We have really disturbing news of a possible (likely) mid air collision in the region of the Julier Pass on Saturday.
A glider, which had taken off in Amlikon, was reported overdue by the airfield. A search aided by readout of FLARM data allowed the Swiss Air Rescue to locate the glider on Saturday still in daylight conditions.
On Sunday morning, the remains of a Robin DR400 were found about 1 km away from the crash site of the glider.
All occupants (the glider pilot plus 4 in the Robin) have perished in the accident.
The Robin had departed Neuchatel and made a stop in Samedan, where it departed at around 1720 LT. The accident occurred around 1729 LT according to a spokesperson from Flarm.
Unfortunately a quite rare Robin 250 President also crashed over the weekend. Not sure the reason but may have been an EFATO. This type may have had the problematic Continental TIARA engine?
RobertL18C wrote:
Unfortunately a quite rare Robin 250 President also crashed over the weekend. Not sure the reason but may have been an EFATO. This type may have had the problematic Continental TIARA engine?
Yes I saw that accident on ASN. F-HRDM is indeed a HR-100/250TR which would indicate a Tiara engine.
Do most gliders nowadays have PowerFlarm installed, or are there many still flying with “pure” FLARM devices?
Rwy20 wrote:
Do most gliders nowadays have PowerFlarm installed, or are there many still flying with “pure” FLARM devices?
I’d say they mostly do have normal Flarm devices.
Terrible! I did also pass Bivio and the Julier Pass on the same day, on approach towards Samedan a few hours earlier. It gives me goosebumps now by thinking of it. There was extremely much turbulence around Bivio and the Pass at my altitude (9.000 ft). May both pilots and their passengers rest in peace.
What height AGL were they flying?
Peter wrote:
What height AGL were they flying?
Difficult to say. It was reported that there was a cloud cover there, so below that, which probably means between 1000 and 2000 ft over the pass. So approximately 8-9k ft AMSL
Frans wrote:
There was extremely much turbulence around Bivio and the Pass at my altitude (9.000 ft).
They said there was a ceiling there at the time of the accident. Do you remember how high it was?
Also turbulence may well be an indicator, extreme turbulence would be a massive distraction and could also lead to altitude loss or gain. Possibly that they did not see each other due to that.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
They said there was a ceiling there at the time of the accident. Do you remember how high it was?I took following picture around Savognin from the cockpit before reaching the Julierpass. I would say around 10.000 – 11.000 ft. The pass itself was free of any clouds. I passed there around 14:50 LT.
Also turbulence may well be an indicator,
I flew along that route, coming from Samedan, at the same day around 1300LT in 8000ft. It was turbulent and the up- & down drafts were pretty remarkable, and it didn’t turned calmer in the course of the afternoon….
