mile visability and a ceiling 200 above ground level. 

It also seems like he should have had some awareness of location. Doesn't the Citation have a navigation display? Something to line up elevation and approximate position? 

This seems too far short of the Runway to be clipping 200 foot tall high voltage powerlines. 

Powerlines clipped pictured here:


Elevation of hill + powerlines = 615 feet. 

Tierrasanta/Murphy Canyon Military Housing has an elevation of 330 feet. Montgomery-Gibbs is at 427 feet. You drive up a hill to a mesa to get from the crash site to the executive airport.  He was miles short and way too low.

GPS malfunction?
Improper altimeter setting?

He sounds too competent in his ATS communications to mess up this bad without something freakish happening.

[Zaphod58]

What’s weird about it? He dropped below glide slope in fog and clipped power lines. Pilots make poor decisions all the time, with bad results, even with good equipment on the aircraft.

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

So not weird, but a REALLY bad mistake for a pilot.  



If he started the 3.0° descent from 2600 ft at ICOTE at 7 NM from threshold, there should be no reason to be anywhere near those powerlines, right?  He should be clearing them by 400 feet.  

I'm just picturing the Mayday dramatization of The NTSB investigator saying, "What the hell was he doing so low?"

[Zaphod58]

So not weird, but a REALLY bad mistake for a pilot.  

[Image: https://denyignorance.com/uploader/image...ternet.jpg]

If he started the 3.0° descent from 2600 ft at ICOTE at 7 NM from threshold, there should be no reason to be anywhere near those powerlines, right?  He should be clearing them by 400 feet.  

I'm just picturing the Mayday dramatization of The NTSB investigator saying, "What the hell was he doing so low?"

That’s the $64 question. He was on glide slope until short final. The glide slope is checked pretty regularly by the FAA flight check team for obstacles, so the published approach goes well above the power lines.

[Zaphod58]

There was a NOTAM that the PAPI and runway lights were out at the airport. So he had nothing but the instruments to show he was on glideslope. It's not clear if the pilot was aware that they were out or not. That's one of the things that investigators will look into.