Missing light aircraft in the NT
 

This isn’t good based on the report.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-...ane-/101808178

Cessna 210 crashed 2 deceased 25 km from Darwin according to ABC news

It’s the correct link, posted 12pm Christmas Day.

Latest news is that it has been found and a fatal.

https://www.miragenews.com/police-up...m-land-922471/

The story posted by Duck Pilot is the current one - but the one referred to by TBM about a 210 going down 25km from Darwin likely isn't unless the pilot today is massively lost. The Gove-Katherine track is 120NM south of Darwin.

Latest report I have seen placed it 250 km northeast of Katherine. No mention of type.

it’s possible the ABC has linked its article to the story of the 210 that lost its wings near Humpty Doo a few years back.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-...e=abc_news_web
A light plane reported missing since Saturday morning has been found near Bulman in the Northern Territory.

Key points:

• The single-engine plane carrying two people took off on Christmas Eve
• Two bodies were found in the wreckage of the aircraft in remote Arnhem Land on Sunday afternoon
• NT Police say they won't release any more information until Monday

The single-engine plane, with a pilot and one passenger, took off from Nhulunbuy (Gove) around 8:30am on Saturday, headed for Katherine.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said in a statement that two people had died when the wreckage of the aircraft was located on Sunday afternoon.

"AMSA conducted a search for the missing aircraft with two persons on board using dedicated search and rescue aircraft from Cairns and Essendon and additional NT based fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft," it said.Northern Territory Police confirmed the news, adding that the "remote location" of the plane would delay the investigation in the cause of the suspected accident.

"Due to the remote location of the single engine plane and the investigation by Northern Territory Police being in its infancy, no further information will be available today." NT Police said in a statement.

The NT has seen heavy rainfall and flooding in the last few days, as ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie continues moving inland, after making landfall late on Thursday.

Aircraft from Essendon involved in search !

Yep, a key SAR resource is located in Melbourne and another one up north. They do a great job looking for us when we go missing, hats off to them!

The media report has been updated, terrible accident based on what’s been reported.

Weather would have be possibly marginal VFR in the general area on the morning of the accident.

https://www.9news.com.au/videos/nati...090joq838nxt2k
The video lat / long puts it 60% of the way to TN, 6nm N of the direct track and 11Nm N of Bulman, on fairly flat ground with no significant ground features. Looks like a fairly steep descent angle.

That video seems to show small bits of wreckage & a wing over a fair area.

If that is a wing of a 210(N) it seems to look like an inflight break up again - been 2 in OZ recently for different reasons.

Was there also an accident in Sydney today? Seems very little info apart from an early news report of a fire.

Yes. See the separate thread re an incident near Appin.

RSCU440 is based in Melbourne, RSCU660 in Perth & there is another one based in Cairns.

DF.

Blue skies and tailwinds all the way chaps :(

Anyone got rego?

Mutual friends.

45 years ago, I was flying 210s in the NT and FNQ.

FFS, can GA not do better than fly these dinosaurs commercially today? In 1975, no one operated a 1930s era aircraft, yet today flogging around in a 40-50 year old aircraft is considered normal. Weird.

Even in around 1975(?) there was a 210 whose wings folded back in turbulence in the Camooweal circuit area. So, still nothing learned.
.
Note to young pilots : leave Australia ASAP. New aircraft and proper maintenance. A winning combo you won’t find here.

Question is lucille, what modern aircraft would you recommend, Cessna are still building the 206 I guess. There was a reason the 210 gained favour, rather than a Cherokee Six or Beech 36.

The age of the aircraft is irrelevant. The fact the aircraft type has an inherent weakness in it's design is the main factor with the 210 and wing folding events. Proof is in the fact they have been folding up since they were relatively new. Considering most accidents these days would fall into pilot error rather than some serious mechanical failure there is no cause to blame 45 year old technology, like any aircraft, know your plane and it's vices.

The issue is 43, that you don’t know what the guy before you did to it before you stepped your poor arse in it…

Good point. Why aren't operators up north using new A36 Bonanzas, instead of 210's?
Many operators use B58 Barons, so operating a Bonanza would reduce operational spares, fleet familiarity & standardization, and have better avionics to assist in flying in marginal conditions [maybe even weather radar in the new generation A36s?]
Any operators doing this anyway?
KP

Same reason most operators did not use the old A36s against a C210. (most new plane models carry less than old due cert requirements)

B58's v C310 & the operators up that way mostly took the B58 - for a reason. You can get a new B58 but most don't (they have a spar life limit).

I recall a fully IFR C206 being put on the escarpment near Jabiru as the pilot was only VFR. No radar or avionics will save the day in marginal conditions unless you can use them correctly.

A very sad outcome that hits home a little harder for many of us.

RIP.

Any news on rego or the operator?

Very sad outcome. Many of us have been in the young fellas spot flying around remote areas alone in our 20’s.

If it turns out to be an in-flight breakup I hope the ATSB can provide some valuable insight into how the pilot was trained. Was/is turbulence penetration speed taught during training? How is moderate or severe turbulence demonstrated to young pilots?

Annoyingly the private aircraft accident in Sydney has received more media coverage than this accident. 210s fly 1,000s of people all around Australia every year.

A G3 who works at the same school they did all their training at has may have never experienced real pressure to slow down below Va. Ab-initio flights are cancelled when the weather is bad (and rightfully so, you can't teach attitudes if a student can't see the horizon or hold an attitude due turbulence). I'd suggest these are things that shouldn't have to be learnt through scaring yourself on the job.

Since this was a passenger transport operation I'm also surprised the media hasn't covered it more.

There is a continuation of the goss on the Appin thread if anyone is interested in that

slow down below Va

Please do keep in mind that Va is not, necessarily, the simplistic animal that most pilots are taught to believe it is. For most light aircraft, it may relate to some level of stall protection against excessive normal load factor in turbulence but that is not a guarantee by any means - you really need to know the certification basis for the particular Type to find out what the story might be.

As the use of Vo gains more penetration into the Industry, this problem will reduce .... but that is going to take some considerable time.

Thread reopened with OP's concurrence. The posts which led to the thread's earlier deletion have been hidden.

You could easily ask a manufacturer to cut down the frills on a new 206/208/B58 etc.. The BEW could be cut down considerably however its cost that is the priority issue above all else.

What are the chances of grounding them? It feels like a potential outcome as you can’t just keep blaming 20 year old pilots and allegedly supposed pushy operators when the wings fall off..

I’m trying to think of other types that may have had their CofA pulled in this country for similar reasons.

In theory you could update the old airframes to pretty much new standard with a big spend on avionics. You can't fix the spar carry through issues though, that's just fatigue cracking based on how much and how many times it flexes a flight. A 5 year old 210 could do low level survey flat out and build up the required stress to see cracking vs a 40 year old similar that has been flown gently in smooth air which shows no evidence. Which is why the ATSB recommendations have merit.

Main thing is though, GA world wide, the smaller operators exist on shoestrings and don't want to pay for anything more than they have to. Cheap old plane does similar job to new expensive plane, whats the incentive to upgrade? And there is also merit to saying they will still crash due to the nature of GA operations, new or old.

In car fleets they are renewed regularly with very low KMs, mainly as there is huge tax advantages that most govs implement to prop up car sales. Maybe this should have been brought into GA many years ago. From memory the major tax benefits that were around for ownership of GA aircraft was removed 20-25 years ago, which was a major reason larger twins dwindled from flying club lineups.

I copied this across from the other closed thread as it's relevant here.

The V speeds may not be designed to even protect the airframe over it's expected life, just a well maintained airframe in the defined circumstances. Once fatigue cracking has developed and not repaired the structural V speeds mean very little as the structure is now flawed, so instead of maintaining something like Va where its a healthy margin above stall you might want to be even slower and take lower marging on the stall to protect against structural failure due to higher speed stresses. But then again, if you knew the structure was compromised you would not be flying it....

Something to remember is the myth of Va being the speed you can use ANY "full control movement". Yes in one direction, but repeated full travel movement of multiple or even one surface may not remain within safe limits. So flying through a thunderstorm you probably want to be at the slowest possible speed with a smaller margin for stall.

I am old enough to remember when the CAA/DCA (or whatever they called themselves that year) grounded all casein-glued aircraft.
If my memory serves me correctly, a Percival Proctor broke up, and the subsequent grounding of casein-glued aircraft meant the end for a couple of Avro Ansons being operated by Jimmy Woods. For years they had been trying to ground Jimmy, but having failed that, grounding his aircraft finally did the job. To what extent the Anson had casein glue I don't know - maybe none. maybe some?
Then the loss of the MMA Vickers Viscount near Port Hedland saw that type grounded in Australia, though not overseas. I flew some command hours in the Viscount in Europe, but by then the fleet had been re-worked considerably, to the extent that it was actually a very good aircraft for its time.
Back to the C210, as Squawk 7700 suggests, you don't know how hard the airframe has been flogged. regardless of its age. It only takes one severe over stress event to set it up to kill someone some time down the track. It's too soon to say that this was the case here, but if initial investigation indicates the possibility, it is a very good reason to ground the fleet pending some very serious inspections and possible modification - if feasible. Otherwise, consignment to the recycle bin.

Like CASA with the GA8?

Nothing to do with the aircraft design - a CASA Knee Jerk again.

Think all agree a GA8 is a "New Aircraft".

That was fair enough and it didn’t last for long.

Lots of fingerprinting at a spar. Yes, C210s are getting on (and I shudder to hear some of the bucket-of-bolts 210s that I flew last century still on the airwaves) but did it just break up in normal conditions? Or was the aircraft in a position that the airframe was stressed beyond its design limits? The weather wasn't great up there Christmas Eve. What training did the poor pilot have? No weather radar of course. What commercial pressures (assuming it was an Air Transport operator) was the pilot under to fly a VFR aircraft that day over that route?
Hopefully the GPS will reveal some valid data and whatever the outcome of the investigation, lessons are learned.

And where was the CP that day?

Should we be operating 45 year old aircraft ?
The reality is that if the thing has a C of A, an MR, and a AD and SB-driven maintenance system, then .... only CASA and the insurance company can stop us !

Does that question imply that you know the rego ?