Just touched down comment?

Just noticed that N97CM was noted “just touched down” at KPBX when it in fact flew into the side of a mountain killing all three aboard!
It does not pay to BUST minimums!
This was yesterday afternoon

I’m sorry to hear about this tragic accident.

It should be noted that FlightAware generally receives an arrival or flight plan cancellation notification when an aircraft is overdue and determined to be never arriving. There is no mechanism in place for indicating an accident and at this point, I do not believe that FlightAware is an appropriate medium for disseminating such information anyway, especially to family and friends using our service.

:blush: sorry, I did not think about that!

Just so you know, I was referring to the automated FlightAware interface as an inappropriate medium, you’re certainly free to discuss it here.

That said, the “Just touched down” message was a bug in the web interface and has been corrected. The message now reads, “Tenatively arrived” because of the questionable arrival time although that message may change in the future as we improve the software.

That said, The Center surely would not send a message that the flight had arrived when the aircraft was not even found until late last night.
Just curious ?
As An IFR pilot it kind of bothers me that could happen!

Don’t worry – here’s the series of major events as we know them:

  • 10/07/2005 16:15Z – Received Flight Plan

  • 10/07/2005 17:43Z – Departure

  • 10/07/2005 17:43Z – Normal Radar Track Begins

  • 10/07/2005 19:49Z – Flight Begins Decent

  • 10/07/2005 19:53Z – Normal Radar Track Ends

  • 10/08/2005 03:06Z – Arrival Received (for 21:23Z)

Your concern reminds me of this accident report in Van Nuys from 1996.

That is an interesting case, thanks for bringing it to my attention.
FYI The weather in the area at the flight planned time of arrival for N97CM was mountain top obscured. I am told the pilot had recently gotten his instrument rating, and that he had attempted the ILS 2 times. It will be an interesting read of the NTSB finding.