CNN Story

<img src="http://www.adn.com/ips_rich_content/790-plane07-300-x-184.jpg" align="right">Well, damn. It looks like a 170B and a 172 collided over the Palmer Hay Flats, killing 5. not sure if they were together or not, or just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time...what's the deal with the Hay Flats?

I hate to post these somber stories, but this is stuff that can happen to any of us, so best to give it some attention in hopes that it keeps us vigilant. There are so many types of emergencies that we as pilots can handle, and have a decent chance of surviving, but midair collisions rarely give that opportunity.

I saddens me that flying and tragedy go hand in hand far too often, and that this is the only impression many people will ever have of our great love, since it's the only aspect of flying that the news usually deems worthy of reporting.

Prayers and well wishes to the families for quick healing.

Somewhere in Wasilla there's a mother and wife in terrible grief. Prayers up for this woman and the rest of the familys.

Amazing how in such a big sky we can still manage to occupy the same tiny space at the same time.

For those not familiar with the Anchorage bowl area, it can be some of the busiest airspace in the country at times. Particularly on a nice day in the spring, there will be a lot of aircraft flying around, and many will be piloted by folks who are looking at things on the ground.

Who knows what happened, we may never really know. Bill was a good friend, and was a coworker of mine. He was a very high time pilot, but that's no guarantee.

Remember, folks, the basic premise of preventing these things is see and avoid.

And that is far easier said than done some days.

Thoughts and prayers for both families. What a tragedy.

MTV

MTV is right about the Anchorage airspace. Flying in and out of Lake Hood on a nice summer day looks like the Battle of Britain being fought with float planes. It always pays to listen in on the approach frequency when you are out and about so you can build a mental picture of where at least some of the traffic is headed. But, you will never know where ALL of them are. Alaska provides some of the most beautiful distractions you can imagine. Constant Angle Diminishing Range objects (the ones you are going to hit) are easy to overlook.

Two sons, a daughter and a husband - my heart goes out to that lady.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/aviation ... 4110c.html

Investigator believes that pilots didn't see each other

REPORT: Mechanical failure, alcohol or weather didn't cause a crash that killed five in April.

By ZAZ HOLLANDER
Anchorage Daily News

Published: February 3, 2007
Last Modified: February 3, 2007 at 04:05 AM

WASILLA -- A federal investigator ruled out weather, mechanical failure and drugs or alcohol in the midair collision over the Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge last April that killed five people, three of them children.

That leaves investigator Clint Johnson with one thought: One or both pilots simply did not see the other. Johnson does not have the authority to determine probable cause in plane crashes, but his reports form the basis for such findings.

Both Cessnas were high-winged airplanes. As part of his investigation, he borrowed a friend's 170 and sat inside, looking for obstructions, Johnson said in an interview this week.

"Number one would be the door post, number two would be the high-wing of the right wing," he said. "It would really hamper the ability to see an approaching plane. Same with the other plane."

Generally, Johnson added, in uncontrolled airspace with no radar coverage like the area where the collision occurred, it's up to pilots to "see and avoid" other aircraft.

The crash took the lives of David Beauregard, 45, as well as his 16- and 13-year-old sons and his 9-year-old daughter. The family was on a day trip to Talkeetna from Birchwood Airport. Beauregard, a retired military pilot, captained Alaska Airlines 737s for a living.

It also killed the other pilot, 55-year-old Chugiak resident William Smoke, another veteran airman employed as Alaska region aviation manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Johnson released his factual report of the incident late last week. The five-member National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, D.C., will use his findings to determine a probable cause.

April 23, 2006, was a beautiful Sunday, sunny, warm and calm, according to Johnson's report.

At 11:55 a.m., Beauregard radioed a flight-service technician in Palmer after departing Birchwood Airport in his Cessna 170B to say he planned to return to Birchwood at 4 p.m. He radioed Palmer again two minutes later to change his return time to 5 p.m.

At 11:58 a.m., Alaska State Troopers received the first of a series of 911 calls reporting that two planes had collided in the sky over the Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge. Witnesses alerted by a loud thud looked up and watched in horror as the two planes plummeted, at first intertwined and then separately, 2,000 feet to the half-frozen ground below.

One witness, a pilot himself, watched the entire collision with a friend, standing in a driveway of a home just northeast of the hay flats. The men said it looked like Smoke spotted the other plane at the last minute and tried to avoid the crash by pitching up in his Cessna 172.

Smoke's plane smashed into the right side of the other Cessna at roughly a 90- degree angle. Beauregard's Cessna 170B lost a left wing in the collision, according to Johnson's report.

The aircraft crashed about 500 feet apart on the mud flats near Knik Arm. Both suffered extensive damage Johnson described in a detailed account that took up nearly two pages of the five-page report.

Standard drug and alcohol tests came back negative for both pilots.

The midair collision -- one of just a few in the Anchorage area in the last 40 years, an aviation expert said -- sent wide ripples of grief through the community, touching friends of both families, members of the aviation community and students in school with the Beauregard children.

Between them, the two men had logged more than 20,000 hours of flight time. Both were flight instructors. Both flew with the Civil Air Patrol, said Mike Pannone, a former Civil Air Patrol commander.

"A lot of pilots knew these two guys," Pannone said. "Of course, the fact that we're pilots doesn't relieve us of having the same feelings as any other people when you start thinking this guy had his kids in the plane. That's a very tragic thing for all of us to think about."

Pannone, a pilot for about 40 years, is program manager for the Medallion Foundation, a nonprofit aviation safety group. As a rule, Medallion urges general aviation pilots to recruit passengers as lookouts for other aircraft in the area, he said.

"One moment of inattention in a particular sector of where you're supposed to be looking is all it takes," Pannone said.

The federal safety board should release its report of probable cause within a month, Johnson said.

I was up flying a little to the NW the day this happened and I had quite a bit of company from the radio traffic at Wasilla, Big Lake and Willow. Was actually a pretty nice day, weather-wise, to be out and around. Drove past the wreck-site the next day. I don't like flying through this area into Anchorage. Even though going into Merrill from the Pt. McKenzie side means a hop over the inlet I go that route.

Where this occured has multiple public and private airports within a few mile radius. There is also a jump school 4 or 5 miles to the West that was active that day. A lot of traffic transitions through the area on their way to the Knik and Matanuska glaciers to the ENE. Also there is transitioning traffic going to and from Birchwood, Merrill and points south of Anchorage. The season change was in progress and the moose and birds were all over that area. All in all a very busy airspace and prime conditions for distraction. I know my little daughter would have said "Hey look at that moose, bird etc." more than once flying through there.

I used to fly shrimping operations with a guy from Homer, AK that had survived TWO midairs. (in both cases the other pilots died). He eventually ponied up the money to put TCAS on his 185 as another "set of eyes". Once you get used to flying with TCAS, it's kind of scary knowing how many people are out there that never used to see.

Very sad...and a good reminder to keep our heads moving.

Thoughts and prayers to the families involved.

The problem with TCAS in the environment where this accident occurred is that there are a LOT of aircraft there with no transponder. TCAS doesn't help to avoid those at all, and in fact, could lull you into a false sense of security.

MTV

Very true. As stated earlier, we still have to be vigilant and keep our eyes outside the cockpit....regardless of what gadgets we may have inside.