Yorba Linda - 414rs down

Definitely a mid-air explosion. 1 dead in the airplane, 4 in the house.

 

Two doors from my aunt and uncle’s home! They had debris in their yard.

Only a block or two from our family house long ago! Heard the engine fell there!

SV

 

Wow, horrific video.

 

I had to watch the video about 5 times to find it. Look low on the screen far away a little to the left.

 

ABC evening news stated pilot was a retired Chicago police officer (?). Horrible event...

 

here is an audio clip of it from a security camera, you can hear the engines rev at extremely high rpm then it breaks apart.

 

That is eerie.

 

Heart attack?

 

or more like spatial disorientation in the cloudy weather?

 

Why the mid air explosion? Or at least a large fireball.

 

If the wing failed, fuel would suddenly be mixing with engine heat and turbochargers and hot exhaust... could make a pretty good fireball. There is also an issue on twin Cessnas where an exhaust leak can burn through the wing spar, with similar effects.

 

Had not heard of the latter. I was primarily looking at it historically. Of all the GA single aircraft accidents how often does one explode or light itself off in a catastrophic way mid flight? First one I recall.

 

What took the tail off? That's kind of weird.

 

An engine landed quite a ways from the main impact. That thing came apart when it was still a ways up.

 

No, it's the first one you (and I, for that matter) have seen video of it happening. Not to say it hasn't happened before. Inflight breakups happen regularly-- I wouldn't say frequently, but multiple times per year. Usually as a result of overstress due to pilot action-- loss of control, come out of the clouds pointing straight down, haul back on the yoke, break the tail or wings.

In this case, the wings and engines clearly separated from the airplane, so I don't think there is much doubt that the fireball happened as a result of the gasoline and hot engine components and exhaust coming together. You, of all people, should know how hot turbochargers can get...

 

I know in flight break ups happen as you say but just had never heard of or seen this outcome. So many are caught on camera because everyone has one anymore still had not seen a fire like that.

 

Does the 414 have a janitrol heater in the rear cabin area?

 

I've read of several instances where a windshield failure (birdstrike?) at speed on a GA plane caused such an instantaneous high pressure in the cabin that it blew the tail off. Bonanza was one of them.

 

Probably from the plane over speeding, did you hear the audio of the engines revving at very high rpm? He prob had a heart attack or forgot blue side is up in the clouds causing spatial disorientation, when he tried to pull up it ripped the wing right off.

 

I don't know about the 414 specifically, but those things always seemed a bit scary to me.

 

Not saying it couldn't happen, but this was at low altitude and relatively low speed. Also the 414 is a pressurized airplane so the cabin is designed for higher internal pressures.

 

I didn't see this video posted yet.
https://video.nest.com/clip/64a943efd2854b6bbabf56d7b337d5ab.mp4?fbclid=IwAR1T1QnZMKvZktpLfrK7-vjWZweUqmk55VE8iwkfUHYuhFILdWwMt0JPRtE
Appears the plane was in a dive and tore it self apart before impact. almost looks as if the more dense engine hit first, then the rest of the a/c comes through the trees after. Disorientated in IFR conditions?

 

Thats quite a film.

I saw one looked like earlier version with fireball low on horizon but with better res. You could see aircraft before fire headed downhill very fast. Looked near straight down. I am guessing that was when motors revved to the moon.