C-310 down in Icelandic waters

[BigginHillBoy]

A Cessna 310, apparently a ferry flight from Greenland to Iceland, is down 50 miles west of Keflavik airport (BIKF) Last call made by the pilot indicated he lost both engines and had to ditch in the freezing cold sea. Nothing is known as for what´s the cause for this but Icelandic coast guard was said being searching the crash site.

Lets say a prayer for this fellow pilot.

[Leatherhelmet]

http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2008/02/11/flugmanns_leitad/

Rough translation:
The C-310 which was registered in US, was on its way from Narsassuaq Greenland to Reykjavik. At 16 PM the pilot reported that one engine had shut down and he could not pump fuel from one tank to another. Soon after that he reported that the other engine had shut down and he was gliding at 7000 ft.
A search is ongoing by trawlers, helicopters and planes some 50 miles off coast.

[VariEze]

There is an thread on Airliners.net with more info.

http://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviation/read.main/3840107/

[corsair]

Indeed, I remember staying at the airport hotel at Rekyavik once and being woken up in the pre dawn -5 by a Cirrus warming the engine prior to continuing a delivery. 'Better you than me mate' as I snuggled up in my warm bed.

Hopefully there will be a happy ending.

[MungoP]

I have a huge respect for the guys that do this on a regular basis.. I've made a dozen or so crossings via the northern route, all but two were in winter...but always at least in a turboprop... even then I've come close to not having the luxury of being around to fill in my log-book at the end of the day... On the one time I contracted to deliver a piston single (december... a home built) from France to the Mississippi the engine began destroying itself at night 50 miles out from Wick... turned out the engine had been constructed from bits of different engines... I made it... many of these poor guys don't... and it's not as though the money is great either...

[robbreid]

Possibly this one http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N5030Q

http://ottspotters.com/ Note afew singles crossing today.

[Mungo Man]

Any news on the outcome..?

[TheAviator9]

Any news here?

Would be interesting for me, we will fly also in a 310 next year northatlantic.

Regards

[wsmempson]

It isn't Robert Weaver, is it?

[cldrvr]

wsmempson

It isn't Robert Weaver, is it? Not unless he's got a timemachine, he was barely 13 when this 310 went down.

[Mark 1]

Probably this (http://www.rnf.is/media/skyrslur/2008/NTSB-N5030Q.pdf).

Not a good outcome.

[PLovett]

The lineman performing the refueling in Greenland reported that he had started fueling the left main tank and was stopped by the pilot when he had filled the tank with 69 liters of fuel. The lineman was told to fill both tip tanks and fill the right main tank to bring the airplane's total fueling service to 240 liters (about 63.4 gallons).

Now I don't know if I am reading this correctly or not but it seems to me to suggest that someone didn't know what they were doing. The main tanks on a C310 are the tip tanks, not those located in the wings. The only figures I have are for a Q and an R model but their tank capacity is about the same, a total of just over 610 litres with auxiliaries holding about 240 litres.

A flight plan of approximately 4.5 hours at a conservative 110 litres an hour will require full tanks for the barest minimum reserve. With the C310 it is essential that you burn at least 1 hour and preferably 1.5 hours from the main tanks before switching to the auxiliary tanks. This is because in the Cessna any excess fuel to that required by the fuel metering units taken from whichever tank is being used is returned only to the main tank. If you are using the main tank then all is ok, however, if you are using the auxiliary tanks and you haven't made room the excess fuel will be vented overboard. This is not a good look for someone wanting maximum range and it has caught out more than one pilot in the past.

[Lurcherman]

This happened in 2008!
A bit late for further speculation.