N428DC PA-46-500TP window implodes - pilot missing . . .

Aviation Aviation News
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FlightAware Flight Tracker N428DC a Piper Meridian 500TP registered to Heritage Aircraft LLC of Indianapolis.

A plane crashed Sunday night in a wooded, swampy area in East Milton.

The plane, a nonmilitary craft, was found in an area near Lakeside Court and Lakeside Drive that can only be accessed by air or by water, Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Haines said.

“They have not located the pilot,” Haines said.

The single-engine Piper PA46 was about a 100 yards behind a residence on Lakeside Drive.

A search for the pilot continued early today.

The pilot reported that his plane’s windshield had imploded, and he was bleeding badly, Santa County spokeswoman Joy Tsubooka said in a statement late Sunday.

Communication with the pilot was then lost, and a military aircraft was sent to search for the aircraft, Tsubooka said.

The military aircraft witnessed the Piper go down about one mile north of Peter Prince Airport in Santa Rosa County, Tsubooka said.

The plane, which was registered to Indianapolis-based Heritage Aircraft LLC, was bound for Destin. It had taken off Sunday from Anderson, Ind.

The Birmingham News reported the plane was flying near Huntsville, Ala., when the pilot reported severe turbulence.

The plane’s pilot was incapacitated while flying over Alabama, and the plane likely was on autopilot until it crashed, according to a Federal Aviation Administration official quoted by the newspaper.

The crash was reported at 9:21 p.m.

Emergency vehicles lined Lakeside Court. About 20 Santa Rosa County deputies were there, residents said.

“My gosh,” said Betty Hyatt, 73, who lives on Lakeside Court. “My word. There must be a dozen lighted vehicles of all kinds.”

An Escambia County Sheriff’s Office helicopter was dispatched to the area to help search for the plane.

People who live along Lakeside Court stood outside late Sunday trying to see what was going on.

“There is really nothing to see,” Lakeside Court resident Timothy Viau said. “It’s off in the woods. If you came out here with a camera, there is nothing you are going to see.”

The FAA was expected to arrive in East Milton today to investigate.

news link

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What’s odd is our track log shows him at 3800’.

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Our tracklog??

Flight Aware’s tracklog shows 3800 feet. flightaware.com/live/flight/N428 … S/tracklog

I have seen descrepancies in my own plane where I will fly at 7000 yet Flight Aware will show I was level at 6900 (Mode C issues OR altimeter issues?) This particular flight shows a consistent 3800 feet which makes me think he was level 4000 on his altimeter.

Starting 10:12, looks to me the plane stopped moving based on GPS coordinates and 1:16 (last entry), the flight plan terminated?

I am surprised the flight shows arrived in the status and not “unknown”.

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Yes, our as in FlightAware, the site you’re on.

I’m not describing that it’s off by 200 feet. I’ve flown hundreds of hours enough in private aircraft to know that altimeter variations and Mode C variations can play that role. What I am pointing out is that the article has him level on autopilot at 2000’.

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Gotchya, thought you may have been looking at a different source when you say “our tracklog”

I am reading the above article, and don’t see any reference to 2000 feet on autopilot. Could it have changed since the posting here (robbreid’s text doesn’t indicate this either?) or on the “newslink” provided in the original post?

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Don’t sweat about it at all.

I started typing to quickly to realize that I was referring to the CNN article that I read before I got on FlightAware and is posted on in another thread. Sorry about that. Here is the link though for those who care for it…

cnn.com/2009/US/01/12/florid … index.html

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Looks like it’s all a hoax…

cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/12 … cial-says/

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Hope the breaking news is correct… Pilot spotted alive…

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Well dayem!!! From the same new source… Bad enough when two different news sources muck it up, but jeez!!!

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Wouldn’t ya know it was something like this…wow!

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I suspect he was seeking his own form of economic bailout. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Well, it appears the Pilot know’s how to fly, This is him.

- YouTube)

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Yep that would sound about right…can’t blame him too much, but I would’ve thought it through a little better…

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http://atgeist.com/blog/marc-schrenker-crashes-plane-no-body-found/

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OK, so nobody is dead so I can put the obligatory movie quote in now…

“We have a piper down. I repeat, a piper is down”

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Assuming the news reports are even remotely accurate (I have not seen the Youtube video), a perfectly good plane trashed.

We get bad enough publicity when we forget to close our flight plans and S&R is called out…

Sure will be an interesting read on the NTSB final report.

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Ba dum dum chhhhh!

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Summation of NTSB final report…

Pilot is an “El Dumbo Asso”

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I protest, that’s an insult to Dumbo! :stuck_out_tongue:

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I have a stupid non pilot question. The flight log show’s a steady altitude of 3800 ft. Then a steady decline of altitude and air speed until 200ft (Probably the 200ft difference that has been mentioned). Did it run out of fuel? I would think that the intent would be to have the aircraft run
out of fuel over the ocean. A miscalculation?