Prime Air 767 Down, 3 Aboard

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/breaking-amazon-prime-air-cargo-plane-crashes-with-3-passengers-aboard-in-southeast-texas/70007527

 

Very sad. N1217A.

 

They are reporting a three mile long debris field.

 

Correction they are reporting a three mile long crash scene. They were able to obtain video of the crash as well. Said the plane was in a steep descent and didn't appear to try to recover.

 

Here is the aircraft-to-ground communications.

 

Looks like they had not even reached the line of thunderstorms yet, but downwind of cells can get pretty nasty.

 

My first thoughts in my old head is the incident with an L-1011 at Dallas (I think) that caught in a micro burst . I saw several in Florida and I think that I got caught in one on my PPL exam.

 

Would seem that a microburst is a likely cause, but that far ahead of the squall line?

 

Two of my pilot friends agree on the micro burst theory.

 

I'd go for cargo displacement.

 

App called out weather near VANNN, which is a waypoint on the 26L IAP's. The flight was headed directly towards VANNN up to the point where they started to rapidly descend, at which point they also turned left.

 

Would an old 767 like this, that spent almost all of it's life with foreign airlines (Canada, China, LOT, etc) prior to freighter conversion have had doppler microburst radar?

It was built after the mandate of doppler on US planes.

Doppler was mandated after the L-1011 microburst crash in Dallas (1985) that Bob referenced above... planes prior to that had no doppler to detect microbursts.

Don't know if foreign registered aircraft typically had doppler... or if it would have / could have been installed when it was converted.

 

Video taken from a jail a mile or two away shows the plane in a steep descent and, per the NTSB, doesn't show the plane even trying to recover supposedly. Would a microburst cause the plane to go into such a steep nose down descent? Asking as I genuinely have no idea, not to debate.

 

I flew in a United 767 that passed through a squall line descending toward LGA near the end of a flight from DEN in 1988. We bounced around a lot for about 8 minutes; all you could see outside was a constant gray. But I was never worried about the integrity of the airplane (maybe because I worked on its design).

 

Nose down for the amount of time it was in that state that is. The flight tracker showed it plummeting for quite some time.

 

They got some additional film from a camera and it showed the aircraft intact and descending at a very steep angle to impact. I even thought of a crew incapacitation from inhaling something, but that seems a stretch.

 

I'm a 767 Captain at Big Purple out of Memphis. Been in severe and routinely in moderate to heavy moderate turbulence. The Boeings handle it remarkably well, albeit no fun. Undeclared hazardous material/dangerous goods, which can lead to smoke/fumes/fires are a freight pilot's biggest concern. Watching how this unfolds with keen interest. I don't think it was weather related, but you never know. No radio transmissions during the rapid descent to my knowledge. Fair skies and tailwinds to the crew.

 

It will be very interesting to see the full inventory of what these poor souls were transporting. I often think about the cargo guys...God only knows exactly what is in some of those containers, irrespective of manifest descriptions. Peace.

 

Suicide? Do we know who the third person was? Check pilot, deadhead pilot, or other supernumary?

 

It's been reported that he was a deadhead Captain with Mesa Airlines n the jumpseat.

 

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2019/02/boeing-767-300-n1217a-fatal-accident.html

This makes it more human and tragic, pictures of real people now deceased etc with a comment section. So sad.

 

Security cam footage caught it headed straight down.

https://www.click2houston.com/news/video-shows-cargo-plane-moments-before-crash-at-trinity-bay

 

"Permission denied"

 

Here's a yahoo who claims the crash was a hoax! What's disturbing is that, in the comments below, a lot of other yahoos believe him!