G3 Down?

[Possum3]

Has anyone details of the G3 that crashed this morning somewhere in the States?

[ferrydude]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6556771/

[Possum3]

Thanks for that Dude.

[dwlpl]

Said to have hit an road lighting standard in fog on approach to Houston Hobby.

[FLEXJET]

Looks like N85VT, s/n 449
Approach RWY 4

Very sad.

The link to Houston Chronicle:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/2912983

[Flight Safety]

The crash site appears very close to the runway 4 centerline, about 1.5 to 2 miles out on approach. Controlled Flight into terrain perhaps (in heay fog)?

[hobie]

quote ....

"passenger plane that crashed along Beltway 8 this morning, killing all three crewmembers on board, was on its way to pick up former President Bush and fly him to Ecuador"

its a small World ..... :(

[con-pilot]

WX at KHOU at time of accident.

KHOU 221205Z 00000KT 1/8SM FG BKN001 BKN006 OVC055 22/21 A3001 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 1/2 $

Accident occured at 12:15 UTC.

[falconflier]

Operated by Business Jet Center at KDAL, apparently with a former and current chief pilot. RIP.

[Astra driver]

I heard that the glide slope for 4 was out of service at the time and it was a LOC only approach, currently HOU notams show the entire ILS OTS which is probably a result of the investigation, does anybody have anymore info on this?

[FLEXJET]

A precautionary measure after an accident like this one is to check the ILS, since it may have been a factor.
I am not sure it was notified U/S before the crash.

Here is a link to the ILS 04 APP chart:
http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/0411/00198I4.PDF

[CLDriver]

Astra Driver,

I heard the same thing this morning from one of the crews here at ADS, that the GS was down and it was LOC only. Wish I could go back and get the NOTAMS for yesterday morning and take a look.

Anyone know how to go back and take a look at old NOTAMS?

CL

[wes_wall]

This from todays AirWise -

Flight controllers warned a private jet on its way to pick up former President George Bush it was flying too low just before it struck a light tower and crashed in foggy weather on Monday, killing the three people on board, officials said.
Details:

http://news.airwise.com/stories/2004/11/1101290604.html

[Cowbell]

When I was driving in to work on Beltway 8 they were clearing some of the wreakage off the highway. Apparently small bits of debri hit some of the cars but no one on the ground was hurt.

Sickening sight.

[Flight Safety]

From the airwise link provided by wes_wall:
Flight controllers warned a private jet on its way to pick up former President George Bush was flying too low just before it struck a light tower and crashed in foggy weather on Monday, killing the three people on board, officials said.

The Gulfstream jet should have been at 1,000 feet (305 metres) altitude, but was at 400 feet (120 metres) when controllers radioed the pilots, National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Mark Rosenker told reporters on Tuesday as investigators from the NTSB and FBI probed the crash.

Shortly after the warning, the aircraft struck a 120 foot (37 metre) tower beside a Houston highway and crashed into a field.

Rosenker said conversations on the jet's voice recorder recovered from the crash debris gave no hint of trouble as the 12 seat aircraft descended toward Hobby Airport in Houston, where the former president lives.

I wonder why the pilots didn't act on the ATC altitude warning, or if they heard it correctly? Was there no GPW alert? If the Glide slope was out, the flight director should have shown a flag right?

I guess we'll have to wait and see. :(

[Astra driver]

It's not uncommon to get low altitude alerts from ATC on non-precison approaches as the computer they use to issue them works on a predictive basis, so, as a result you may be issued such an alert due to a high descent rate when in fact you are still above the segments' applicable MDA.

In this case it is pretty clear that this was not a false alert, but I'm just suggesting that the prevalence of these while on NP approaches may have led the crew to ignore it. It is also possible to get a false glide slope indication without a flag (although false glide slopes are usually found substantially above the real GS). In some cases this is why the GS is notam'd out of service.

I should also note that no one has said for sure that the GS was out of service and that it was a LOC only approach.

I admit that I'm really speculating here, we will find out what really happened when the reports are published, in the mean time I am going to check back here on a regular basis to see if anyone has any new info.

[Flight Safety]

Aviation Week has an article that came out today on this accident.


Aviation Week - G3 accident (http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_businessweekly_story.jsp?id=news/CRASH11294.xml)

[Astra driver]

Thanks for that flight safety, turns out I knew one of the pilots

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