Originally Posted by
spoon84
They probably are even over Sumvitg over there. @FollowTheSupper, incredible that you found it on that panorama pictures. Well Done!!
Thanks for the encouraging comments spoon84 and PB… I will put it down to being a spotter in a previous existence! My apologies that as a newcomer I can’t post a few simple maps and images here, which might save a thousand words.
Personally, I believe that the approaching aircraft in the panoramic image, is actually well to the East of Sumvitg
, and so therefore if it is the JU52, and if it is heading towards the camera, it may have taken a more scenic, easterly-lying route than you have suggested.
My reasoning is this:
1. The ski-lift top-station at Mutta Rodunda appears in the panoramic image to be about 700m to the WNW of the camera, so the camera is probably near to the end of the rough track (which can be seen leading down from the station), perhaps at around grid 2736470mE, 1192300mN (approx. elevation 2360m). [Map coordinates can be found at the bottom of the screen on the excellent online mapping website, which was referred to in the link at post #157.]
2. The white cable-car mid-station building (referred to in post #168), which sits on top of the ridge (at a range of approx. 4km), appears to be at Crap Sogn Gion, at grid 2735550mE 1188650mN (approx. elevation 2210m).
3. There is an alp (or farmstead) vertically below the mid-station building in the image, on the near side of the valley (at a range of about 1500m). This has a building with a long, silver roof heading almost in line away from the camera, beside some slightly-red, levelled ground (or paddock?), and with a second building closer to the camera and slightly to the left, on the near side of the track. I believe that this is at Mughels, at grid 2736140mE, 1190960mN (approx. elevation 2000m). [The orientation of these buildings is clearly displayed on the map, if you zoom in fully.]
The camera and these other two positions should therefore be in a line, which passes through Piz Aul (range about 28km) on the map. The latter summit would then be the one seen in the image, immediately above the Crap Sogn Gion cable-car station. (Its prominence is supported by the fact that it is also the closest over-3000m summit to the camera, in that general direction.) The approaching aircraft is slightly to our right (i.e. to the west) of the sightline towards Piz Aul, which I would suggest puts it near to (or over) the relatively low (at 2063m) summit of Piz Mundaun (2731575mE, 1178270mN)... the north facing cliffs of which I believe can be seen below the approaching aircraft, and behind the cable-car cable. (The distance to the aircraft is very difficult to estimate, even roughly.)
Sumvitg on the other hand, is around 15km to the west of Piz Mundaun, and although the town itself is obscured in low ground, the bearing to it from the camera would pass through the cable-car top-station at Crap Masegn, at grid 2732830mE 1189390mN (approx. elevation 2470m). The latter is easily visible in the image, well to the right of the wooden post (also referred to in #168), where the wide gap in the distant skyline marks the course of the Upper Rhein valley.
Although I live roughly 100km SW from the crash site, I distinctly heard the drone of a JU52 passing on the previous day. The sound is fairly rare, but not unknown around here. Perhaps it was the same aircraft taking a different route on the outbound leg… or maybe it was a separate trip by a sister aircraft. Unusually, I was so busy that I did not interrupt my work, in order to pop outside and savour its fly-past.
I should therefore strongly echo G0ULI’s recent comments about loss and tragedy, which somehow didn’t appear as intended at the end of my earlier post.