Originally Posted by
PPL Hobbyist
The evidence that I have cited above suggests to me that they ran out of fuel some time during the approach and they stalled.
From a news report about the fuel status of the plane:
The plane took off from Louisville with 310 gallons of fuel, more than enough to reach Yeager. There was no explosion at impact. The fuel tanks for the Short 330 are on top of the fuselage. Some of the fuel did leak a the site. The state DEP and West Virginia American Water Company were contacted about the possibility of the spill reaching the Elk River. The spill was contained and didn’t reach the river, officials confirmed Friday afternoon.
WV MetroNews Bodies removed from crashed cargo plane; Yeager Airport closed
From the LiveATC.net link I posted above the plane did not appear to do any holding on arrival at CRW prior to vectors for the VOR-A approach.
Originally Posted by
PPL Hobbyist
Edit: Another thing I failed to mention: What looks like full flaps and gear down would have caused a stall very quickly.
Gear down and at least partial flaps would be a normal configuration to cross the final approach fix for a circling approach in most planes, I would guess that is the case for the SD-330. It is indeed a high drag configuration with little altitude for recovery if you do stall. But, you are in that situation every time you land a plane, right?