Duchess crash
 

Any one heard about VH BFP a Duchess crashing today?

FlightAware has it BK-CWR thisarvo and scheduled CWR-BK...

Channel 7 just had a clip on the news, didn't look like the aircraft crashed. Looked like a forced landing as a result of an attempted take over/altercation by a the pax as per the news report. Pretty sketchy report and sounded unbelievable. More to come I guess. It was reported that the pilot is ok which is great news.

Not a crash as such, emergency landing in a paddock near Oberon after a passenger ran amok during the flight, second passenger, the victim of the attack has been transported to hospital with injuries, no news of the pilot. Report via local TV news so may be clarified further.

was just on the nightly news, apparently the pax tried to take control of the aircraft and the pilot fought back. News saying pax has facial damage from the pilot belting him to let go of the controls, which is exactly what i would of done if he risked my life..... anyhow just repeating the media so more to come

Local paper report

Two men hospitalised after emergency landing | Western Advocate

While not trying to downplay the seriousness of the incident,
I can't help wondering how someone could 'run' amok in a Duchess.

Quite easily, if the were in the front, right seat. The dual controls are right in front of them.

Fair enough, but sit amok just doesn't sit right.....

Saddest part of this whole affair is that the scumbag passenger survived!


Hope the pilot comes out OK.

The young Pilot seems to have given him a fair touch up.

The silly old coot has had to be transferred by Air Ambulance back to Sydney. I wonder if the old fella has some mental issues.

Sounds like a good job by the Pilot, he may of literally been fighting for his life.

Wow. Haven't we all jumped to conclusions?

There are a few older ATOs... How do you know this wasn't one of them?

How do you know the pilot in command wasn't doing something stupid? How do you know the "silly old coot" wasn't an experienced, competent and sensible pilot with a gazillion hours experience?

I can imagine a host of possible scenarios for this event based on the scant facts at hand. Some are good for TV and some are more plausible.

Nobody's dead in this case so the truth will out in the end. :oh:

Checklist;

Autopilot............ENGAGE
Fireaxe..............REMOVE
Passenger..........SUBDUE
Fireaxe..............RESTOW

Of course we all know that as the PIC we have the automatic powers of a Constable to subdue passengers using any necessary force (aka fist, fire axe, fork, bullet) to protect the safety of the aircraft and those on board.



For those that think it can't happen, a mate was taking some disabled people for a fly in a chartered 182 when the guy in the rear who had a condition due to a truck accident years earlier, decided he was going to attack the pilot from behind. My mate literally crapped his pants as he had nothing he could do to defend himself other than work with the mans carer to subdue him.

Duchess crash
 

I reckon Horatio could be onto something re the ATO scenario.

Roundsounds

I am only faintly familiar with the student body at the operator in question, and I don't know a great many ATOs in that location.

I am wondering why an IFR twin was at such a height over the Mountains that crashing it was a good option.

YES that could be a berko passenger. possibly. :suspect:

It could also be a practice engine failure or Precautionary search on a test which the student has screwed up, and the ATO or instructor has been forced to say those magic words "Taking over" which of course results in a fail.

Headstrong/proud student or test candidate? Loss of face scenario? :ouch:

I hope I am wrong because the senior ATOs I know do not deserve to be beaten up while doing their job, much less end up in a bent aeroplane and then in hospital as a result.

This is on the ABC website:

1. It was a charter
2. NO ATO - Who has ever heard of an 82 YO ATO anyway ?
3. Pax went nuts
4. Pilot saved himself

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bv3pvxrIQAA5DgI.jpg

If that's the case - Well done that man! :D

Well I haven't! But I know one who retired last year aged 78.

looks like a nice cross slope landing. I guess Bathurst would have been the nearest airport at around 20nm away.

Mental illness , hypoxia or panic attack.

Who flies charters in a Duchess??

Well, you're not going to send a chieftain for a charter for one person!

Sounds like he's just a few clowns short of a circus..

Hats off to the controller as well, definitely kept the cool.

Is is possible the elderly passenger wanted to commit suicide?

I recall a while back in WA an elderly gent hired a helicopter for for a joy flight then in cruise, unstrapped, open the door and jumped to his death.

Not to make light of someone's delicate mental state, but it's always a particularly horrible thing when someone involves someone else involuntarily in their bid to exit life... Not sure if that's the case here, just responding to the above hypothesis and the reference to the helicopter incident.

There have been those who wanted to take their own lives, but wanted it to look like an accident for life insurance reasons. Hard to prove suicide when every one has been killed in a plane crash, even if there is strong circumstantial evidence.

Have a look at the Basair site under 'aircraft'. They've got a C206 that looks remarkably like a Tobago and a motion simulator that seems to be installed in an old 206 fuselage. Maybe the pax thought he was having a go in the sim and freaked when he looked out the window? :E

And now back to the main story.........

Wonder if the pax was sitting up front next to the pilot? I can see CASA changing the regs, barring pax from sitting in control seats.

GO PRO footage of the incident just released by ATSB....

Funny, but that was the first thought that I had too! Many years ago Charlie Henderson (of Bullo River fame) had a drunk passenger grab him from behind during flight. Sara (Charlie's missus) grabbed him & sorted him out.

DF.

DF, that would be Irony

Preventing passengers from sitting up front would not work too well for some aircraft, seeing as they can be quite sensitive to weight distribution. Would surely be a few issues in having 2 pax in the back as opposed to one in the front the other up back

I think I would prefer him sitting next to me rather than grabbing me from behind!

Yes, Silk Air MI185 comes to mind. Although, if I remember correctly, the Indonesian NTSC investigating it did not come to any conclusion, despite the evidence and the final report from the US's NTSB.

Ken May, Navair.

.. and I can bring to mind one sim checkie in his 80s

Just read the Barry Poppins link, seems like he moved the mixture lever to one of the engines to cutoff. If he was trying to commit suicide you would think he would move both together. :confused: A Duchess with 2 POB should be able to maintain altitude on one engine.