Plane down in switzerland

[Fernando_Covas]

Sky news reporting an aircraft down in Switzerland.

Reports of many casualties.....

[ajamieson]

URGENT
Plane crashes in southern Switzerland; several presumed dead
SIMPLON, Switzerland (AP) – A tourist plane crashed Tuesday in southern Switzerland, police said. Several people were presumed dead.
The plane crashed at 3:40 p.m. (1340GMT) near the Simplon Pass close to Switzerland’s border with Italy, police in in the canton (state) of Valais said in a statement. It was unclear where the plane took off from and where it was headed, and how many passengers were on board. 231545 aug 05GMT

[Nerik]

Anyone knows whether that area is in the departure/arrival path of any airport?

[Rolling-Thunderbird]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6030575&cKey=1124812262000

[mach decimal 83]

ANY idea what type of aircraft at this stage?

[toomuchradiations]

people killed: 4

a/c : sigle engine

WX has been excluded as possible cause of accident

[Oshkosh George]

Single turbo. I guess a PC12 is favourite.

[mach decimal 83]

hi oshkosh

my suspicion as well, just did not wanted to be first to say. the fact that they witnessed a tailspin is what makes me think it might be a 12 as well, maybe slow flying, entered a stall, overridden the stick-pusher.......

[ComJam]

Brilliant deduction 83! Well done..... :hmm:

Now, would you care to describe the characteristics of a "tailspin", tell us how you know they were slow flying, stalled and over-road the stick-pusher?!

No..........thought not.

We really don't need idle specualtion about this sort of thing, muppet.

[ramrise40]

There's a pic of the wreckage on the home page of the Blick -Swiss 'Sun' - (www.blick.ch) doesn't look like a PC12 to me more like a Cessna. In deference to Danny no condolences.

[sir]

The picture is of a second crash in which a 60 year old Danish pilot survived the crash of his homebuilt.

The original crash of this thread sadly led to the death of all 4 persons on board the aircraft.

I can't see a report as yet which mentions the type involved - "about the size of a cessna" has been mentioned.

[d2k73]

We really don't need idle specualtion about this sort of thing, muppet.

Ok take a deep breath and............ relax!

[Deeko01]

The picture in the swiss webiste refers to what looks like a 4seat Long Eez called an Opus 3 apparently, the reg on the aircraft says OY-CYZ, here is a picture of this at Kemble:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/395108/M/

Sad whatever aircraft or whatever happened same result.

:(

[ATC Watcher]

Sad day ,
not relevant but curious looking at the airliners photo :
Does someone knows why all the VariEze type a/c are often parked with their nose gear retracted ?

[Konkordski]

The picture in the swiss webiste refers to what looks like a 4seat Long Eez called an Opus 3 apparently, the reg on the aircraft says OY-CYZ, here is a picture of this at Kemble


'OY' is a Danish registration - the reports I've seen say the aircraft involved in the accident is Czech-registered. Are you sure the registration isn't prefixed 'OK' rather than 'OY'...?


*Edit to add: Flight International website reporting that it's a C172 registered OK-HOF.

[IO540]

Given the seemingly random mixture of metres and feet in the elevations on the Swiss "ICAO" chart, their relatively good accident rate is a testimony to good training.

[smarthawke]

The various Rutan-derived machines retract the nosewheel when parked so as to make it easier to get in (and out of them and help them stay where they are when it's windy).

[GrahamCurry]

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=144766

[cubflyer]

Long Ez type aircraft retract the nosegear when parked so they are less prone to tip over backwards when parked without the wieght of a person or two in the cockpit. You have to get out first and you have to lower the nosegear a put the aircraft back to normal configuration before getting in!

There were two seperate crashed. The Cessna crashed in the simplon pass, the Opus force landed in the Furkapass apparently after encountering severe downdraft. The pilot of the Opus suffered a broken leg but is otherwise ok.

The OPus was returning from the EAS fly-in at Raron, not sure which day. I tried to return from there last Sunday, but had to turn back due to bad weather in the Lake Geneva area- it was still nice in the Raron valley. Going back to get the aircraft tomorrow!