Light aircraft crash near Abergavenny

[RomeoTango89]

BBC reporting - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-48243610

Hope all on board alright.

[CBSITCB]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-48243610

Part of a dual carriageway has been closed amid reports of a light aircraft crash.

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it has been called to reports of an incident near Abergavenny.

Gwent Police has closed the A40 between Raglan and Abergavenny.

Traffic analyst Inrix said there was "stationary traffic due to incident involving an aircraft and smoke blowing across the road"

[daz211]

Picture of smoke and tailback hope link works.LIVE: Dual carriageway shut after 'plane crashes onto road'
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/live-dual-carriageway-shut-after-16262433#ICID=ios_DailyPostNewsApp_AppShare_Click_Other

[CBSITCB]

“Eyewitnesses on social media have suggested no cars were hit and all those on board the aircraft have survived.”

Let’s hope that is correct...

[srobarts]

Three occupants with minor injuries according to Gwent Police.
https://www.gwent.police.uk/en/newsroom/story/news/light-aircraft-incident-a40-near-abergavenny/

[magruder1980]

IIRC there was an accident here in 2016 - a Piper G-SVEA hit the trees on takeoff (the runway is right by and parallel to the road and railway and finished up on the road - both trainee and instructor got out OK - sounds like all 3 pax here got out OK

[treadigraph]

A Cirrus apparently.

[The Ancient Geek]

BBC News reports that 3 occupants evacuated safely before fire took hold.
The road will probably remain closed until the AAIB have arrived and done their thing.

[Super VC-10]

Cirrus SR22T 2-RORO (Guernsey). Power lines were brough down over a railway and run over by a train. Could this be a dual AAIB / RAIB investigation?

[goeasy]

Looks like it crashed on overbridge rather than A40. Total closure of lower carriageway seems overdoing it if wreckage secure. (Looking at sky news video)

[pettinger93]

The BBC has a video showing the aircraft on fire across the central reservation of a dual carriageway: looks like the A 40 to me.

[Seloco]

There's a private airstrip alongside the A40 close to the accident site; is that perhaps where the Cirrus was attempting to land?

[Whopity]

Whilst it should not have had any relevance to this incident, the Sky Demon map actualy shows this airfield on the wrong side of the A40!

[whitelighter]

https://apple.news/Als1Eu323RcmnvATqHF75cA

looks like the SR22 2-RORO

three in board, all pulled out safe. Looks like a close one. Reports it came down after hitting power lines

[cats_five]

Interview with the former bomb disposal officer who pulled those very lucky people from the plane at about 06:55 on Today, radio 4.

[ETOPS]

The Walesonline report features this picture of a damaged pole........


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/615x407/0_abergaveny_air_crash_scene_46ce9c1de7b3c9011d8778eaeeace91 c61c27a6e.jpg

[Hyperdark]

Whilst it should not have had any relevance to this incident, the Sky Demon map actualy shows this airfield on the wrong side of the A40!

It's likely that the road is shown in the wrong location, Skydemon Road positions are often way out

[Seloco]

A later BBC report (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-48251547) shows that the Cirrus had previously landed at the private strip alongside the A40 to pick up two pax. It had just taken off when the accident happened. There is no doubt that the quick and brave responses of the first motorists on the scene really did save the lives of the occupants; the aircraft burnt out very fast!

[GiveMeABreak]

And the two brave souls would most likely have been oblivious to the additional dangers posed by the ballistic parachute system. Maybe the regulators need to reconsider their suitability for use on small GA aircraft?

[c5000052]

I suppose take off distance on grass with sr22 is close to limits at this airfield.

[DaveReidUK]

I suppose take off distance on grass with sr22 is close to limits at this airfield.

Cirrus quotes 330 m TOR for the SR22. GE suggests that the strip is around 600 m.

[c5000052]

I was meaning distance to reach 50 feet on grass. Anyway, we may know from the pilot at some stage. Would be useful lesson for all of us.

[PastTense]

Daily Mail report of the rescue with photos:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7020055/Plane-crashes-dual-carriageway-bringing-busy-road-halt.html

[funfly]

the additional dangers posed by the ballistic parachute system.
Can you expand on this?
Are you referring to the explosive charge? I can see that this is relevent but I have never seen this specific hazard detailed before.

[GiveMeABreak]

ARFF Considerations Working Around Ballistic Recovery Parachutes | ARFF Resource (http://www.arffresource.com/2018/06/22/arff-considerations-working-around-ballistic-recovery-parachutes/)

I'm not too skilled in adding attachments but a suitable Google search will no doubt point you in the right direction.

And this is aimed at professionals, not innocent bystanders....

[funfly]

So obvious when you think about it, but to non GA bystanders I suggest a real danger.
Must admit it would not (until-now) have been uppermost in my mind seeing a GA aircraft down.
It would be now.
There will have to be a general awareness of the possibility of high explosives in the roof of a ‘downed’ GAAircraft.

[trim it out]

So obvious when you think about it, but to non GA bystanders I suggest a real danger.
Must admit it would not (until-now) have been uppermost in my mind seeing a GA aircraft down.
It would be now.
There will have to be a general awareness of the possibility of high explosives in the roof of a ‘downed’ GAAircraft.




If you’re keen to drag pax out of an upside down cab that’s probably full of fuel then I think the solid fuel ballistic parachute probably comes in at the PXR phase (Debrief) of the incident.

[funfly]

If you’re keen to drag pax out of an upside down cab that’s probably full of fuel then I think the solid fuel ballistic parachute probably comes in at the PXR phase (Debrief) of the incident.
But many GA aircraft that are accidentally on the ground where other people might be in a position to assist pilot and passengers, might not be on fire but there is still a risk from an explosive device in the roof (as in the article you quoted). Do aircraft fitted with BRS always have a warning that will be visible to potential assistants?

[meleagertoo]

A solid fuel rocket is not an explosive, let alone a high explosive.

[Dave Gittins]

Three days in nobody has been blamed or maligned yet .. PPRuNe losing the plot ?

OK genuine question .. What actually happened to put the aeroplane from a runway that looks to be parallel to the A40 (on whichever side) onto the road ? was it taking off or landing ? undershoot or overshoot ? engine failure ? Thought all these things would have been debated by now

[Seloco]

Well the Daily Mail says here (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...road-halt.html (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7020055/Plane-crashes-dual-carriageway-bringing-busy-road-halt.html) ) that it hit some "overhead train lines". I'm sure those weren't shown on the charts so that's got to be reason enough for the crash, has it not?!

[uffington sb]

Typical DM, they should have checked and they would have known that the railway line does not have overhead electrical lines.

[Whopity]

The power line that was hit is a typical 3 phase line feeding farm builduings. It crosses the runway centreline, A40 and railway at 90 degrees one field (150 metres) beyond the 33 threshold. Poles are about 25 ft high. The line is clearly marked on OS maps.

[A and C]

The hazard posed to people by the pyrotechnics in the ballistic parachute cooking off in a fire are interesting , during the Vietnam war there was a huge fire on the USS Forristal, an aircraft carrier, while the reason for the fire was the initiation of a rocket by an EMP but the consequences of having old WW2 bombs on the deck ( used for financal reasons ) made things far worse as these cooked off quickly when exposed to fire giving the fire crew very little time to react, modern ordinance is much more resistant to fire and gives fire crews time to put out the fire and cool the area.

I would be very interested to know the fire resistant standards applied to the ballistic parachute pyrotechnic.

[DaveReidUK]

The power line that was hit is a typical 3 phase line feeding farm builduings. It crosses the runway centreline, A40 and railway at 90 degrees one field (150 metres) beyond the 33 threshold. Poles are about 25 ft high. The line is clearly marked on OS maps.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/693x597/a40_power_lines_18bc6ffbc65042387c192c95e6ba82931424e181.jpg

[cats_five]

It's clearly marked on the 1:50k, but not on the 1:25k at least not on the online Streetmap version. They are also on some aeronautical charts - I don't have one to hand, suspect it's the 1:250k not the 1:500k. Could well be wrong about that though!.

Streetmap.co.uk - Map of 331674,210680 (http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=331674&y=210680&z=120&sv=331674,210680&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=761&ax=331674&ay=210680&lm=0)

[pilotmike]

OK genuine question .. What actually happened to put the aeroplane from a runway that looks to be parallel to the A40 (on whichever side) onto the road ? was it taking off or landing ? undershoot or overshoot ? engine failure ? Thought all these things would have been debated by now

After just the briefest read of this very short thread, you'd notice that Seloco had already taken the trouble to post this....
A later BBC report (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-48251547) (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-48251547)) shows that the Cirrus had previously landed at the private strip alongside the A40 to pick up two pax. It had just taken off when the accident happened.

[Dave Gittins]

and in his earlier post he said it was trying to land .. and there seems to be some mix up about a railway track with overhead lines, apparently brought down and run over by a train.

My point is it seems hardly crystal clear what happened and I'd have expected some speculation as to why.

Surprisingly I'd have expected an email from AAIB saying they had dispatched a team but nothing from them, nothing on their website either.

[meleagertoo]

From the position of the accident site it looks as if the take off was from 15. The runway is reported to have a significant "hump" which would substantially affect t/o run. Additionally the wind in the area at the time appears to have been predominantly northerly 5-7kts but it is impossible to be certain due to local effects, valley etc. However that seems likely.

So, take off downwind on grass, fairly heavy and with an up-gradient on at least part of it? Plus the terrain is rising gently in that direction. Of course we don't know the fuel state but with three adults on board it's likely to have been well towards the higher end.
I'd foresee difficulties heading off under those (speculative) conditions.
The telling thing of course is the distance to clear a 50ft obstacle which is what a 30ft pole with a 20ft terrain rise over that distance might well be...

I've looked at the performance tables and made a few assumptions about TOW etc and the numbers come out remarkably close to 50ft right about where those wires are.

A bit rough and ready I know but might be an explanation.

[Union Jack]

The attached may be helpful in order to provide a fuller picture of what is involved: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itojBH03OtU

Jack

[Seloco]

and in his earlier post he said it was trying to land .. and there seems to be some mix up about a railway track with overhead lines, apparently brought down and run over by a train.


Just to be clear, my earlier post referencing the possibility of landing was merely speculation since at that stage it was not even clear whether the airstrip was involved or not. As for the "overhead rail lines", that was indeed simply the Daily Mail completely misconstruing the actually rather clear description by the railway company of why the train had to stop due to damaged power distribution cables falling across the track.
As DaveReidUK's recent Streetview post shows, the power cables actually cross the A40 in almost the exact location of the accident site (where the central reservation barriers split and overlap)..

[cessnapete]

Visited a number of times in Cessna 182, no problems with the Cessna short field capabilities. A well kept strip, but marginal I would have thought in a reasonably loaded Cirrus.