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Socata TB goes missing over the Med

I agree.

BTW, it’s only now that I notice that the aircraft was the TB9 that was formerly owned by my beloved aeroclub in Italy. (It was apparently no longer theirs at the time of the crash, though). Also, for some reason, the accident is not on ASN.

Anyway, looking at it, I would say it’s very probably not a case of fuel exhaustion, because nobody in his right mind would fly from Cannes to Salerno and not top-off at Cannes (one because it is close to max range for the TB9, two because the fuel costs so much less in Cannes).

So, if he managed to switch tanks properly, then it was probably mechanical this time.

Last Edited by boscomantico at 28 Jan 18:51
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany
Le contrôleur d’approche de Nice a informé le CRNA/SE de la perte de contact radar
et radio à 15 h 31. Ce dernier a déclenché la procédure DETRESFA et a informé le
centre de coordination de sauvetage (RCC) de Lyon Mont-Verdun à 15 h 35.
Le RCC a informé par téléphone le centre secondaire de sauvetage (RSC) de Toulon
à 16 h 00, a transmis la zone probable d’accident et lui a délégué la conduite des
opérations de secours. Les recherches aériennes et maritimes ont débuté à 16 h 42
dans une zone de 5 NM autour de la dernière position connue et se sont terminées
le lendemain à 19 h 00, sans que le pilote ou des éléments de l’avion n’aient été
retrouvés.
Seule la roue du train avant a été récupérée environ un mois après l’accident, sur les
côtes italiennes à 130 NM du dernier point de contact radar connu

Not the speediest, perhaps, but not quite that slow either:

15:31 – controller raises alarm with CRNA/SE

15:35 – CRNA/SE escalate this to the coordination center in Lyon (RCC)

16:00 – RCC delegates SAR ops to RSC Toulon

16:42 – helo arrives on station and commences search

19:00 the following day – SAR called off, no trace.

About one month later – front wheel is found on Italian coast, 130NM away

Aside from the above – if you look at the radar track, I doubt this was any failure of the aircraft. Circling descent sounds more like pilot incapacitation to me.

Last Edited by 172driver at 28 Jan 18:24

The erratic track followed by a spiral descent could be pilot incapacitation. He never climbed above 1200’ since leaving Cannes.

Not the speediest, perhaps, but not quite that slow either:

What excuse do they have for wasting 29 minutes? Acceptable would be:

15:31 controller raises alarm
15:32 CRNA/SE escalates it to RCC Lycon
15:33 RCC delegates SAR ops to RSC Toulon
15:34 crew is in the the chopper, starting up

We pay them an awful lot of tax money to have SAR on standby 24/7 and to react quickly. If my local fire brigade (made up of non paid volunteers) starts the first engine 29 minutes after the emergency, we’d have a major scandal and legal consequences. The law in Germany requires an ambulance to reach any place in the country within 15 minutes after emergency and the expected average is 6-8min. That should be possible for SAR, too.

Last Edited by achimha at 28 Jan 18:37

Many mysterious things…

-if it was an engine failure, then why no distress call to ATC?
-if it was pilot incapacitation, then why a gentle, “controlled” glide?
-did you see the aircraft’s track before the problem started to develop? Even a PPL student doesn’t fly like that..

Last Edited by boscomantico at 28 Jan 19:09
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

The law in Germany requires an ambulance to reach any place in the country within 15 minutes after emergency and the expected average is 6-8min.

Great. Just don’t count on times like that in the UK or France, for that matter,

Even a PPL student doesn’t fly like that..

At 1000ft over high seas with strong, maybe gusty, wind why not? The deviations in course are only a few degrees each side of his average track and the “jumps” in altitude are due to the limited resolution of the altitude encoder. And in anything else but incapacitation, flying that circle does make no sense. He is already heading straight into wind, too far away from shore, so all he could have done in case of an engine failure would be to keep it straight and glide down. And tell somebody!

Last Edited by what_next at 28 Jan 19:30
EDDS - Stuttgart

This was originally reported as a UK pilot. Was it?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Quoteflying that circle does make no sense.

On check out flight PFLs, in both the UK and US, some instructors insist on a circuit – a friend in the UK , on his biennial “flight with an instructor” had to do a PFL again because he hadn’t flown a circuit, even he was on a successful approach to a strip. In an emergency, the pilot may do what he was taught.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom
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