The pilot did have a CO monitor so I doubt CO poisoning is the cause.
I have never flown with a small baby on board, but I can imagine it can cause distraction. i.e. the baby crying / pain in the ears / etc.
I have flown the exact same route multiple times and I remember I was circling over Brig to climb to 10K feet before entering the Simplon valley.
It looks like this ill-fated flight entered the valley with insufficient altitude. That could be a planning issue (wrong interpretation of the needed altitudes), distraction or pilot incapacitation.
Noe wrote:
How is CO poisoning dependent on altitude? Are you confusing with Hypoxia?
Obviously it’s a bad interpretation on my part
it is really sad to hear a baby was on board. We often fly with two kids (a 1 yr old and a 4 yr old) in the Swiss region.
sometimes it can get very distracting with kids but then I just hit the ISO switch on the intercom and let wife deal with it.
All we know is that the aircraft seems to be too low at the mouth of the valley. Why did he fly at 4-5k feet for almost 60nm and only start climb at the mouth of the valley? Who knows.. I dont think this really has anything to do with engine management or Arrow not climbing etc.
We dont know what caused this accident of course. It is though to me an important reminder on how vital is proper planning.
God bless their souls.
Obviously don’t know if that were the case, but sometimes one does not want to fly at maximum height possible (IIRC class C starts at 130 there), because it can be much more fun to fly in the valleys than above all the terrain.
I certainly have done it, but after a bit of training with a mountain instructor. It is obviously less safe than flying at FL100 or so, but it is a very different experience and a lot of fun. If we only looked at maximising security, we’d all take the train or CAT.
Noe wrote:
I certainly have done it, but after a bit of training with a mountain instructor. It is obviously less safe than flying at FL100 or so, but it is a very different experience and a lot of fun
Depends who you fly with and what is the purpose of that flight?
Doing it for fun (preferably alone) one would take load of risks but turning back will be the default 2nd choice, the 1st choice is getting as much you can to terrain 
here 8’300 or 8’000 feet is perfect! The mountains on each side are 10’500 not need to be 13’000 …
Down below it is quickly complicated for someone who does not know the region.
The air above the wings and in the tanks is useless.
“Speed is credit, altitude is cash”
Gigicret wrote:
I hope he did not fly in QNE
I wonder if this might be a real possibility.
The elevation for the departure airport is 2,041ft. If the pilot departed on QFE by setting 0ft at the threshold (as is common in the UK) and forgot to reset it, it would explain why they entered the valley at 2,000ft below where they should be.
It’s easy to see how a young baby might suffer ear problems with the climb, and crying etc could cause a distraction that might make the resetting to QNH an issue that the pilot only noticed once they saw the pass.
Obviously all without any evidence to support the possibility.
Would the pilot have had other ATC contact along the route, where they would have been passed a new QNH on first contact (it would have been a prompt to reset the pressure setting, making this explanation unlikely).
Having seen the pass, would there still be room to turn around, or is it very narrow?
dublinpilot wrote:
make the resetting to QNH an issue
I find this hard to believe that this is due incorrect altimeter setting in blue sky? (while a main cause for CFIT in IMC), without having to rely on external references you end up having to look at altitude/height information from various sources: GPS, SD, GTX…in addition to QNH altimeter reading from nearby aerodrome (you can blame this new paranoia on “UK CAS busting” thread )
it would explain why they entered the valley at 2,000ft below where they should be.
Would it, though? I can see why having QNE set might have caused this (depending on the QNH on the day) but how having QFE set would do so is lost on me. I would have thought it would place them 2,041’ higher than they thought. I am probably having a brain failure, please explain for a dimbo.
He crossed all the LSGS CTR, so he had a QNH and his announced altitude had to match his flying altitude …
