Fatal Piper Lance crash in Nashville

[India Four Two]

Investigators in Tennessee have confirmed five Canadians, including two adults and three children, are dead after the single-engine plane they were travelling in crashed near downtown Nashville Monday evening.

The pilot radioed air traffic controllers at around 7:40 p.m. local time Monday reporting that his engine had shut down.

Metro Nashville Police said the control tower granted approval for an emergency landing at the John C. Tune Airport, just west of downtown Nashville, but the pilot said the aircraft wouldn't make it to runway.


https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/nashville-plane-crash-canadians-killed-1.7134510

[island_airphoto]

"I saw an airplane essentially crash out of the sky, fall out of the sky, and hit the ground at around a 45-degree angle," Wiser said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.
Sounds like stretching a glide and stalling in. RIP :(

[MechEngr]

From https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/352204
Sure looks stretched to a flat landing; most damage post fire. T-tail stabilator.

https://twitter.com/MNPDNashville/status/1764850425101009258

[treadigraph]

Left wing looks pretty mangled, I'd think he might have hit the trees while trying to get it down on the highway - that grass area might have looked like a terribly short but possibly safer bet than landing into oncoming traffic or putting down anywhere short of the highway.

[RatherBeFlying]

Family identified

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/nashville-canadians-plane-crash-1.7135793

[Teddy Robinson]

Left wing looks pretty mangled, I'd think he might have hit the trees while trying to get it down on the highway - that grass area might have looked like a terribly short but possibly safer bet than landing into oncoming traffic or putting down anywhere short of the highway.

I saw elsewhere a video of the accident, it was a wide angle shot from about a kilometre away.
There was a bright flash immediately before the ground impact, likely some contact with wires unfortunately.
An entire family wiped out.

[Teddy Robinson]

Sadly some more information has come to light, albeit not through official channel as yet.
According to this, the fuel selector was found turned towards a fuel tank, but was not in the detent for the tank to be feeding the system.
If this is indeed confirmed, it makes it all the more tragic that such a simple oversight led to this accident.

[BFSGrad]

From the NTSB Preliminary Report:

The fuel selector handle, fuel selector valve/fuel strainer, and fuel selector torque tube were fire damaged and deformed by impact forces and were separated from the airframe. The fuel selector valve was found between the off and left main tank positions, slightly favoring the left tank position. The fuel selector valve/fuel strainer was opened revealing significant carbon and fire damage.

NTSB Aviation Investigation Preliminary Report - C-FBWH (https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/193880/pdf)

[RatherBeFlying]

How well lit, or not, is the fuel selector?

Could it could be inadvertently moved by a passenger or loose items?

[what next]

How well lit, or not, is the fuel selector?

Not at all. You have to feel for a slight detent when moving the fuel selector to know that it is in position.

Could it could be inadvertently moved by a passenger or loose items?

No, it is by the pilot's left foot and slightly above ground level.

[bestofpdx]

If recollection serves, the fuel selector in PA-32s is on the center pedestal, reachable from the right seat. Different from the PA-28s, where it's on the sidewall at the pilot's knee.

[B2N2]

In Piper aircraft without a ‘both’ position the emergency checklist always states to change fuel tanks.
So the position the fuel selector was found in may not have been the cause but the result of engine trouble.
I don’t know if it’s the same in every middle year of the Piper Lance but at least some models have the fuel selector below the center of the panel.


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1504/image_0f442b03d66b365fc84383ff227bfd1654ab8919.jpeg