Confirmed its ZCR

Investigation: AO-2017-024 - Collision with terrain involving B200 King Air VH-ZCR at Essendon Airport, Victoria on 21 February 2017


http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/li...20-guhemi.html

Nose wheel is on the freeway. Seems like the wheels were probably still down.

Eyewitness on 3AW reports wings "wobbling" as it passed over her head. Wobbling explained as wings lifting and dipping, left right left right.

The five on board...was that including crew?

Just seen video on ABC of the wheel on the freeway.

Reports are indicating 1 pilot and 4 pax. Pax were apparently U.S. tourists visiting for a golf tournament on King Island, so ID could take a while. Two bodies have been recovered so far.

Still not say actually death toll but Premier saying worst crash in 30 years.

crash of Beech Super King Air 200 VH-AAV

I wouldn't, necessarily, put too much weight on AAV's being similar. One of the problems there was an operator-grown reduced thrust takeoff procedure, as I recall.

Police commissioner saying "Catastrophic Engine Failure"

Not quite - saying "Reports of ..." and "Appears to be...". He is correctly not making absolute statements.

Catastrophic engine failure of both engines simultaneously would be extremely rare.

The yaw + the wing hitting the roof first indicates a EFATO. Maybe an early rotate and failure below VMCA?

A very sad event for the many folk who will be affected by it.

Hopefully the coroner will include in his investigations the wisdom and appropriateness of retail and similar commercial developments occurring at each of the secondary airports and around Australia, and even the housing developments that encroach on so many regionals as well.

The ESC has just been on ABCTV and stated that YMEN is closed.

Kaz

Yeah, they handled the press confidence very well.

There are plenty of traffic cameras and security cameras around the airport and DFO, wonder if anything was captured, could be vital to the investigation. There are some reports that the pilot did contact ATC, seems very quick to do so.

kaz3g - Correct, and a wise observation. As the King Air ploughed a wing through the roof of one retail building and then went through a car parking area and ploughed into other buildings, it amazes me that there haven't been any reported fatalities on the ground. Only by sheer luck of the draw, I would say.
Any other time during the day, the total number of fatalities could have been substantial.

Reports of two maydays being received.
Any confirmation?

I'm curious that officials are saying "catastrophic" engine failure occurred.

Did the mayday/s contain the phrase "catostrophic"?

Mickjoebill

One track, the shopping centre wasn't due to open for about another hour when the crash occurred, and I think the area the aircraft impacted is storage rather than retail. So hopefully those two factors mean no additional ground people were injured/killed in the accident.

Channel 9 has an "aviation expert" from Monash University (sounded like they gave the name as Prof Greg Bamber) prattling on about the King Air being a "single engine aircraft"

I was just watching that....not only was that fool embarrasingly clueless, the questions asked by the TV presenter were classic empty-head-media-personality standard.

Who here doesnt struggle when asked for their professional view of an event by non industry friends and family....especially after the news outlets drag out some expert buffoon like this Greg whatever who 30 seconds into his delivery of aircrash investigation for dummies starts rambling about freeway congestion and building a new rail link to the airfield.

I did once wonder if other professions (law, engineering, science ?) also have expert buffoons available to the media for commentary after major events....and if they did what does that say about the percentage of bull**** in print or broadcast reporting that is swallowed unknowingly and without question by the masses.

A big enough monster in the print and TV media could effectively control and manipulate the general intelligence and world views of the population by feeding the right amount of BS at the right times.....wait what was that about "fake news..?"

Best location for a view down Luton's runway is the car park of the Jigsaw Play Nursery. At Tullamarine the cross runway is in line with the new Border Force station.


Mickjoebill

https://www.casa.gov.au/aircraft-reg...eld_ar_serial=

Appears as if the Registered Operator commencement date was only last Thursday (16 Feb '17)

Terribly sad for everyone involved.

I don't think your description is correct. If you look at the aerial view in post 34 there are no buildings between the main DFO building and the roadway beyond. There is a deliver/staging area and a fence. The aircraft struck the roof and part of it may be in the building (port wing?) and bulk of the wreckage appears to be in the goods delivery area at the rear of the building. Yes, a few staff cars park there, but it is a staging and delivery area.

No wonder the media get things so wrong when even the aviation people do :*

I doubt it Kaz, what is more likely to happen is that airports in the middle of built up areas (despite the airport being there first) will be criticised and calls for it to be closed down.

Exactly - the "Australian way" ... crooked pollies funded by dodgy developers allow the developments to encroach, bit by bit, until the airport is dead.

I can remember one of the Army BE20 drivers from Qld telling me years ago that he had an EFATO in one, & if it wasn't for all the bells & whistles going off he would have hardly known as the aircraft was still climbing out as per usual. Very reliable aircraft, the BE20. I'll be very interested to find out the cause of this crash, but my guess is it's going to take a while.

DF.

DF - I bet that EFATO was above the TOSS on a nice big runway, along with some false modesty. Not all are so (un)lucky.

Without enough airspeed to go, putting it down again is the only option. That might have sent him off the end into the peak hour traffic.

Serial number BB-1544, so we know this was a B200, as opposed to a straight 200.

B200's, I believe, all have autofeather installed as standard.

Anyone can confirm that this machine had operative autofeather?

Strange ownership things going on here listed as operated by "AUSTRALIAN CORPORATE JET CENTRES PTY. LTD." yet according to the Herald Sun they were not involved and it was instead operated by Corporate and Leisure Travel. Also apparently MYjet is the owner of the aircraft - bit of a mess.

No Cookies | Herald Sun

Also quote for HS

FGD, based on the photos it had Hartzell 4-Bladers. AFX is a mandatory equipment. Whether it was operational or not is something that will hopefully be determined.

Stephen Quatermain's (10 news) twit feed has what looks like a still shot from a dash cam not long before impact, the aircraft looks quite level in it and no severe pitch or bank at the time.
Is it a legitimate pic? Who knows.

CR, I haven't been into Essendon since 2012, but it looks like that dash cam photo is showing an aircraft on late final for 35.

Maybe so Ramrod, but if that dashcam pic is looking NNW along Bulla Rd the aircraft has already turned left roughly 90 degrees. Maybe he had levelled the wings in the first stages of a recovery, but alas.

The aircraft appears to have been completely destroyed. No doubt many components previously inside the airframe are now outside. Deducing from a wheel on a road that the landing gear was extended at the time of impact defies all common sense. Maybe the gear was extended, maybe it wasn't but the usual garbage is emerging in record time on prune.

as someone who was actually there...

Kingair had 5 POB with return fuel and golf clubs, well under weight.

Left engine failure, however aircraft hasnt rolled, merely yawed, now seen the dash cam footage of a vehicle driving on the freeway, kingair was horizontal when she when down

This video is about 15 minutes of the roof damge. Looks as though left wing hit, prop not turning, pancaked and spun 180 or so down and through the roof, backwards but level crashed through the construction barrier almost level and intact. Before the fire got to it, it was pretty much all there not scattered all over the place.
https://www.facebook.com/9NewsMelbou...2179800045673/

He probably did have more runway to play with. He did also mention that there was a bum in every seat & full fuel.
I'm not questioning the why's & wherefores of what happened today. It's a very tragic situation, & let's face it - it could have been worse.

DF.

Mention has been made of a similar accident at Mascot in 1980 involving A KingAir 200.
That aircraft was overweight and operating in very different conditions. (QNH 997 millibars and OAT of 39 degrees C). As mentioned it was also believed to have been using a reduced power setting for take-off which effectively reduced engine performance by more than 20%.

What happens with a B200 eng / prop if it over torques ? Will it auto feather or you still have to shut it down with manual / auto feather system ?

RIP to those involved and thoughts going out to family and friends

To add to what OF just wrote - and the pilot turned left rather than maintaining runway heading, did not arm the auto feather (company policy was that it not be armed) and used a hand held mike rather than a boom mike.

why would company policy be not to arm autofeather?

There was an incident involving a C90 in Toowoomba in 2001 that potentially has some similarities to this event. Engine failure on takeoff, unfeathered prop, 20 second flight ended in an industrial estate off the end of Rwy 29. Report is here, update here. Inquest findings here.

Max I've heard

No. There are enough clues in the media coverage to figure it out

Eclan, 'seems' and 'probably' are not definitive terms.

Since that post I've heard two very different witness accounts and happy to say that things may not be as they first seem. If that dash cam screenshot is correct it definitely seems/appears that the gear was up.

One, on impact the aircraft cartwheeled. These forces could easily separate and subsequently fling an extended gear leg.
Two, after coming to rest the aircraft then exploded, sending the wheel out onto the freeway. This, I suspect, is not exactly a common scenario therefore when I posted the comment originally this was not what seemed was probable.



Toruck, if you have an over torque it will not auto feather on you, that's not how the system works. Pull the power lever back, if that has no effect, cut the fuel and manually feather. I would expect though, that if the engine failed after an uncorrected over torque event that the prop will automatically feather.

Certain FCU failures can occur that pumps in all the fuel it can and give you an unscheduled over torque with unresponsive power lever movement, and the only option is to shut it down.