saint martin

[cumulusse]

hi guys

do you know about a crash involving a plane from air caraibe fleet?it happened between 6 to 1 year ago,what kind of plane and on which approach? saint martin??????

[jsoceanlord]

that was a twin otter on 1 mile final to st barts.

possibly they lost an engine or, maybe, the FO stall/spun it ?

st barts is pretty tight runway, though i've since twin otters make the first exit off the runway

[xdc9er]

Yeah it looks really cool when we make the exit huh?...
Actually it was an Air Caraibes DHC 6-300 that crashed on short final, which is actually on a hill before the runway,I fly in there as much as 5x a day , and every app/ldg can be different due to the surrounding terrain and wind conditions, the French Civil Av. filmed some in cockpit footage of the approach procedure into StBarths with our company( same type as the Air Caraibes crash), and I had to make one of these flights , during the debrief, they were asking lots of questions regarding the use of discing/reverse during appr/landing and flare, this technique creates lots of drag , and if used at an inoppurtune time or in combi. with a failure of some sort, could lead to loss of control at a critical point during the approach, which is what they think happened, I have not heard since what the final cause was thought to be though.
BTW oceanlord I've flown into Culebra also, (don't know if you've been there )but from what I remember it was a similar type approach!:D

[B Sousa]

St Barts certainly has an interesting runway. If your checked out there you can certainly find Bush Work in Alaska..... was over there last week for the first time albeit in the B407 it was not much of a problem.
Should I ever hit the Lotto I think I will live there.....One local pilot does and those who hear him on the air will recognize his voice . "Paradise 104", He seems to work and enjoy it, how novel.....

[ipanema]

Here's probably the best collection of photos you could find anywhere on the St. Barths approach... part of the Caribbean AirNews collection of articles -
http://www.caribbeanavenue.com/airnews/2001/03/010325sbh_photos.html

If you go to the bottom photo, the crash site is actually just off the left side of the photo, bottom left.

Crash site photos are here... I am pretty sure the actual site is about an inch left of the woman's head in the top photo -
http://www.caribbeanavenue.com/airnews/2001/03/010325stbarths4.html

You can find several other articles/reports, including both of the ones above, starting on 25 March 2001 here -
http://www.caribbeanavenue.com/airnews/2001/mar01.htm

HTH

Edited to encourage links to work

[LRdriver]

Speaking of STMaarten, anybody know if Ol' Bobby is still flying the Lr24 out of Julianna?
I had the pleasure of flying with him as FO a few years ago..

[Squawk7777]

xdc9er

I fly in there as much as 5x a day

Man, I am so envious... you guys aren't looking for pilots right now, are you? :)

[Panama Jack]

jsoceanlord--

Do you know whether the FO was flying the approach at the time?

[ipanema]

To discuss this matter you will find many more professional pilots actively flying in the eastern Caribbean region on the Caribbean-ALPA Discussion Forum...
http://www.caribbeanalpa.com/discussion/index.html