King Air 200 stolen in Fresno by a 17-yo

[Beamr]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fresno-plane-crash-17-year-old-steals-plane-in-california-before-crashing-it-into-building/

As she is reported "disoriented", how did she get the beast up and running? What is the start up procedure on a King Air? What are the odds that one would just figure it out by chance and get it going?

[Herod]

I think the disoriented bit was probably after the incident. As regards the chances; slim to none I would say. Possibly studied it at home on a flight sim. Missed "set parking brake"

[Beamr]

I think the disoriented bit was probably after the incident.
You are probably right, it may well be a bit disorienting to do a 360 within 50 foot radius and hit the wall. However, I am hesitant to say she was very much orientated to begin with as she thought it would be a good idea to try that.

[aterpster]

I think the disoriented bit was probably after the incident. As regards the chances; slim to none I would say. Possibly studied it at home on a flight sim. Missed "set parking brake"

I read that her family used to own the airplane, so she had observed the start sequence previously. Apparently, she was running away from home.

[AndoniP]

You are probably right, it may well be a bit disorienting to do a 360 within 50 foot radius and hit the wall. However, I am hesitant to say she was very much orientated to begin with as she thought it would be a good idea to try that.

looks like she only managed to start the port engine

[capngrog]

The damage to the airplane looks to be pretty extensive, and I wonder where the prop wound up. She's lucky that she didn't eat the prop ... or it her. I can sense the insurance companies scrambling, and the lawyers circling (like the buzzards they are).

Christmas Cheers,
Grog

[Sailvi767]

In related news Mesa Airlines has offered her a position in their first pilot class available after her release. A Mesa spokesman stated she has demonstrated excellent ability and has no check ride failures unlike many of our applicants that we hired!

[OldnGrounded]

It looks like she was safe from the portside prop because only the starboard engine was running.

The surveillance video is fairly amusing, if you ignore the risk and the damage.

Edit: Can't make link appear. Follow the link in the story cited above to the Twitter post.

[capngrog]

It looks like she was safe from the portside prop because only the starboard engine was running.

The surveillance video is fairly amusing, if you ignore the risk and the damage.

Edit: Can't make link appear. Follow the link in the story cited above to the Twitter post.

What makes you think that "only the starboard engine was running".? The poor quality video shows an unchecked right turn while on the ramp. This would result from asymmetrical thrust and an inability to steer the airplane. The left engine appeared to have been severely damaged, and the right hand engine was feathered (I understand that turboprop engines feather upon routine shut down). If the right engine had been running and producing thrust at the time of the left engine's impact with the fence, I think the damage would have been much more severe and the scene infinitely more chaotic. I also would think that the teenaged girl pilot would have been a bit too dazed to have shut down a running engine herself. Surely outside intervention to shut down the engine would have been mentioned at the press conference.

Oh, well, just my opinion, and I've been wrogn before.

Christmas Cheers,
Grog

[OldnGrounded]

What makes you think that "only the starboard engine was running".? The poor quality video shows an unchecked right turn while on the ramp. This would result from asymmetrical thrust and an inability to steer the airplane. The left engine appeared to have been severely damaged, and the right hand engine was feathered (I understand that turboprop engines feather upon routine shut down). If the right engine had been running and producing thrust at the time of the left engine's impact with the fence, I think the damage would have been much more severe and the scene infinitely more chaotic. I also would think that the teenaged girl pilot would have been a bit too dazed to have shut down a running engine herself. Surely outside intervention to shut down the engine would have been mentioned at the press conference.

Oh, well, just my opinion, and I've been wrogn before.

Christmas Cheers,
Grog

I think you may be right. I didn't notice the feathered prop in the still photo and the way the aircraft spun into the fence makes your interpretation more likely. I stand (possibly) corrected.

So . . . lucky girl. Lucky she didn't get it off the ground, too.

[dash34]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fresno-plane-crash-17-year-old-steals-plane-in-california-before-crashing-it-into-building/

...What are the odds that one would just figure it out by chance and get it going?
She probably has data on her phone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XkJGEskFl4

[OldnGrounded]

She probably has data on her phone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XkJGEskFl4

I like that instructor.

[krismiler]

It's a bit concerning that anyone can access this sort of information on a smartphone by simply going to Youtube and searching for a video. I found one on how to start an A320 with a quick search.

https://youtu.be/uqKeSO6msDk

Obviously security needs to be increased as equipment such as bulldozers, excavators and railway trains which are attractive toys can now be operated by anyone who can do an internet search. Airport security is obviously of a higher standard but there would be little to stop someone getting into the cab of a train whilst stopped at a station and making off with it. In the days before the internet, information on operating equipment would have been difficult to find for someone outside of that particular industry, not any more.

[568]

What makes you think that "only the starboard engine was running".? The poor quality video shows an unchecked right turn while on the ramp. This would result from asymmetrical thrust and an inability to steer the airplane. The left engine appeared to have been severely damaged, and the right hand engine was feathered (I understand that turboprop engines feather upon routine shut down). If the right engine had been running and producing thrust at the time of the left engine's impact with the fence, I think the damage would have been much more severe and the scene infinitely more chaotic. I also would think that the teenaged girl pilot would have been a bit too dazed to have shut down a running engine herself. Surely outside intervention to shut down the engine would have been mentioned at the press conference.

Oh, well, just my opinion, and I've been wrogn before.

Christmas Cheers,
GrogThe PT6A-135 engines are in "feather" when started/shutdown, until you bring the props out of feather for taxi.

[OldnGrounded]

It's a bit concerning that anyone can access this sort of information on a smartphone by simply going to Youtube and searching for a video. I found one on how to start an A320 with a quick search.

https://youtu.be/uqKeSO6msDk

Obviously security needs to be increased as equipment such as bulldozers, excavators and railway trains which are attractive toys can now be operated by anyone who can do an internet search. Airport security is obviously of a higher standard but there would be little to stop someone getting into the cab of a train whilst stopped at a station and making off with it. In the days before the internet, information on operating equipment would have been difficult to find for someone outside of that particular industry, not any more.

Security and secrecy are different things. And relying on secrecy for security is a fundamentally-flawed idea.

In the days before the Internet, it wasn't as immediately easy to obtain operating instructions, but it certainly wasn't difficult. Finally, it simply isn't realistic to expect this sort of information to be kept out of the public sphere -- and in some countries it would be impossible to make laws or rules to try to do that.

Anyway, I'm pretty old and I don't remember stolen trains and airplanes being a major threat to public safety.

[deanm]

" I don't remember stolen trains and airplanes being a major threat to public safety."

Ummm...... 9/11 ?

[OldnGrounded]

" I don't remember stolen trains and airplanes being a major threat to public safety."

Ummm...... 9/11 ?

Ummm . . . not even close. Those aircraft were hijacked by people with a fair amount of flight training, not stolen by people who read manuals or watched videos online.

And as far as major threats to public safety are concerned, it should probably be remembered that as many people as were killed in the 9/11 attacks die in car crashes in the US every month.

[Sailvi767]

Security and secrecy are different things. And relying on secrecy for security is a fundamentally-flawed idea.

In the days before the Internet, it wasn't as immediately easy to obtain operating instructions, but it certainly wasn't difficult. Finally, it simply isn't realistic to expect this sort of information to be kept out of the public sphere -- and in some countries it would be impossible to make laws or rules to try to do that.

Anyway, I'm pretty old and I don't remember stolen trains and airplanes being a major threat to public safety.

Let me guess, you believe 911 never happened.

[Beamr]

Let me guess, you believe 911 never happened.
stealing a cold and dark plane from an airfield is way different from hijacking an airplane midair. I believe this is what was meant.

[AviatorDave]

It's a bit concerning that anyone can access this sort of information on a smartphone by simply going to Youtube and searching for a video. I found one on how to start an A320 with a quick search.

https://youtu.be/uqKeSO6msDk

Obviously security needs to be increased as equipment such as bulldozers, excavators and railway trains which are attractive toys can now be operated by anyone who can do an internet search. Airport security is obviously of a higher standard but there would be little to stop someone getting into the cab of a train whilst stopped at a station and making off with it. In the days before the internet, information on operating equipment would have been difficult to find for someone outside of that particular industry, not any more.

So? You want to go back to the dark ages, withholding operating information for a very broad interested public and for aviation enthusiasts just because of a few nutcases?
I know then I was young and an aviation enthusiast in the pre-internet age, living somewhere in the boonies, I cursed the fact that it was so difficult to get one‘s hands on any in-depth operating information. Good that these times are gone.

Establish better and more efficient airside access control instead.

[krismiler]

I am simply pointing out that information is much easier to find these days and that isn't always a good thing, the possible consequences need to be looked at when it's easy to discover how to open a hotel room safe or break into a car with a quick search online.The latest scams are available online, is someone going to use the information to make sure they don't get caught or try running a few themselves ?

When I was a child, parents were the main source of information and this gave status to them as you had to go and ask, now it's Google

[OldnGrounded]

I am simply pointing out that information is much easier to find these days and that isn't always a good thing, the possible consequences need to be looked at when it's easy to discover how to open a hotel room safe or break into a car with a quick search online.The latest scams are available online, is someone going to use the information to make sure they don't get caught or try running a few themselves ?

When I was a child, parents were the main source of information and this gave status to them as you had to go and ask, now it's Google

My point is that the information is going to continue to be online, in one way or another, as long as people find it interesting. Effectively, that means forever. People will use it, or not, according to their needs and intentions. That has always been the case, regardless of the ways information has been stored and distributed.

We can look at the possible consequences, but that's all we can do, other than the right thing, which is to design and implement security in ways that actually work.

In the world of engineering, the practice of trying to use hiding, cloaking, etc. as a security measure is referred to as "security through obscurity*." It has been deprecated since the mid-nineteenth century.

*Most commonly used, in recent decades, in the world of software.

[BDAttitude]

Probably a good ol’ paper based flight manual to be found at arm’s length somewhere in that plane. No need to drain the data plan.
Construction equipment of the same manufacturer typically only have one key. So have doors of railroad engines. Key management would be too complex. But sssht. Don’t tell anyone.

[dash34]

Probably a good ol’ paper based flight manual to be found at arm’s length somewhere in that plane. No need to drain the data plan.
...
Probably true, but probably the last option today's teenagers would consider if they were trying to get a plane started.

[Geosync]

The damage to the airplane looks to be pretty extensive, and I wonder where the prop wound up. She's lucky that she didn't eat the prop ... or it her. I can sense the insurance companies scrambling, and the lawyers circling (like the buzzards they are).

Christmas Cheers,
Grog
eh the aircraft insurance company will just cut the check for total loss. They can look into recovering from the girl's family, but they probably don't have assets of any significance so the insurance company will eat most if not all of that loss. Since nobody died, the chum isn't fragrant enough to attract the sharks.

[OldnGrounded]

stealing a cold and dark plane from an airfield is way different from hijacking an airplane midair. I believe this is what was meant.

Yes, of course.

[Disso]

This could have been worlds worse to a ridiculous degree if God forbid, she managed to get it going and it traveled at full speed out of control into a taxiing airliner full of fuel, or even managed to get enough speed to get it off the ground into the air, out of control, into the city. Really says a lot about the security, or lack-thereof, on the field.

[n5296s]

Probably true, but probably the last option today's teenagers would consider if they were trying to get a plane started.
Also not a great idea if you're in a hurry. A few weeks ago I got checked out in the DA40 for the first time in many years. As usual I spent an hour sitting in the aircraft reading the PoH before trying to fly it. Most of that time was VERY uncomfortable until somewhere around page 200 I found the instructions for adjusting the rudder pedal position (when the plane is locked up they are advanced as close as possible to the seat, to accommodate the gust lock).

[daved123]

Seems to be popular. Reported yesterday in 'La Depeche du Midi' that a 16yo Moroccan was up before the bench in youth court after being found in the cockpit of a Vueling A321 at Paris-Orly in June. A maint tech noticed a light in the cockpit of the parked plane and found a set of portable air-stairs and the plane open. He investigated and found the youth in the cockpit, wearing a pilots hat, pressing buttons on the control panel. Many questions over how he had accessed the ramp, found and placed the air-stairs, etc.
Nothing mentioned about flight manuals.
DaveD