N18LL Flight path: airliners.net/open.file/0905148/M/)
The above aircraft went down near Charleston WV last night. NORAD scambled F16s from Wisconsin and Michigan to follow this target. Combat Air Patrols were also reported as being activated over Washington DC and New York City (Source, MilCom: mailman.qth.net/pipermail/milcom … 12763.html ).
See also the following article, with reference to FlightAware: sundaygazettemail.com/section/News/200603187
Looks like (according to the track log) the altitude hold on the autopilot stalled it to maintain altitude when the fuel in the selected tank ran out.
Dbaker, I am curious. From the track log, did this pilot file for 27000 ft or did the aircraft climb to that altitude on the autopilot.
I fly a 2000 Saratoga 301 TC, and to climb that high would take 3 days if at all. since that airplane is non pressurized he had to be sucking pretty hard on his oxygen. probably ran out of O2!
Looks like the pilot iled for FL270 and made it up there in 19 minutes.
I’m a controller at STP and have talked to the pilot of N18LL many times. His BE56 was a souped-up Barron with turbo engines that could almost keep up with King Air. Sad day here in St. Paul.
We were watching it at ZDC. The fuel starvation point was estimated north of PSK with a projected path over ROA. Thankfully nobody on the ground was involved.
or Video on demand (left side)