Small plane crashes at Flint, everyone survives

WJRT-TV: Plane crashes at Bishop International Airport in Flint

Unfortunate loss of an aircraft, thankfully everyone walked away. The aircraft seems to be a P180? Hard to tell on my phone.

Yes, it is a P180 that appears to have been operated by Avantair as later that day Avantair flew 2 more P180’s into FNT (one from PWK to presumably pick up the pax and one from their base in PIE).

I can’t find the flight in question. If it was going from PIE to “some place in Wisconsin” then I wonder what the reason for the diversion to FNT was.

One of the pictures on abc12.com shows tail number N168SL but I don’t see anything about KFNT or any airports in St. Petersburg, Florida or West Bend, Wisconsin in its flight plan. All this site says is it was last used on December 27, 2010 for a flight from MWCR to KHOU.

Here’s a way better news article from The Flint Journal. They were near KFNT because they had a stopover at KDTW but had an engine failure.

Plane that crashed at Bishop airport was Piaggio Avanti P-180, company said

Here’s a good picture from The Flint Journal.

That will buff right out.

They had an engine problem and diverted to KFNT. They lost control on landing and flipped the aircraft upon leaving the runway. Note in the photo that one prop is feathered while the other engine appears to be missing all its prop blades, usually indicative of that engine running at the time of the rollover.

Perhaps they lost control when they pulled the operating engine into Beta or reverse and lost control due to asymmetric or differential thrust?

Sad for the loss of a beautiful aircraft but cheered that all got out relatively unscathed.

Already a thread on this - notable-activity/small-plane-crashes-at-kfnt-all-4-passengers-survive-t13885.html

Also, posting the entire text of newspaper articles is a copyright violation.

The flight number to search for would be VNR168.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thanks, so the article was incorrect when it stated that the aircraft was coming from St. Pete

Correct. It was enroute from KDTW to KETB when it experienced an engine problem and diverted to KFNT.

The airport spokesman has saved the NTSB, FAA and everyone else a lot of time & money. He already determined the cause to be pilot error secondary to the pilot landing too fast.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20111117/METRO/111170420/1409/metro/4-hurt-in-Flint-plane-crash

According to airport spokeswoman Pat Corfman, the incident occurred at about 9:30 a.m. on runway 1836.
“We had a general aviation aircraft divert to Flint after it lost one of its two engines,” Corfman said. “It was carrying four passengers on a flight from St. Petersburg, Fla., to Wisconsin. The pilot came in too fast, lost control and flipped.”

And he’s a doctor:

“…although two of the victims are not speaking, which might be from shock.”

Maybe they’re the pilots and airport spokesman Corfman could learn from them!

Latest update:

Report says turboprop that crashed at Bishop Airport had separated wing

Any NTSB report? What is AIN’s source for that info? Anyway, will be interested to read the NTSB Fact/Final reports.

NTSB Preliminary Report:
ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief … 1506&key=1

Postaccident examination of the accident site showed the left wing was partially separated outboard of the engine. The forward fuselage, including the left and right canards, was fragmented. The empennage, aft of the rear bulkhead, was partially separated from the fuselage. The left propeller was found in the feathered position. The airplane was recovered for further examination.

:unamused:

Secondary to engine power loss and a not so good landing.

When ya flip an airplane on the ground, you should expect a wing or two to separate.