525 down in Lake Erie

I believe that date is actually when he received the CJ4 type rating, not his PPL.

 

I wish people would stop relying upon Katherine's Report; it is really badly fact checked.



Mark

 

It's just a compendium of links and quotes. I don't think they claim to do any fact checking, so you need to judge the credibility based on the underlying sources-- which are easy to identify.

In the case of this accident, very sad. RIP.

 

I think it is the best source of "immediate" reporting on an aviation incident based on eye witness or video. The pictures, links, videos, are all there. And in a sad way, when there are fatalities, they bring in the human element showing who these lost souls were. Of course it is the nature of news reporting to be sometimes very inaccurate.

 

I'm not sure why this is such a big story. Lots of small pieces and a passenger's bag apparently washed up over the weekend.

 

Apparently this was the equivalent of a $100 hamburger run, but in a jet flown by the owner. Other than the 'cool' factor it would have been quicker (door-to-door) to hire a limo to travel between Columbus and Cleveland to watch the Cavs. RIP

 

Looks like about 100 miles?

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N614SB/history/20161229/2200Z/KOSU/KBKL

 

RIP Very sad.
J

 

NTSB Posts Preliminary Report on Cleveland CJ Crash | Flying Magazine

Weird. VFR. Do CJ's, like their single engine piston relatives, have seat lock issues? Or could there have been a gust lock still in place?

 

The ceiling was somewhere around 2600' that night. My wag is he got distracted for some reason, kept climbing through his assigned altitude and flew into the water.
A VFR departure to the south from rwy 24 at bkl has you turn right and cross midfield at 2000'.

 

I wondered why he turned right out over the lake.

 

Kathryn's report has some good info here as cut and past illistrates:

An initial review of Air Traffic Control (ATC) transmissions between the pilot and the Midwest ATC Federal Contract Tower at BKL revealed that the pilot requested the IFR clearance at 2247, followed by the taxi clearance at 2251. At 2256, the pilot informed the BKL tower controller that he was holding short of the runway and ready for takeoff. The controller subsequently cleared the pilot for takeoff and instructed him to turn right to a heading of 330 degrees and maintain 2,000 feet msl after departure. The pilot acknowledged the clearance. After takeoff, the controller instructed the pilot to contact departure control; however, no further communications were received from the pilot. After multiple attempts to contact the pilot were unsuccessful, the controller initiated search and rescue procedures.

later report

According to the NTSB report, the air traffic controller at Burke Lakefront Airport cleared Fleming for takeoff at 10:56 p.m. and instructed him to turn right and maintain an altitude of 2,000 feet. Fleming acknowledged the clearance. After takeoff, the controller told Fleming to contact departure control. Fleming didn’t respond.

The report said position data indicated the plane reached an altitude of approximately 2,925 feet, nearly 1,000 feet higher than what the air traffic controller had instructed. About five seconds later, the plane quickly descended. The final data point was recorded at 10:57 p.m., showing the plane’s altitude at just 775 feet.

More:

CLEVELAND (AP) - The pilot of a plane that crashed into Lake Erie last month received his certification to fly that type of aircraft just 21 days before the fatal crash, according to the National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report.

Federal Aviation Administration records indicated Fleming purchased the plane in October and the most recent maintenance activity occurred on Dec. 17.

The records also revealed Fleming did not become certified to fly the plane until Dec. 8 when he successfully completed the FAA practical test. His initial Cessna 525 training was done in the accident airplane. He then completed a simulator-based recurrent training course at FlightSafety International on Dec. 17.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Go back to Kathryn's report link and read the comments at the bottom of the page. People post there, like here and Pilots of America.

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2016/12/cessna-525c-citation-cj4-n614sb.html

 

He was straight out of Flightsafety. That's not good for their reputation. Sounds like he got distracted and was behind the plane. Easy to do in an unfamiliar plane. I chalk this one up to exceeding personal limitations prior to competency. Night with (relatively) low ceilings and a new plane are not a good combination. RIP

 

It's not that complicated. Sure, there may have been some sort of mechanical failure, in which case the NTSB will duly let us know.

Assuming there was not, the facts, as known are:

1) The weather was quite nasty. Fairly low ceiling, high winds, icy, and no doubt quite bumpy.

2) The departure is challenging. You have to make a sharp turn, level off early (only about 30 seconds after takeoff in a jet), and keep the speed down to 200 knots.

3) The pilot was very inexperienced in the CJ4, and from what anyone can tell, in jets in general (although he did own and fly a Citation Mustang for about a year). This may have been his first solo trip in the CJ4, in fact.

4) The pilot did his type rating in the airplane, then went to a recurrent at FlightSafety. He did not do a full type rating course at FlightSafety.

5) On this takeoff, the airplane overshot the assigned altitude by 1,000 feet.

So, knowing all these facts, where does this lead us?

To a bumpy, nasty departure, in darkness. A somewhat unfamiliar cockpit. A very short amount of time. Oh, crap, look at the altitude! Why isn't the autopilot on? Look at the speed! Turn... get back down, pull the power back... airplane going everywhere in the bumps... wham.

I'm glad it wasn't me.

 

Has there been any info released from the CVR?

Was there a FDR on the plane?

Has the wreck been found? Understand it may be in many pieces... pretty hard impact.

 

It had a CVR, and a FDR was an available option. They recovered three of the six bodies and the CVR, but there's no mention of an FDR in the preliminary report, so it likely didn't have one.

https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20161230X91745&key=1

 

I saw that they have suspended the search, for bodies, at least.

Weather and water conditions are poor. Visibility in the water is measured in inches.

 

I'm not an IFR rated pilot and I was going over in my head what I would do in this situation and all I can think of would be compass, rate of climb, altimeter, airspeed. I know about the VSI and some of the other gadgets but Don opened up a much clearer description of how things gang up on you when you are behind the airplane . I have a better understanding of what it's like. I remember an pilot's mantra, " Don't let the airplane get to the destination before you do."

 

Many autopilots will kick off in heavy turbulence. They just can't keep up. I've always thought single pilot jets were a bad idea in most cases.

 

They just require a different kind of pilot...

 

I don't think it has an FDR, although I don't know if that has been confirmed.

The ProLine 21 avionics package in the CJ4 keeps track of a whole bunch of parameters, and stores them on a datacard. Not an FDR, by any means, but still a lot of information. I believe they did recover the datacard.

 

I just read they recovered the CVR and the ELT transmitter.

No mention of a FDR.

Also parts of 3 seats with 3 sets of body parts.