Plane down...

[bjornhall]

Yesterday I was up on a training flight from my home base, Göteborg - Säve airport (ESGP). Coming home in the evening I saw the news that a plane having taken off from the same place a couple hours before I did had gone missing over the sea; small pieces of wreckage had been spotted. The pilot is missing.

By now I know that it's an Ikarus C42 that I have seen in the air a great number of times, shared the pattern with during many training flights, that shared the same hangar as our club's planes, and that I flew in once as a passenger... :sad: :(

Last time I saw it in the air was during my first solo flight the other day; it took off just after I did. Landing after my flight yesterday I saw them preparing the local SAR helicopter for flight, but I had no idea of the reason, or that there even was a reason other than regular training...

We read and hear about accidents all the time... But it does come a lot closer when it's a plane you've seen so many times, and even flown in.

Feel really sorry for the pilot's family, and also for his club members... Must be terrible.

:(

[stocker]

You have not had a great responce here. I suggest you post this on the Nordic forum and you may fare better.

[DX Wombat]

bjorn, I know just how you feel. On Sunday I heard that a light aircraft was missing in the Highlands. On Monday I learned that it had set off from Halfpenny Green and my heart sank. I have many friends who fly from there but one name in particular sprang to mind. I hoped I was wrong and it wasn't amyone I knew. A selfish thought maybe as whoever it was was someone's child / friend / partner. You will probably have read the thread by now so you will know that it was indeed Gary, the person I had first thought of. It does hit much harder when it is someone you know or, as you say, an aircraft with which you are familiar. RIP.

[bjornhall]

Thanks, I think I already got a great response! What can one really say about it anyway?

The wreckage has still not been located, but the weather at the time gives a strong hint as to what might have happened. Visibility was 6 - 7 km in mist, locally down to 3 km and 500 ft cloud base. I was flying in roughly the same area a few hours later (but we remained over the archipelago!), and although the weather had improved with 7 - 8 km vis all around and NSC, it was still very hard to make out the horizong when looking towards the sea. The radar recording shows the aircraft diving steeply into the water at high speed.

A more remarkable thing about this accident was that although the pilot did file a flightplan, it appears overdue action was not taken until three hours after its expected arrival time. There will be an internal investigation into that particular aspect. Since this was an ultralight the Swedish AIB will not investigate the accident itself... :mad: