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PA46 Malibu N264DB missing in the English Channel

Airborne_Again wrote:

The CAA is not investigating the accident.

I am aware of that but did not find anything on the AAIB website. The CAA would pass on confidential information to the AAIB wouldn’t they?

always learning
LO__, Austria

Or just put in on here, they’re bound to be reading it

EGKB Biggin Hill

Very likely

plus signups by known journalists OTOH getting an acknowledgement is a good thing; I sent some stuff about the SIA chart notation to the BEA regarding this and while I got an ack from the very guy heading it (after I sent the email twice) they totally ignored it in their report, which I thought was “curious” because it was so clearly a possible reason.

There is an interesting bit in today’s paper:

So Mr McKay did not own the plane. We don’t know who owned it. Well, SAC (the trustee) owns but but we don’t know who the beneficial owner is. It is best to not speculate here on who owned it, due to the allegations of dodgy maintenance…

The rest of the article goes on about the PA46 being affected by ice (no sh*t sherlock) and needing competent maintenance (really?). But they do have a point; if you are going to use a PA46 to its capability then you can’t just buy some old heap and run it into the ground, like you can do with say a Cessna 182.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Timothy wrote:

Or just put in on here, they’re bound to be reading it

Sorry, too sensible to get public without the investigators already contacted checkin it.

Last Edited by at 27 Jan 18:27

It occurred to me that pretty much from the start the concensus was ice – while it is definitely a possibility, it is interesting how everything else seems to have been excluded. It seems surprising given the aftercast such an aircraft would have been overwhelmed.

It will be interesting to see how the pilot faired on at his last FAA biennial and whether it was on this type. There are a limited number of people doing these in Europe and it would seem it was relatively recent. It would also seem that the pilot would have had an EASA proficiency check, assuming his licence was a based on, for his FAA licence to be valid. It would be interesting what type that was conducted in. In both cases it is my experience there will be some discussion about the type of flying you do, and a review of your flying in that context. I am not suggesting this is always the case, but it is good to see, where it is. If the pilot was occasionally conducting this type of flight then it seems possible that might have been discussed. Often the examiner will have a good idea of the type of flying you do as well, if he is locally based and knows the pilot and the aircraft. Of course this will be reviewed as part of the investigation. I am impressed that the AAIB will often talk to many parties involved. I flew a little with a person who was sadly killed in a flying accident and I had an extensive conversation with the AAIB about the pilot which was good to see and I think was helpful and insightful.

In the UK you are required to contact the police after an accident/forced landing outwith an ATC airfield. Nothing to do with crime. They were my first call after a no-injury accident. They co-ordinate the emergency response, and someone will likely have phoned them.
There is no reason why his biennial check should have been in that aircraft. There are good reasons for the checkride being in an aircraft the instructor is familiar with. Most of my flying has been in tailwheel aircraft. My last instructor checkride in a tailwheel was in 1965.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

Well, the icing theoy was very prominent here, no wonder the journalist picked it up, flimsy as it may seem now

Biggin Hill

Peter wrote:

We don’t know who owned it. Well, SAC (the trustee) owns but but we don’t know who the beneficial owner is. It is best to not speculate here on who owned it, due to the allegations of dodgy maintenance…

Well, actually it’s quite easy to get a copy of the Trustee / Trustor contract directly from the FAA as it is routinely scanned into the aircraft’s Registration archive file.

I get these files usually in just a couple of hours from a contact in OK City .

FAA A&P/IA
LFPN

The comment “I’m on a plane that looks like it’s about to fall apart” means nothing. That’s something I’ve heard a lot from passengers who have flown with me in perfectly fine light aircraft. It’s something you expect to hear from someone who’s not used to light planes.

The other one, “it took four attempts to take off”, I wonder what they mean by “take off” as journalists use the term “take off” extremely vaguely. Countless times a flight has been cancelled before even starting the engines and news report it as an “aborted take off” which means quite a different thing as we all know…

EDDW, Germany

I agree. Might have been 4 attempts to start the engine. Which is not unusual for a turbocharged piston.

always learning
LO__, Austria
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