Sad, RIP. OTOH, I’m – positively – amazed that anyone got out of that wreck alive, let alone with only minimal injuries as is the case with the other child here.
Really sad… probably front seats occupants sustained fatal injuries.
This is really the worst horror story that such a wonderful „hobby“ can write. :(
Somehow this accident doesn’t let me go, so a friend and I decided to fly the NANIT RNP Approach into LOWZ yesterday and I taped it on my GoPro. Attached screenshot is us approaching the missed approach point in a DA40 (we assumed a humble 2,5% climb gradient for our a/c) – at 5400 ft. It is high. The valley to the front and right is where the missed approach track goes to. To the left of the airfield (covered by the mountains in front) is the city of Zell and the lake.
Thanks, I was gonna do the same. A turbo cirrus would have absolutely no problem to climb over terrain if the missed approach is initiated at the point shown in your screenshot.
Most GA planes would have no problem either – so long as icing is not an issue.
That is an interesting view. Looks like he just flew straight into the hill with little altitude gain. I read that he was pretty familiar with the airfield so he would have known that a left turn to the lake, right fork for the missed or steep climb over the top would have been needed. Pretty tragic incident.
To me it looks like he started a MA from +/- the rwy threshold and crashed along the extended upwind leg
Yes, it will be interesting to see the terrain picture at MDA/MDH over the threshold
Also, at the MAP, even if you become VMC (with ground, etc) there is literately no way you can spot the runway in low visibility given the day conditions, so it was simply a hopeless approach…
Based on that picture, it looks to me like he went below MDA to find the runway. Does the Garmin provide vertical + V guidance on this approach – I would think not? I suspect he flew it in APPR mode and tried to do a 3D approach using +V or flew using the LNAV/HDG and controlling ROD with VS mode and trying to put the flight path marker on the end of the runway. Then at some point when he didn’t see the runway tried a super late go around.
Given the weather he must have known he wouldn’t see runway at the MAPt so will have had a plan to get in. A very poor bit of decision making with tragic results.
