Fatal crash of a Beech 18S this morning at Flying Cloud Airport in Minneapolis, aircraft reportedly had just departed for Wisconsin when it attempted a emergency return to the airort.
startribune.com/local/west/5 … c:_Yyc:aUU
airliners.net/Gary Chambers photo
RIP.
Old planes are cool but I have a sort of warranted unease about the thought of flying a plane possibly older than my dad…
Tragic.
Not to discount the gravity of the situation, but I have to ask: What’s up with the pointy nose on that thing?
My thoughts exactly nano. I know people will argue that a well maintained plane is just as reliable as a new(er) plane, but I don’t know about that one. That reminds me though - last summer I was at our airshow (Charleston Air Expo) that they put on at our AFB every so often down here. I have a buddy that works in the tower at the base and he got me in the day before the show when they have a family day and a private airshow for the military. An old german somethingornother (C-47 maybe?) landed and the plane is smoking, oil was running out from below the engines - and it sounded terrible. Anyway, we walk over to it and the crew climbs out and I asked the pilot (I wasn’t even sure if he spoke English at that point) if he wasn’t nervous flying that plane from Germany to the US. He replied in a thick, almost unintelligible accent, “This plane is 60 years old and I’m 60 years old. She should be just as worried about me as I am about her.”
I flew a Beaver built in 1952 and had over 50,000 hours on the airframe. Still a good airplane
This plane sat outside Executive for months or maybe even a year or two and was missing an engine for a good portion of that time. I believe when it crashed it had not been run in about 4 months. The pilot was operating it on a ferry permit but yet still had a passenger; a young woman who spent her free time at the flight school next to Executive learning to fly and hitching rides with anyone who would bring her along. She was survived by a husband and a young child (don’t remember if it’s a son or daughter).
The pilot was enroute to Wisconsin somewhere to pick up two more passengers and bring them back. Again, on a ferry permit. The bad engine quit and he failed to maintain control in a single-engine situation.
A very sad deal.