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Backcountry Pilot • Killer Airplane

Killer Airplane

Debrief, share, and hopefully learn from the mistakes of others.
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Killer Airplane

Any of you own an airplane that has killed? There is a disturbing fact associated with my plane. I found out about it when researching before I purchased it.

Narrative:
deplaned psgr on unlighted ramp with engine idling.Psgr walked forward into prop.

It did not stop me from buying it though. It happened in 1974. since then the plane has been stripped, repainted, repowered, repropped and converted to tailwheel.

I will certainly never deplane any passengers with the prop spinning.
obxbushpilot offline
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Re: Killer Airplane

Well, the airplane certainly wasn't at fault. But N2425U was a '63 C172 that I owned prior to this numb nuts pilot buying her.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_i ... 4304&key=1

If I had been the passenger, that pilot, and I use the term loosely, would have been dead prior to hitting the water.

Gump
GumpAir offline
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Re: Killer Airplane

It's hard to believe that you'd sell somebody an airplane with such a badly faulted compass...
RDUStinson offline
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108-3

Re: Killer Airplane

Yeah, guess it's pretty easy to confuse the big E with the big W. You gotta work really hard to be that stupid.

Of course all things considered, it's probably a good thing they ended up over the water. If this guy had actually made it to the Sierras at night, as over his skill level as he was, he might have hit someone or something on the ground and caused more damage.

Gump
GumpAir offline
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Re: Killer Airplane

GumpAir wrote:Yeah, guess it's pretty easy to confuse the big E with the big W. You gotta work really hard to be that stupid.

Of course all things considered, it's probably a good thing they ended up over the water. If this guy had actually made it to the Sierras at night, as over his skill level as he was, he might have hit someone or something on the ground and caused more damage.

Gump


Showing your sensitive side aren't you. [-X

Good day
OregonMaule offline
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Re: Killer Airplane

I am... 2425U was a good little airplane. I miss her.

Gump
GumpAir offline
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Re: Killer Airplane

There shouldn't be anything "disturbing" about learning that an innocent airplane was involved with stupid people. It's not exactly like it had a choice, after all.

And yeah, one I've flown the most has a death associated with it. When I found out, I apologised to the airplane, and patted her on the nose.

It's not the airplane's fault.
dhc offline
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Re: Killer Airplane

dhc wrote:There shouldn't be anything "disturbing" about learning that an innocent airplane was involved with stupid people. It's not exactly like it had a choice, after all.

And yeah, one I've flown the most has a death associated with it. When I found out, I apologised to the airplane, and patted her on the nose.

It's not the airplane's fault.


The disturbing aspect to me is the "death by propeller" thing. The person was very much alive at one moment and clevered to death the next. That's a little disturbing.

No one could fault the plane of course, unless you believe it's like Stephen King's "Christine".
obxbushpilot offline
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Re: Killer Airplane

Gump, we had a guy show up in Ketchikan once to become a Beaver pilot. During the checkride (chief pilot had a sore throat so he was only writing notes... not talking) the new guy was "navigating" along fat dumb and happy.
(I was in the back seat watching) Eventually, the chief holds up a sectional chart in front of the guys face. It has a big arrow pointing the direction we are going. Under the arrow, in big letters.... is the word JAPAN.
Needless to say... he wasn't hired.
flightlogic offline
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Flying is dangerous. If you think otherwise, you are new at this sport. Mind the gravity not the gap.

Re: Killer Airplane

Maybe he wanted some sushi. #-o He'd a made it part of the way.

Gump
GumpAir offline
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Re: Killer Airplane

GumpAir wrote:I am... 2425U was a good little airplane. I miss her.

Gump


From the sound of it you got you $ (for the 172) before stupidity struck.
Glidergeek offline
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Re: Killer Airplane

Oh yeah. She changed hands twice I think before our directionally challenged friend got his hands on her.

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GumpAir offline
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Re: Killer Airplane

Time to un-hijack this thread...

How many of you have gone to crash sites, and looked at airplanes you used to fly/own, and tried to unmangle the wreckage in your mind's eye to see where you sat?

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Re: Killer Airplane

All 5 of mine are still flying.
obxbushpilot offline
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Re: Killer Airplane

I sold a brown on brown Stinson 108-3 to the trooper in Kotz in 76. He came to get it in Bettles field with his instructor. They made it home, but the next flight they rolled it up in a ball on the approach end of the strip at Kotz. Glad I never had to see it after it left.
goldfinch offline
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wings, cary me over the big rocks

Re: Killer Airplane

Methinks the Stinson owner didn't get his money's worth from the CFI....
First job in Sitka... I walked in and said name is Nick, would like to work here.
They thought it was a sick joke... since another Nick had just killed everyone onboard a 185 straight floats in a pass.
I didn't know about the fatalities... just wrong timing. Got the job. Then the other new guy crashed the Beaver in the same pass. No hull coverage... as is the norm in AK. What a way to make a living...damn.
flightlogic offline
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Flying is dangerous. If you think otherwise, you are new at this sport. Mind the gravity not the gap.

Re: Killer Airplane

I remembered reading about the unbelievable fate of N2425U and searching for it led me to this old thread. There is some interesting content here.

I had quite a bit of time in this plane before it was asked to do things impossible:
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Re: Killer Airplane

We owned a C180 that a guy drowned in. They revived him and he lived to tell the tale.
gbflyer offline
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Re: Killer Airplane

The 172 I rented in Australia and circumnavigated the "island" with crashed two years after my trip.

http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/inv ... 02847.aspx

Overloaded aircraft making a downwind takeoff at an airfield with tall trees around it. Guy I talked to said they needed a backhoe to dig the engine out of the ground.
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Re: Killer Airplane

I owned this one.....or at least one built out of the few good parts left.

http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=184

Never really bothered me
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