It was flying VFR. Reg is G-ZOGT.
This is tragic. I fear there will be no happy outcome in these temps. If he was scud running, he was probably below safe deployment altitude. What’s the lowest deploy altitude of the CAPS?
I would not have done that trip in a single myself. In winter, over a long stretch of water like that, you have no options left in case of malfunction. And with icing, it doesn’t take engine trouble to get you to a point where there are few options left.
Two or three survived between 300 and 400 feet, … but CAPS will help exactly zero when you land in ice cold water. You’re dead before the helicopter is in the air
VFR across the North Sea in January into severe icing…… I rest my case :-((
Peter wrote:
TKS is no good for a long flight like this
The FIKI system on the Cirrus is certified for flight into known icing. The system is complete…wings, vertical stab, elevator, prop and windshield can be treated during flight.
Endurance for the system, now indicated on the Cirrus Perspective MFD, is increased to 150 minutes at Normal flow rates, 75 minutes when High is selected, and a new, Max rate has been added affording a total of 37.5 minutes of anti-ice capability, in two-minute bursts, during periods of higher accretion
http://cirrusaircraft.com/innovation/known-ice-protection/
Still, a prudent pilot will not challenge extreme conditions or push the envelope of foul weather – not even in such a sophisticated aircraft.
OTOH, if the 0C level was 5000ft, why crash?
VFR in IMC. Very lethal.
“FIKI” in a SR22 should rather be seen as “approved for climb/descent through moderate icing”, it is not a tool for “flying in (severe) known ice”.
And whatever, this was a completely unprotected SR20, a type that cannot be flown into any icing.
The maximum, ultimate and maybe one of the most deadly mistakes he could have chosen …
Peter wrote:
But for sure the “freezing rain” is nonsense below the 0C level.
Not at all. Actually you do need a layer of plus temps in order to get freezing rain. We get situations like that quite often where you have a 4-5k ft freezing level and then a cold air lake on the ground. Obviously there was no forecast of that, hence the Sigmet
Peter wrote:
OTOH, if the 0C level was 5000ft, why crash?
If he was in cloud he could have been iced up and lost control or tried to descend to regain VMC, however with the reports, that does not sound like a good idea.
Still, the cloud layer was lower than 5000 ft, so he could have been scud running over the sea and lost visibility and flown it into the sea. the ATC recording says last contact was at 300 ft. Weather was reported on the recording 1355 120/14 080v150 1300Br OVC002 02/02 988, several search flights reported OVC 002 at the search area.
Definitly no-fly conditions for VFR.
But even with FIKI severe icing can quickly kill you.
Exactly. This is the definition of “severe icing”: “The rate of accumulation is such that deicing/anti-icing equipment fails to reduce or control the hazard. Immediate flight diversion is necessary.”
What puzzles me is that the weather report cited above gives severe icing only from GND to 2500ft. A whatever Cirrus with only one person on board should be able to climb quickly above that altitude.
I am not sure where exactly it crashed and what its path was but in that area or at least south of it class A starts at 1500ft.
If he was flying vfr .. It is possible that he had to descend.
Also, There is a very strange weather pattern currently over holland where in a range of maybe less then 20 miles the temperature drops about 5 to 7 degrees. This is causing a lot of havoc on the roads and in north east Netherlands people are actually scating on the street because of the ice on the streets.
