Unreported light aircraft accident
 

I saw this information from the AAIB yesterday and realised that there must have been a serious accident..

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/a...12-august-2021

Looking around the news - both national and local - there didn't appear to be any coverage. My interest being various aquaintances who fly in that area.
As reporters are normally onto events like this pretty quickly I wondered what was going on?

Press probably busy being distracted by events in Plymouth. Maybe no injuries(hopefully) or even serious damage but a potential airworthiness issue requiring the AAIB's attendance?

I heard Cap.10 G-BXBU calling Dunkeswell for assistance "stuck in cloud" en-route to Watchford Farm airfield yesterday morning.
A few minutes later it appeared on virtual radar squawking 7700 at around 7000 ft.
The pilot contacted Exeter Radar and was given instructions to descend to 2600ft and turn on to a heading of 220 degrees which would take the aircraft towards Exeter for a landing.
The aircraft was seen to descend to 2500ft on virtual radar - but the heading did not change and it appeared to continue on a north-easterly track until the plot disappeared from VR.
Exeter Radar called the aircraft several times as did two other aircraft but there seemed to be no response.
The cloud base at Exeter was around 500ft at the time so Dunkeswell, and probably Watchford Farm, would have been well into the murk.

While this was happening there were 2 Red Arrows Hawks circling East Devon. Red 5 had an undercarriage problem. Exeter were preparing for the Hawk to make a precautionary landing.
Exeter ATC had a busy morning!

Oh dear that doesn’t sound good - Taunton is Northeast of Exeter…:(

Sky news is reporting 2POB, no survivors.

RIP

Yes - very sad.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-58194887

What a tragic outcome. RIP.

It can be hard to have death on frequency even if you don’t see the gory bits in full technicolour so best wishes to Exeter ATC and a reminder to seek CISM or other diffusing mechanisms.

Heard this begin to unfold on guard as he put out his pan call. Was at 7500ft at that point, stuck above the cloud base. Presumably with little/no experience IMC. Tragic for everyone and their families

The full story will come out in due course, but the weather was cr*p - we couldn't see the Reds depart Exeter due to low cloud and poor viz. I would have thought Exeter would have been the safest option, but from the trace, they don't seem to have tried. Very sad outcome and a lesson for the future.

Buckland St Mary is a few miles east of Watchford Farm
Flightaware shows 3 minutes plotting when it was at 4,200 feet & 207 mph, which suggests rapid descent for a Cap-10
Also FlightRadar showed a descent rate of 3,000fpm
LOC in IMC

Get your IR(R) boys and girls, it will save your life one day.

and fit an auto-pilot with a wing leveller as a minimum. That will decrease workload massively on entering IMC.

I am intrigued how nothing as been heard about this incident in the past 10 days. An Urgency call that goes wrong, that must have implications for ATC. Nothing in the press, no names locations etc!

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/266686

G

Curious about what you mean by the emboldened phrase?

AAIB report here...

:(

Thread drift here but very relevant to the topic.
There is one way and one way only if you have no choice but to fly in cloud to get down, for example. You dont need the required IF instruments or IR rated for this. Anyone know?
I await a response with interest. I'll give it a while, if the correct answer is not forth coming I will tell you. This action is not taught at flying schools that I am aware of.
This action could have saved their lives and countless others also I am convinced..
I tried to extract a response to this question years ago. I was dismayed it took so long.

Some aircraft will not maintain a steady descent if trimmed, then left hands-off. The Jodel DR1050s would enter a spiral dive when tried in VMC. At least the 3:examples I flew.

Hands off. There is a hint there