So it has happened again. Another 'unbreakable' plane has gone down today during the enroute phase (i.e. not during the approach / landing phase). This time it is a TBM west of Lyon. Not even 12 months ago, a PC-12 went down over Jura, also with fatal consequences, in what seems to be similar circumstances.
Although no report is out on the PC12 accident yet, a striking common feature is that the weather has been quite bad in the area of the accident. Large CB/TS areas in what seems to have been the flight paths. No one knows if these accidents are related to inflight breakups, icing/stall/spin, engine problems, pilot incapacitation etc, but weather seems to have been a factor. Last year, there was the other Pc12 that went down in Florida also in an area with widespread TS.
For the PC12 accident from last year, check the archives on meteox.com and sat24.com on 24 Aug 2012 at 18:15 local. For today's TBM accident, check same archives 8 Aug 2013 (obviously) at 9:30 local. This should give you an idea of what I mean.
So needless to say, just a word caution, if in doubt about bad weather penetration go around it at safe distance... Especially as even the 'unbreakables' can go down. And hopefully we can keep the negative press that keeps feeding the perceived image of dangerous GA flying to a minimum.
Fly safely.
The SAT24 IR image alone for today suggests CB tops at/above the TBM ceiling of ~FL300.
A TBM or PC12 ought to see the stuff on radar from a long way off.
Does anyone regard a TBM or a PC12 as unbreakable? They have very few in-flight breakups compared to the light GA types but then I would expect that given the far better build quality of these $3M+ planes, and having radar - even if the pilots were no better than the average light GA PPL holder.
Any info on the TBM e.g. radio calls?
I agree they should be able to see stuff from far away with their onboard equipment.
But my point is that even these planes that normally are equipped with onboard radar, stormscope, potentially weather downlink, deicing AND are of a much better build quality and generally considered as more 'unbreakable' than the normal spamcam... can get into serious trouble enroute which I assume in this case is weather related.
I don't know the reason for these accidents (I'm not even sure there was inflight breakups), but believe it's worth noting that these top of the class turbine single engine planes also have to be vigilant. Sometimes when speaking to people one get's the impression that these are just in a completely different (and untouchable?) league when it comes to weather capabilities.
Haven't seen any further news re radio calls etc.
Is it clear that weather was a factor? It may have been. Could also just have been CFIT. I doubt anyone would think any plane is untouchable including CAT. Having better capabilities does not mean it is impervious to weather or human error.
OK, a bit of change of circumstances... apologies...
Early news suggested he was enroute, hence my concern of encountering too nasty enroute weather even for a TBM. There has been further news recently published suggesting they were going from Paris to Biarritz BUT with an intermediate stop at Clermont-Ferrand to pick up further passengers. And this happened during approach.
So, this one can very well have been a case of CFIT... Sorry for early speculation. Let's wait and see for further news.
