Two die in Newtownards crash, 19/7/22

[treadigraph]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-62232302

[artizan.ni]

RIP to our fellow aviators.
Living within the circuit of Ards airfield (EGAD), it is always nice to see the variety of aircraft coming and going.
Sadly last night we lost another.
Facebook has 2 interesting videos. The first taken from dashcam footage appears to show what appears to be an engine failure after take off, followed by the pilot doing the 'impossible turn' in faint hopes of trying to make it back to the airfield. As we now know, his attempt was not successful.
The second clip was from drone footage after the incident with emergency services on scene. This showed a very small impact area suggesting a near vertical impact.
Prayers to the families of those that perished.
Blue skies forever

[Trossie]

Sad.

I was briefing EFATOs earlier this week and emphasised that you do not turn back. In a gliding turn you loose 500 ft doing a 180 degree turn. And end up pretty much over the same place, just pointing the other way.

If that was off 04, the choices for fields doesn't look that good, but turning back is worse.

(I just hope that this doesn't start any "the airport is dangerous and must shut" noises...)

[GAPU]

too low for reliable FR24 data? could you tell which rwy the departed from

[rymac]

Facebook has 2 interesting videos. The first taken from dashcam footage appears to show what appears to be an engine failure after take off, followed by the pilot doing the 'impossible turn' in faint hopes of trying to make it back to the airfield. As we now know, his attempt was not successful.
The second clip was from drone footage after the incident with emergency services on scene. This showed a very small impact area suggesting a near vertical impact.


I'm not convinced about the direct relevance of the dashcam footage you're referring to. I'm not discounting it, but just not convinced it's the smoking gun. Not sure how to add images - if you put these co-ordinates into google maps they should drop a pin. The dashcam footage was shot from the Comber road at approximately these co-ordinates: 54.567277839138015, -5.701055279179178. This is in the region of the 03 end of the runway and the aircraft was seen turning to the north then potentially the east. The aircraft crashed at approximately these co-ordinates: 54.584909787099406, -5.682672579532013. This is in the region of the 21 end of the runway. If the dashcam footage is footage of the incident, then some questions have to be asked. How did he get, from a relatively low level, from one end of the runway to the other, and beyond while turning? Why did he significantly overshoot the approach for 21 and ended up where he did? There were atleast 2 almost identical aircraft (except colour) flying at around the same time, the dashcam footage may be of a different plane.

From the drone footage and videos it appears to be a significant impact and (slight speculation) I wouldn't be surprised if it was the result of a spin.

[punkalouver]

I'm not convinced about the direct relevance of the dashcam footage you're referring to. I'm not discounting it, but just not convinced it's the smoking gun. Not sure how to add images - if you put these co-ordinates into google maps they should drop a pin. The dashcam footage was shot from the Comber road at approximately these co-ordinates: 54.567277839138015, -5.701055279179178. This is in the region of the 03 end of the runway and the aircraft was seen turning to the north then potentially the east. The aircraft crashed at approximately these co-ordinates: 54.584909787099406, -5.682672579532013. This is in the region of the 21 end of the runway. If the dashcam footage is footage of the incident, then some questions have to be asked. How did he get, from a relatively low level, from one end of the runway to the other, and beyond while turning? Why did he significantly overshoot the approach for 21 and ended up where he did? There were atleast 2 almost identical aircraft (except colour) flying at around the same time, the dashcam footage may be of a different plane.

From the drone footage and videos it appears to be a significant impact and (slight speculation) I wouldn't be surprised if it was the result of a spin.
Could we get a link to the Facebook dashcam video please.

[Trossie]

Could someone say what aeroplane type is was? Nothing that I have seen on news reports (-- but then I don't think that journalists would understand the concept of different types...).

[treadigraph]

Possibly an Aeroprakt Vixxen owned by the pilot, though a Vans RV-8 was mooted in a now-deleted post. I certainly can't tell from the published pic which seemed to show part of the tailplane.

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/280534

[rymac]

Could we get a link to the Facebook dashcam video please.

Sorry but the video was deleted off facebook a couple of hours after the accident.

Horizontal tailplane looks very like a Vixxen from the photos, which would match the owners aircraft. There was also a foxbat flying that night at around the same time, which is why I'm not 100% sure the dashcam footage is of the same plane.

[treadigraph]

Report has been published...

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/645a3e7e2226ee00130ae4ad/Aeroprakt_A32_Vixxen_G-ENVV_06-23.pdf

[Al94]

Report has been published...


That makes dreadful reading from every conceivable angle including an apparently cavalier safety culture at the airfield

[Flying Grasshopper]

A particularly damning AAIB report.

[CayleysCoachman]

It makes dreadful reading, too, for the quality of the report. The (ab)use of the stative verb and shockingly inept attempt to explain Gz were the low points for me, but there was plenty to choose from.