Cirrus down in Kefallinia Greece - 2 dead

[Kyprianos Biris]

A couple of Israeli Cirrus aircraft flew yesterday afternoon (for an evening landing) from Kos LGKO to Kerkira LGKR, Greece.

Departure was at 1644z from Kos (sunset at 1711z).

Cirrus reg. 4X-CWN got (presumably) in to weather trouble in the area of Kefalonia LGKF and crash landed in the mountain of the island.

The other aircraft (reg. 4X-CWO) diverted due to weather to Athens LGAV.

The wreckage with the 2 deceased was found early today morning by SAR helicopter.

Yesterday's weather for Ionian sea islands:

METAR's:
LGKF 281900Z 32009KT 8000 FEW015 SCT018TCU BKN020 16/12 Q1010=
LGKF 281800Z 20010KT 6000 FEW015 SCT018TCU BKN020 17/14 Q1009=
LGKF 281700Z 19012KT 5000 BR FEW015 SCT018TCU BKN025 17/14 Q1009=
LGKF 281600Z 18012KT 9999 FEW018 SCT020 BKN080 17/14 Q1009=
LGKF 281500Z 16015KT 9999 SCT018 BKN080 17/13 Q1009=

LGZA 281850Z 20010KT 7000 SCT008 FEW018TCU BKN030 16/14 Q1009=
LGZA 281750Z 18012KT 7000 SCT008 FEW018TCU BKN030 16/13 Q1009=
LGZA 281650Z 19018KT 8000 SCT010 SCT018TCU BKN030 17/12 Q1009=
LGZA 281550Z 18016G27KT 9999 FEW010 SCT018 18/13 Q1009=

LGKR 281850Z 12004KT 9999 FEW012 SCT160 13/10 Q1009 NOSIG=
LGKR 281820Z 16004KT 9999 FEW012 SCT160 13/10 Q1009 NOSIG=
LGKR 281750Z 16004KT 9999 FEW012 SCT160 13/10 Q1009 NOSIG=
LGKR 281720Z 14006KT 9999 FEW008 SCT080 14/10 Q1009 NOSIG=
LGKR 281620Z 07008KT 9999 SCT008 FEW018CB SCT025 BKN080 13/11 Q1009 BECMG TSRA=
LGKR 281550Z 06008KT 6000 -RA SCT008 FEW018CB SCT025 BKN080 12/11 Q1009 BECMG TSRA=
LGKR 281520Z 05005KT 8000 -TSRA FEW007 FEW018CB BKN025 12/11 Q1009 NOSIG=

TAF's:
LGKF 281700Z 2818/2903 16015G25KT 9999 SCT020 BKN080
PROB40 TEMPO 2815/2824 6000 RA
PROB30 TEMPO 2815/2821 3000 TSRA SCT010 FEW018CB
BKN020 BECMG 2816/2818 27015KT=

LGZA 281700Z 2818/2903 20015G25KT 9999 FEW015 SCT025 BKN070
PROB40 TEMPO 2815/2824 6000 RA SCT015 BKN025
PROB30 TEMPO 2815/2821 3000 TSRA SCT010 FEW018CB
BKN020 BECMG 2816/2818 27015KT=

LGKR 281700Z 2818/2918 15020KT 9999 FEW020 SCT030
PROB40 TEMPO 2818/2824 6000 RA SCT015 BKN025
PROB30 TEMPO 2818/2824 3000 TSRA SCT010 FEW018CB
BKN020
PROB40 TEMPO 2910/2915 6000 RA SCT015 BKN025
BECMG 2910/2912 22010KT=

[Kyprianos Biris]

An article on the accident
Israeli couple found dead after light plane crash in Greece - Haaretz - Israel News (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1081824.html)

[vanHorck]

I wonder if they used the CAPS chute at all.

Inclement weather, other plane diverted..... CFIT ?

Go on, shoot me for asking the question.....

[Fuji Abound]

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG


:zzz:

[Kyprianos Biris]

VH I don't believe you're asking anything more than the obvious but as usual it is too early to tell and it would be unwise for someone to answer on them at a so early stage :oh:

I just got some more info. on the incidents:
No night flight was involved.
The 2 a/c departed IFR from LGKO, destination LGKR.
4XCWO near Korinthos reported urgency and asked permission to return and land in Athens LGAV International which was done with success.
4XCWN continued, and managed to cross Peloponnese with inclement weather conditions though. When CWN was in the area of Kefalonia, it was decided to return and land at Zakinthos LGZA due to weather.
After an hour though the aircraft departed VFR for the 120nm flight to Kerkira LGKR. The departure was at 16.44Z radio contact was lost 7 minutes later and the crash site is some 30nm NW of LGZA inside a ravine of Kefalonia's ~5,600ft high Ainos mountain which rises steeply up from the seashore

Ainos mountain is right on the LGZA-LGKR (direct) route.

Kefalonia has also other rising terrain (of lower peaks) that can "trap" you if you go inland scud running below low cloud on a bad weather day and don't stay over the sea. Even with a route above the sea, but close to the island, there are still terrain traps because of the large Argostoli bay and Ithaka island to the east.

http://www.kefalonia-ithaca-hotels.gr/el/images/Kefalonia_Map_final.jpg

The weather yesterday was comprising of a NE moving front from SW.
The humidity of the Ionian sea rises on the mountains of the islands, cools and hence brings adverse effects both on the windward & leeward sides.

Greece from above yesterday:
MODIS Rapid Response System Subset - Europe_3_03: 2009/118 - 04/28/09 (http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/index.php?subset=Europe_3_03.2009118)
The front can be clearly seen to the NW over the Ionian sea.

Something else ...
LGZA had the following operations hours for Tuesday 28/4:
03:30-04:30, 07:30-09:00 & 15:00-17:30 UTC
I can only guess that a "contributing factor" for the pilot to depart Zakinthos LGZA is that he did not want to get stranded there because the next day (today) LGZA is open only between 15:30-17:00z (18:30-20:00L) whereas Kerkira LGKR is H24.

[IO540]

The 1200Z ascent data (http://weather.uwyo.edu/cgi-bin/sounding?region=europe&TYPE=GIF%3ASKEWT&YEAR=2009&MONTH=04&FROM=2812&TO=2812&STNM=16320) from Brindisi (nearest I can get to Corfu) suggests more or less IMC up to a few thousand feet.

Put this together with the embedded nasties in the weather data posted, this could have been another N2195B i.e. a plane probably getting out of hand in an embedded TS.

It could also be a straight CFIT resulting from a poorly planned VFR flight in IMC but - assuming the pilot actually got the weather - would one fly in IMC with this stuff around? I guess some people do.

[007helicopter]

May have been En Route to the Cirrus European Fly in at Elba this weekend which I will be attending, very bad news and week either way. The weather so often seems to be the dominant factor.

[A and C]

The whole area did not look to bad yesterday afternoon but the view from FL370 might not show the whole picture.

As for Elba........... a wonderfull island but don't go in high summer, the island might sink under the weight of all the tourists.

[007helicopter]

Confirmed that sadly they were en route to Elba

[Kyprianos Biris]

Further info. from Ionian islands local (Greek) blogs:

http://atsarantos.*************/2009/04/blog-post_257.html
http://atsarantos.*************/2009/04/blog-post_5946.html

???????? ?????? ?? ??? ???????????? ??? ???????? ??????????? ??? ?????????… ??????? ???????? - Nikiana Lefkada (http://nikiana.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/%CE%B2%CF%81%CE%AD%CE%B8%CE%B7%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%BD-%CE%BD%CE%B5%CE%BA%CF%81%CE%BF%CE%AF-%CE%BF%CE%B9-%CE%B4%CF%8D%CE%BF-%CE%B5%CF%80%CE%B9%CE%B2%CE%B1%CE%AF%CE%BD%CE%BF%CE%BD%CF%84 %CE%B5%CF%82-%CF%84/)

http://mpostani.*************/2009/04/blog-post_2590.html

The image you see is the predicted path of the aircraft according to witness reports.

Residents of Kefalonia villages Simotata, Lourdata & Mousata west abeam the Ainos highest peak of 1620m (see map above) heard the aircraft and the subsequent crash sound. They reported it to the authorities and volunteers went up the mountain for search in adverse weather conditions.

While SAR aircraft (C-130 & Super Puma helicopter) kept searching in other areas, the wreckage and the deceased were later found by the pedestrian volunteers up in the mountain in an area to the west of - and just below of - the mountain's peak. The aircraft did not make it (to cross the mountain) just for a few meters.

Also from a friend ATC with information from Athens ACC: Both aircraft encountered (and reported) icing at FL100 during their IFR flight from LGKO to LGKR. The one diverted to Athens, the other pursued for Kerkira LGKR. The one which continued, descended below airway MEA (10,000ft) declaring urgency. In the lower altitude it crossed mountainous Peloponnese and abeam Zakinthos through bad weather.
In Kefalonia area they decided to divert for Zakinthos. The rest is as reported in the other post further up.

[IO540]

The 3 shorter links are not working for me.

I guess several things could have contributed to this:

One should not fly these types (or my TB20) in IMC below 0C for extended periods enroute. Eventually you will pick up ice, and around Greece they get some serious embedded convective stuff. This is why I bang on about getting cloud tops and scrapping the flight if they are likely to be above the aircraft ceiling, and this applies to both VFR on top, and IFR. A lot of pilots do fly through fronts and just get chucked about but some don't make it.

No VFR aviation charts are available for Greece - apart from the 1998 U.S. ONC G3 etc series. Of course these will show terrain. But you have to buy them from specialist outlets. It would not totally suprise me if some pilots don't carry them.

The majority of pilots even today don't know about the wide range of internet weather sources.

There are also pilots who - and this is very evident to me from some crashes we talked about here in the past - probably did not look at the weather before they went.

[Fuji Abound]

Eventually you will pick up ice


I agree, but dont forget unlike almost all the TBs these aircraft may well have been fitted with ice protection. While Cirrus now supply an approved system for FIKI the system on these aircraft would have been designed for inadvertent ice encounter. However, comparing the two systems, so long as the encounter is not protracted and the pump is working the system will do a pretty good job of keeping the ice at bay. Of course if the encoutner was severe and protracted it would have been a different matter.

[IO540]

The average Cirrus has zero ice protection - as has the average TB20. I have a TKS prop but that was a (regularly fitted) factory option only on the GTs (year 2000+). It works jolly well in keeping the prop and the front window clear but flying in IMC for long periods enroute is still not my view of fun.

I think in this accident something rather more basic happened.

[Kyprianos Biris]

The 3 shorter links are not working for me.

Yeap pprune adds asterisks to the b l o g s p o t . com part (without the spaces)

[dirkdj]

Just one week ago there was a fatal SR22 crash in Morocco, 4 belgians died. Likely bad weather too.

[Fuji Abound]

The average Cirrus has zero ice protection - as has the average TB20.


I am not sure you are correct.

Since Cirrus introduced wet wings, tail and prop. apparently very few owners havent taken them up on this option. You see few SR22s in particular without this system fitted. Whilst until recently it was non approved (and the approved system has a larger tank, dual pumps, screen spray bar and a high speed flow setting) the previous system worked very well for "inadvertent" encounters; I have no doubt more than a few pilots use it when they expect to encounter ice. Of course whether or not these particular aircraft had it fitted I dont yet know.

A wet prop would clearly be inadequate and is really not very much help in the sort of conditions that might have been prevailing at the time but Cirrus have never gone the route of offering stand alone prop. protection - it is either full airframe or nothing.

When I have encountered ice a wet prop. is of very little help reducing only the time in which to make your escape, however the Cirrus wet wing system works very well. Diamond use an identical certified system on the 42. I had occasion to remain in icing for well over an hour and the sytem dealt with the ice that accumulated before it was turned on very well indeed and prevented any accretion what so ever - just dont forget to turn off the bar before starting the approach!

[Pace]

Fuji

A wet prop would clearly be inadequate and is really not very much help in the sort of conditions that might have been prevailing at the time but Cirrus have never gone the route of offering stand alone prop. protection - it is either full airframe or nothing.

Fuji

A wet prop is of vital importance especially in a low powered aircraft. The loss of thrust in an iced up prop is a major factor in icing accidents.

I may be wrong but I do not believe the Cirrus is approved for flying in icing conditions.

The system is a get you out of trouble addon rather than an approved for icing package offered on the Cirrus.

Pace

[Turnberry]

Heard Athens ATC attempting to get two-way with the aircraft on 121.5 while we were returning from Sharm el Sheikh Tuesday evening.

Western Greece/Ionian was pretty unstable with isolated CB stretching from Kalamata to Brindisi, Italy.

[Kyprianos Biris]

kefaloniapress.gr - ? ???????? ??? ???????? ??????... ???? ???? (http://kefaloniapress.gr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5681&Itemid=152)

Some pictures from the crash site.

[Fuji Abound]

Pace

A wet prop is of vital importance especially in a low powered aircraft. The loss of thrust in an iced up prop is a major factor in icing accidents.

Forgive the frustration, but I think we have grasped that much. A wet prop. may well save you in icing until you can escape the conditions but, (and this was the point I made) it is not a lot of help when the ice starts to rapidly accumulate elsewhere.

I may be wrong but I do not believe the Cirrus is approved for flying in icing conditions.

You are wrong.

Cirrus now have full approval for their system albiet in the variant now fitted. As I said, there are a number of differences between the approved package and the non approved package - the ability to select a higher flow rate, a larger reservoir, a contents guage, and a screen spray bar.

I have not used the approved system on the Cirrus, only the non approved variant, but the Cirrus approved system is identical to that fitted to the 42 which I have also used. You would not want to be in the type of icing conditions which required the use of full flow for long whatever system you had, personally I can tell very little difference between the spray bar and the prop. slinger in actually use, and while a contents guage is more than useful, we seem to manage with contents guages that dont work on another vital components of aircraft without too many problems! The smaller reservoir on the non approved version is an issue, but otherwise I suspect the non approved system works very nearly as well in the type of conditions that you owuld be prepared to accept - not that I am recommending using any non approved system for intentional ice encounter. I suspect the size of the reservoir was the single most limiting factor between the two systems.

Edited to add:

Difficult to tell whether the aircraft had the tell tale titanium strips from the photo. In any event I suspect if icing had been the only cause of this accident the chute would have been deployed - but that is purely speculation, which I am against.

In general the chance of ending up on a high peek surrounded by low terrain following a loss of control due to ice or for any other reason is statistically remote compared with CFIT.

[Rod1]

Not much left.

[Kyprianos Biris]

These are the witness reports according to
kefaloniapress.gr - ??? ???????????? ?? ?????????? ??? kefalonia press ?? ??????? ?????? ?? ?? ????????? (http://kefaloniapress.gr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5670&Itemid=38)
moments before the accident that were being communicated to the on line newspaper staff as they evolved, times are Local :

20:15~20:20 Telephone calls regarding a "weird" plane flying low maneuvers above Mousata village houses making a lot of noise.

http://www.kefalonia-ithaca-hotels.gr/el/images/Kefalonia_Map_final.jpg

20:25 similar telephone reports by Lourda village residents

21:00 sms message from Simotata village resident regarding a loud bang above their village

21:15 the authorities are mobilized and there is also a sea search under way from nearby vessels with flares

[Non essential events]

01:59 the pedestrian team on the mountain reports aircraft wreckage found

[Non essential events]

For the record, the LGZA departure was at 19:44L the sunset was at 20:11L hence official VMC/VFR day terminated at 20:41 L

Regarding the on going Icing discussion; in this case it does not seem to have been an icing case. The aircraft was maneuvering at low level for quite some time in and out of IMC (presumably), disorientated (again presumably) with decreasing day light and very close to high rising terrain.

The really sad thing is that Kefallinia LGKF airport is just 8nm WSW of the crash location with no terrain between it and Ainos mountain.
If the pilot was in control of the situation, in VMC and could have seen it an emergency landing would have saved the situation. The airport was open 08:00-09:30 & 20:00-21:45L (i.e. lights on) that Tuesday, during the time the sad events took place. It has a lit runway, a VOR on site but no Terminal Radar to help.

[englishal]

I think the Cirrus is a fantastic aircraft and I'd love one.

But there is one seemingly common factor amongst a lot of the Cirrus accidents - pilot experience and weather. I wonder if you get a lot of inexperienced pilots with enough money to buy one of these aircraft and then they don't really appreciate their or their aircraft limits? I know for a fact that in one recent incident the pilot was barely out of PPL (he trained with someone I know who has held a PPL for less than a year), yet apprently decided to try a flight that I would not have done VFR.

Mind you, you get this in all aircraft (ref: PA28) , it is just I wonder whether the avionics / AP's / whatever may "encourage" this sort of behavior from a low houred pilot?...or whether it is just coincidence...It could also be something to do with the "mission profile" of these aeroplanes - if you own a Cirrus, you typically don't just fly for a £200 burger.

Now I just need to find out who owns that N reg Cirrus at Henstridge ;)

[Fuji Abound]

Without specifc reference to this accident if an aircraft was operating low level trying to avoid IMC it could be a case of a pilot attempting to maintain VMC either because of lack of instrument training or for some other reason such as a PFD failure. In such situations CFIT would be an obvious risk.

[Fuji Abound]

Englishal

There is some evidence to support your contention. Indeed that is the reason why in the States most insurance firms require the pilot to undertake additional training on type - since doing so the accident / incident rate has improved significantly. The same is true in the UK for most group operators, although I suspect you will still get insurance here as a sole owner without type specific training.

The Cirrus is very capable and is frequently used because of its ability to take on "serious" missions. Its as quick as almost any single and the avionics can lull you into a false sense of security.

Of course when it comes to weather it is just another light single. A little more power than most, and a little more substance that many, but factors that in fact will add up to diddly squat - it is still very much a light single without a great deal of redundancy.

In fact in the Avidyne configuration when the PFD goes phut you will be flying the aircraft on autopilot and / or standby AI and not a lot else so you had better make sure your limited panel is up to the job.

From a flying point of view treat it as yet another light single and dont do anything in it you wouldnt do in a Warrior and you cant go too far wrong. By doing so, if nothing goes wrong, you will find it a significantly quicker, far far more comfortable and pleasant, and the avionics and auto pilot will spoil you for the whole flight!

In fact flying with a mate recently who is on 747s he commented you have got one hell of a lot more kit that we have - I didnt like to mention that we only really have one of everything though. :) (Actually we do have two alternators, and two 430s, but I will trade them for one of his four engines any time!)

[Rod1]

Fuji Abound

“Without specifc reference to this accident if an aircraft was operating low level trying to avoid IMC it could be a case of a pilot attempting to maintain VMC either because of lack of instrument training “

That does not square with the IFR legs flown just before the final flight.

Rod1

[Fuji Abound]

Rod1 - no it doesnt, I agree, I had missed the earlier comment about an original IFR departure.

In the UK of course an IFR departure by a non instrument rated pilot would have been legal but I assume this would not have been so from Israel (it did orginate in Israel I think).

Purely speculation but it is possible the pilot had some other good reason as I suggested for maintaining VMC if, as the report suggest, he was attempting to do so.

Who knows. We dont have enough information. Pure speculation I am afraid.

At least it is more than likely ice was not a factor unless the pilot maintained control of an iced up airframe and was hoping to rid himself of ice below the freezing level - would seem a bit far fetched.

[IO540]

Sure a decent plane will expand the mission capability, both technically and psychologically, but a pilot should still be trained adequately to make the go versus no-go decision according to appropriate technical weather criteria.

Many people criticise these nice planes (an SR22 is "nice" even if I prefer my TB20 ;) ) for allegedly luring pilots to their deaths, and I am sure there is a lot of truth in this. But the answer is much improved training. Not just a "G1000 type rating" which is more or less what one can get. One needs to train a comprehensive "IFR GA weather package".

A lot of people do all kinds of dodgy flights (not suggesting this accident was a dodgy flight) and this spreads the word in the GA community that all kinds of things are possible. Well, they are possible 99% of the time. On your last flight is when you get boxed in by some combination of factors.

[Pace]

Fuji

I am delighted that the Cirrus ice system is now fully approved as that approval must have been recent.

I wonder how much the ballistic shute system encourages low time and fairly inexperienced pilots to push on in conditions they would not normally take with the idea that if everything goes pear shaped there is always the shute.

I know the shute was not used but possibly the pilot had not got to the stage where he felt inclined to use the last resort.

The Cirrus is pretty reactive in roll and fairly hard work in IMC especially where the auto is off as would be where the pilot was trying to maintain VMC in poor vis dodging in and out of cloud.

Great plane though and I would love to own one especially the new variety which had a mass of improvements

Pace

[007helicopter]

As I posted earlier these were COPA members enroute to ELBA and I did not personally know them but it will certainly influence the fly in this weekend and I believe it is the first time there has been such a trajedy connected to an official COPA meeting, I have taken this link from the COPA web site as for me it allways makes me think even harder about what we can learn from these situations when it is more personal.
Nahum Sharfman, Founder Of Shopping.com, Perishes In Plane Crash (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/29/breaking-nahum-sharfman-founder-of-shoppingcom-perishes-in-plane-crash/)

Seems like a very successful guy, RIP to both of them

"A successful entrepreneur, Sharfman founded Shopping.com which he brought to a successful IPO in 2004. Shopping.com was later acquired by eBay for $650 million. Earlier, Sharfman co-founded Commtouchhttp://i.ixnp.com/images/v3.78/t.gif (http://www.crunchbase.com/company/commtouch) and also brought the security technology company to an IPO in 2000. Prior to starting his own ventures, Sharfman spent 11 years working for National Semiconductor. He received a Ph.D. in High Energy Nuclear Physics from Carnegie Mellon University and M.S. and B.S. degrees in Physics from the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology. Sharfman was also chairman of social content sharing site enips.http://i.ixnp.com/images/v3.78/t.gif (http://www.esnips.com/) "

[IO540]

This and N403HP - very successful and very wealthy businessmen in both cases.

Was Sharfman a pilot?

[007helicopter]

Yes - he was the pilot

[Fuji Abound]

Pace

The Cirrus is pretty reactive in roll and fairly hard work in IMC especially where the auto is off as would be where the pilot was trying to maintain VMC in poor vis dodging in and out of cloud.


Knowing your experience I am surprised by your comment. Have you flown a Cirrus? It is more reactive in roll than a Cessna or Piper but that is not saying a lot - it is less reactive than many other types. When demoing a Cirrus pilots love to demonstrate how stable it is and how easy it is to fly. I think the only aspect of the handling which would surprise a reasonable experienced pilot is the time the aircraft takes to slow down, and, in operational terms, if they are use to 100 knots, adjusting to the extra speed of the scenery passing the window. Slow the aircraft to 100 knot and it really isnt much different from your average spam cam.

I know the shute was not used but possibly the pilot had not got to the stage where he felt inclined to use the last resort.

He may have felt he was too low by then to deploy, or he may have been reluctant to do so aware of the consequences, and in belief the situation was under control.

I wonder how much the ballistic shute system encourages low time and fairly inexperienced pilots to push on in conditions they would not normally take with the idea that if everything goes pear shaped there is always the shute.


That is a more difficult and interesting question.

I think the suggestion is over done. If anything I think it is the avionics suite and the autopilot which might encourage pilots weak on instruments to operate in IMC which is all very well until there is a systems issue.

[Pace]

Knowing your experience I am surprised by your comment. Have you flown a Cirrus?

Fuji

I have flown the 20 and 22 only a handfull of times so far from an expert on them.

I do have a Ferry pilot friend who has ferried a number of the aircraft. His comments were that the earlier ones can be hardwork in IMC handflown.

The latest ones had a number of changes. I believe one was an increase in the DIhedral? and a change to the wingtips but you would be better placed to verify that.

Pace