Any pilots here?

[peanutbrittle]

OKC here, local news is reporting a small plane has gone down just NE of OKC and the victims are alive and talking to authorities on their cellphones. The victims don't know where they are but the authorities know the general area.

This makes no sense to me that ANYONE would be flying in the first place in this type of weather in a small plane!

We are basically in the freaking middle of a blizzard! 40 mile per hour winds and heavy snow.

I just don't get it, are people really this stupid or is this normal to fly in this type of weather?

Just curious

[Bonhomme Richard]

1. I'm no pilot but it reminds me of that saying.....

"There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old bold pilots"

[Hepburn]

2. There are dumb people who do dumb things...

...all the time. Pilots are NO exception. I will say, however, the guys I have flown with are well above average in being careful and their pre-flights are detailed and even of the very experienced ones, they still take a look at that check list to see that they did not forget something because of doing something that is pretty routine.

A buddy of mine was to fly from the LA area to Vegas yesterday. They canceled the trip because of possible high winds. There would have been 3 licensed private pilots on this trip, all with a ton of time and experience, one of them being an instructor, and they would have been going in a two-engine Beach that is pressurized. Sounds like a pretty safe trip, right? But they did not wish to deal with the possible high wind factor when they were just going for the day on a pleasure trip.

I would not hesitate to fly with anyone of these guys and I have flown with two of them a goodly amount of time. While I am not a licensed private pilot, I have had lessons and if I had to, I could control a small plane and land it. I took those lessons because one of these guys wanted to make sure that if something happened to him while we two alone were up in the air, I could take care of myself and get the plane down.

But....on the other hand, I have seen jerks do some really stupid stuff in the air and at the airport. It's like people who drive cars ~~ just because someone has a license, that does not mean he/she is a good pilot.

[acmejack]

3. Very foolish.

Deadly from ice accumulation on the wings. It will be interetsing to find out more. Icing is a big problem and has caused a lot of crashes in cold weather.

[Tesha]

4. Sometimes pilots overrate the need to finish the trip.

General Aviation pilots sometimes (often?) take their
planes when they go on trips. (If it's a business trip,
this helps them use our tax dollars to finance their
very expensive hobby.)

When they do this, they often find that the weather has
changed against them. The smart ones either stay put or
find another means of transportation and come back for
their plane later. The foolish ones decide to fly onwards
anyway. Many of these folks become the statistics you
then read about.

"Pilot" magazine used to publish a column called "I
learned about Flying From That". It often contained
the harrowing first-person story of someone who over-
estimated their ability to conquer failing weather.
The ones who wrote the columns, of course, managed
to live through it; a different column documented
the ones who didn't.

Tesha

[Liberal In Texas]

5. "Get There-itis" causes a lot of accidents. n/t

[bill]

6. Re: Any pilots here?

It's often called "Getthereitis" and it's killed a number of people.

[trof]

7. Nope, not normal nor recommended.

And what they said about 'Get-Home-Itis'.
They don't say what kind of plane, but the ONLY time I flew a single engine plane in actual weather I was wearing a parachute and sitting on an ejection seat.
;-)

[Solo_in_MD]

8. You don't have a lot of critical detail but...

Gethomeits is a common issue, with what you said, it sounds likely. Then again they could have been flying above the weather and had mechanical trouble. NOt enough data to tell.

I also find it odd that they do not know where they are. That means the pilot is incapacitated. That the authorities do not know where they are is even stranger. The ELT should be active and the transponder should have been tracked by ATC as they went down. Every time I have every gotten in trouble as a pilot, I have had enough warning to advise ATC and they would track me carefully.

As usual when it comes to aviation, the MSM is clueless. There used to be a TV anchorman in LA on Chanel 5 (Hal Fishman) who was a serious aviator. If I wanted to know the truth about an aviation incident, I would watch his news show. Don't know if he is still around or not.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. The ELT might not have worked. A lot of times they don't.

I used to fly SAR missions for Civil Air Patrol, and it seemed like the only time ELTs worked was when they weren't supposed to. We searched for a number of missing airplanes that did not transmit an ELT signal.

[karlrschneider]

13. It appears there was no need for the ELT...see my post to DemoTex

ks

[DemoTex]

9. Got a link?

Sounds like a case of severe dumb-ass. Maybe KarlSchneider will see this and chime in. Karl is a professional pilot who lives in Oklahoma. I did get caught in some bad freezing rain in Oklahoma in a C-47 back in the early '70s. We were descending with full power on both engines. Fortunately, the bottom of our descent coincided with our arrival on the most beautiful runway I have ever seen (at Tinker AFB).

[karlrschneider]

12. Hi Mac...found this link, not much info

http://www.kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=115405

edit: another link, looks like a precautionary landing from engine failure.

http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/1106/377105.html

[DemoTex]

14. Thanks, Karl.

It sounds like they were Lucky-Duckies.

Mac

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

15. Love the KTUL report -- they describe the airplane as a twin,

but their illustration is of a single-engine airplane. I realize that the news media are appallingly ignorant about aviation, but couldn't they have at least *counted* the engines on their illustration? Or don't they know what propellers do? :banghead:

[karlrschneider]

16. To a lot of 'media' types, all planes are either 747s or Piper Cubs.

:eyes:

[karlrschneider]

11. I'm in Oklahoma but don't know any details.

(Yes, I'm a commercial pilot for 40 years) - maybe I can find some more info. Just because it's a 'small' plane doesn't mean much though.