An OK-registered TL 2000 “Sting” vanished from the Austrian radar screens on Thursday (Sept 17th) and was found only yesterday morning (Sept 19th) in the “Schladminger Tauern” mountain range. Both occupants were killed. According to media reports (German only, including pictures), it may have been brought down by heavy winds after multiple attempts to cross the mountain ridges.
This reason may well be true, although it makes one wonder
It also shows that METARs are insufficent for judging the actual flying conditions on a day like that, given how localized weather phenoma can be in the Alps. Of the METAR-reporting airports in the vicinity, only LOXZ (Zeltweg military air base) mentions Foehn, although with fairly benign winds:
METAR LOXZ 170920Z 20014KT 40KM FEW050SC SCT160AC BKN300CI
24/12 Q1009 TEMPO 22014G28KT RMK FOEHNWALL SW/BKN=
METAR LOXZ 170850Z 22014KT 40KM FEW050SC SCT160AC BKN280CI
24/12 Q1009 NOSIG RMK FOEHNWALL SW/BKN=
METAR LOXZ 170820Z 21014KT 40KM FEW050SC SCT160AC BKN280CI
24/12 Q1009 NOSIG RMK BKN=
LOWG (Graz) and LOWS (Salzburg) have nothing in their reports:
METAR LOWG 170920Z VRB02KT 9999 FEW050 SCT220 20/18 Q1008
WS ALL RWY BECMG FM1030 23007KT=
METAR LOWG 170850Z VRB02KT 9999 FEW050 SCT220 20/17 Q1008
WS ALL RWY BECMG FM0930 23007KT=
METAR LOWG 170820Z VRB05KT 9999 FEW050 SCT220 21/16 Q1008
WS ALL RWY BECMG FM0900 23007KT=
METAR LOWS 170920Z 14005KT CAVOK 26/10 Q1002 NOSIG=
METAR LOWS 170850Z 15007KT 100V180 CAVOK 27/11 Q1002 NOSIG=
METAR LOWS 170820Z 15013KT CAVOK 27/10 Q1002 NOSIG
LOWI (Innsbruck) has the characteristic Foehn winds, but is much further to the west:
METAR LOWI 170920Z 15016G32KT 080V250 9999 FEW070 SCT300
27/10 Q1002 NOSIG=
METAR LOWI 170850Z 12013G27KT 040V200 9999 FEW070 26/11 Q1003
NOSIG=
METAR LOWI 170820Z VRB16G30KT 9999 FEW070 26/10 Q1004 NOSIG
Note: This shouldn’t imply that the pilots in this case relied only on METARs. I thought it interesting to point it out to pilots with less local experience.
I went flying the day before this accident and noted that there were SIGMETs out for the whole day warning of severe turbulence due to Foehn in the Munich FIR for an area starting at N048 and everything South. This covers a region beginning just South of Munich and basically the German side of the Alps.
Don’t know the status on Thursday but based on the weather we had in Munich that day (very high temperatures due to Foehn) it may well be that further SIGMETs would have been published.
I saw that SIGMET too, and I wonder why anybody would fly into that with a light aircraft, let alone an Ultralight … That’s really begging for trouble. …
It’s not too long ago I flew to Zell am See on a day with only light “Foehn” and although the SR22 is the SEP with the highest wing loading i flew into some really nasty rotors when I descended over a ridge into the valley. But since I alwys do that I crossed the ridge at an angle to be able to get away from it quickly if necessary. I do not want to imagine what that would have felt like in an UL …
