Small plane crash in Dion Dawkins yard.

[SoMAn]

6 hours ago, SectionC3 said:

If it’s the house I think it is (at the end of that road), it’s way back off of the street and the yard is enormous.  

 

The bigger issue is the health of the pilot.  I hope he/she survived.  

It doesn’t sound good. Sad holidays for some family. 

[WotAGuy]

9 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

sounds like he was close to KBUF so probably in contact with approach or even tower.  I don’t know what the ceilings were but sounds like he wax close to the field.  
 

Seems like if they cleared his m for KBUF they felt he would see and make the runway with current ceilings.  They would have directed him to alternate with higher ceilings.  The plane is still flying without electric power.  Radios would be out as well as GPS if he had one.  Flaps might not work but can land without.  Maybe he had glass panels without vacuum backup instructions 

My ChatGPT summary doesn’t mention anything about any of that nonsense:

 

A small airplane, cruising at a moderate altitude, suddenly experienced a catastrophic engine failure when a vital fuel line ruptured. The pilot initially attempted to troubleshoot the issue, switching to the reserve fuel tank and attempting to restart the engine, but the damage was too severe. With no power and a rapid loss of altitude, the pilot declared an emergency, but the descent was too steep for a controlled landing. Despite efforts to steer toward an open field, the plane struck the treeline, breaking apart on impact. The cause of the failure was later traced to a manufacturing defect in the fuel line, which had gone undetected during routine maintenance checks.

[Beck Water]

7 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

it was online WIVB.com

 

now saying "mechanical issues" and pilot declared emergency.   An electrical failure won't typically bring a plane like that down.

 

Correct.   The pilot reporting "mechanical issues" and declaring an emergency are two things that can be known pretty rapidly after an accident.

 

4 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

sounds like he was close to KBUF so probably in contact with approach or even tower.  I don’t know what the ceilings were but sounds like he wax close to the field.  

 

Ceilings were good at KBUF.  Lowest on METAR 3,700 and usually higher with 10 miles vis .  But where he crashed was about 10-11 miles south of that airport.

 

4 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

Seems like if they cleared his m for KBUF they felt he would see and make the runway with current ceilings.  They would have directed him to alternate with higher ceilings.  The plane is still flying without electric power.  Radios would be out as well as GPS if he had one.  Flaps might not work but can land without.  Maybe he had glass panels without vacuum backup instructions 

 

The FAA makes plane owners jump through hoops to make major changes to the instrument panel of an older plane such as replacing the vacuum, pitot static or static actuated instruments with a glass panel (EFIS) especially if you don't want to be limited to day VFR.  Been there, explored that.  So what most certificated aircraft owners do is rearrange the panel to fit the EFIS but keep the instruments the plane was originally certificated with.  And if you do want to go all glass, 2 EFIS and a backup power source are typical.

Anyway, outside of the fact that the pilot is said to have declared an emergency due to "mechanical issues" we know nothing about what happened at this point and it's pretty well fruitless to speculate.  Small planes do have redundancy built into their instrumentation; most small plane pilots who are flying cross country do carry a backup radio and a GPS, though those would be a lower priority to set up in the face of a mechanical emergency.  They're not that complicated, really; the typical thing is "we're going to land over there, and go get coffee; the plane may not survive"   which is why initially I was willing to make a joke.

It's very sad that he died in the crash.

[sherpa]

79 Beech A36 Bonanza. I owned one of those form 2003 until 2009. Nice airplane.

[Mr. WEO]

7 hours ago, Beck Water said:

 

Correct.   The pilot reporting "mechanical issues" and declaring an emergency are two things that can be known pretty rapidly after an accident.

 

 

Ceilings were good at KBUF.  Lowest on METAR 3,700 and usually higher with 10 miles vis .  But where he crashed was about 10-11 miles south of that airport.

 

 

The FAA makes plane owners jump through hoops to make major changes to the instrument panel of an older plane such as replacing the vacuum, pitot static or static actuated instruments with a glass panel (EFIS) especially if you don't want to be limited to day VFR.  Been there, explored that.  So what most certificated aircraft owners do is rearrange the panel to fit the EFIS but keep the instruments the plane was originally certificated with.  And if you do want to go all glass, 2 EFIS and a backup power source are typical.

Anyway, outside of the fact that the pilot is said to have declared an emergency due to "mechanical issues" we know nothing about what happened at this point and it's pretty well fruitless to speculate.  Small planes do have redundancy built into their instrumentation; most small plane pilots who are flying cross country do carry a backup radio and a GPS, though those would be a lower priority to set up in the face of a mechanical emergency.  They're not that complicated, really; the typical thing is "we're going to land over there, and go get coffee; the plane may not survive"   which is why initially I was willing to make a joke.

It's very sad that he died in the crash.

 

replacing vacuum gauges with glass (or at least a few G5's and a nice GPS) is a common upgrade for an older single--increases useful load and the value of the plane.  The hardest part is paying for the upgrade and getting it done within 6 months given how busy these shops are.  True some will keep a single vacuum gauge like the AI or a separate G5 on a separate battery for backup. 

 

I wasn't speculating on the electrical failure--it was mentioned in the first report I looked up immediately after (WIVB). Who knows if it's accurate--if his radios were working, probably not electrical.  A cell phone can act as a GPS and can be used to call the tower phone.  

[Beck Water]

1 hour ago, Mr. WEO said:

replacing vacuum gauges with glass (or at least a few G5's and a nice GPS) is a common upgrade for an older single--increases useful load and the value of the plane.  The hardest part is paying for the upgrade and getting it done within 6 months given how busy these shops are.  True some will keep a single vacuum gauge like the AI or a separate G5 on a separate battery for backup. 

 

On a certificated airplane like a Bonanza, I would say the hardest part is getting the FAA to approve the 337s and/or supplemental type certificate for the major modification to the equipment the plane was certificated with, but this is a digression to the accident so I'm not gonna debate what are the most common ways to modify an older aircraft and why with ya.

We agree that there's reason to consider information that flys around immediately after a GA accident as not necessarily correct.

Edited 20 hours ago by Beck Water

[Mr. WEO]

1 hour ago, Beck Water said:

 

On a certificated airplane like a Bonanza, I would say the hardest part is getting the FAA to approve the 337s and/or supplemental type certificate for the major modification to the equipment the plane was certificated with, but this is a digression to the accident so I'm not gonna debate what are the most common ways to modify an older aircraft and why with ya.

We agree that there's reason to consider information that flys around immediately after a GA accident as not necessarily correct.

 

True.

 

Will wait for @blancolirio or @pilotdebrief for the straight dope on this one

[Wacka]

At the press conference on all the local channels,he declared a mechanical emergency and they told him  to try to land in a large field. I think they said he hit the trees at the end of the field (Dion's yard) and burnt into flames. Was already fully engulfed when the EA FD arrived on the scene. For those in the area, that street is just east of whereTransit and 20A meet. There is a nursery at that intersection.

[Draconator]

2 hours ago, Wacka said:

At the press conference on all the local channels,he declared a mechanical emergency and they told him  to try to land in a large field. I think they said he hit the trees at the end of the field (Dion's yard) and burnt into flames. Was already fully engulfed when the EA FD arrived on the scene. For those in the area, that street is just east of whereTransit and 20A meet. There is a nursery at that intersection.

If you're familiar with Mario's Bistro and Brews on 20 A, across from Davis, the crash happened behind them.