Plane Crash

A plane crashed last Monday in the next city over from where I live. In reading the accounts from the local newspaper, I get the sense that this accident was entirely avoidable.

According to weather.com, sunset was 5:42 p.m. In the newspaper article, they reported the following; my comments below each bullet:

1. That the instructor was planning on practicing takeoffs/landings from Redlands and San Bernardino airports.

This makes sense. If you want to carry passengers at night, you're required to make 3 full stop landings within the previous 90 days at night. The aircraft left at 6:30 p.m. and it would have been getting dark by then. If my memory serves, the whole area around the mountains was very hazy. Not a good time to be flying, and especially at night. Just the presense of some haze/light fog is a good indication that the dewpoint is close to the temperature, and as soon as the sun goes down: voila, fog city.

2. That a fuel problem was a possible cause.

Yep, fuel may have been a problem, but I'd guess that fog + night was the culprit. Plus, if you've ever flown up near Yucaipa, it's a box canyon, albeit a wide one. If you're not paying attention, the ground can catch up with you while you won't have much room to manuver. Again, this is a situation that difficult to handle on a clear day.

3. That a possible motive for where the plane was found was perhaps they were going to make instrument approaches.

WTF? You're going to start instrument approaches over a city that is next to a mountain? There are no instrument approaches there because there's mountains! The only airport in the area that has an approach is San Bernardino International, and you start that approach just to the east of Ontario airport. That's about a 50 mile distance from where the plane was found.

And if you're shooting approaches, you most likely are tuned into air traffic control. At the very least to be aware if there are any other aircraft on that approach. So, you'd have someone to talk to when you get yourself lost in the fog and hopefully they can save your butt. Obviously, that didn't happen.

It'll be interesting to read the NTSB report. Actually, it probably won't. My guess is that it will say the same thing I have in a more formal manner.