light aircraft missing
 

stv news reporting light aircraft missing on route to tiree , coastguard searching loch etive
coastguard stood down !!

Light aircraft down near Oban?
 

Just reported on BBC News.

No further details, other than it appears to have been flying from central Scotland to Tiree?

Not more info as yet, but it is sure to come up.

ASN Aircraft incident 04-APR-2015 Unknown Light Aircraft

Noticed a Bristow S-92 SAR bird heading in that direction at about the right time - headed back to Inverness 1 1/2 to 2 hours later.

If the SAR choppers go home, do they come back or is the search continued with ground personnel only ? What's the SOP

Sad outcome RIP

I heard a helicopter around this afternoon then saw the Oban lifeboat at the top of Loch Etive on AIS.

If the weather was similar to that in the news photos of the search, I guess this could be either - VFR flight trapped between terrain and dropping ceilings; or IFR forced to descend blind due to mechanical problem. I guess we will find out eventually.

Strange that no one seems to know anything about the flight?

Not much technical detail, but:

Newlyweds flying in to surprise family for Easter die when their private plane crashes into a hillside in Scotland | Daily Mail Online

A sad occurrence

Very sad indeed.

This is sad all the way around. Following an extended family tragedy, in which two cousin kids were killed in a car accident on the way to a family Christmas, I rethought my airplane as a mode of family transport to "big" events. My personal choice is to reduce the use of my airplane, and greatly increase my personal minimums, when seasonal or big family events are involved.

When my daughter was married here at home, not only did I not fly, I blocked the runway with my plane so no one else could either. An aviation accident was not going to be a memory for her special day.

I'm not trying to allow my flying passion to appear dangerous, but the reward vs disappointment ratio can really change for a lot of people, when X day becomes the life long memory of the day that A+B were killed. If you're flying there to surprise them, you did not fail to surprise them if you wisely turn back for poor weather - they weren't expecting you anyway. If they were expecting you, they'll understand. If you have to be there, going much earlier, or by a more common means is worthy of consideration...

Wise words
 

Thank Step turn
A useful reminder that press-on-itis, get-home-itis are all too often a contributory factor. We can all fly below minimums but never without eroding safety. I flew a gtf in very poor conditions having called it off. My examiner confirmed I had made the right call then we flew. It was perhaps just on the right side of marginal and he was a very experienced ex military CPL/IR. It was the most useful thing I have ever done. If the weather is marginal for flying - don't fly. If the cloud base is lower than the surrounding hills - find another route, drive or look at the forecast for the next day! Hindsight is a tool only available to the living. Two lives cut short. So sad.

I am still amazed that people don't use the performance of a flying-machine to climb above inclement weather. It seems so logical to use the 3 rd dimension to avoid interaction with Terra Firma.
(no, I'm not a pilot, but have some experience of light aircraft.....this was not a low-performance Microlight.

A very sad waste of 2 young lives.

Low powered microlight?

power to weight ratio and climb rate of just about any micro would be as good as any cherokee? I stand to be corrected.

A microlight could land on a field just about anywhere but a pa28? not so sure.

anyway looking at the weather and where the flight was headed I would not have attempted this flight. Not a chance, certainly more chance of putting down a microlight somewhere if weather gets bad.

Very sad..

as was the other incident over the water today.

:ugh:

Cockney Steve wrote
Cockney Steve: This being a public forum of course you have every right to comment.

The wisdom of doing so is another matter.

But there are so many variables that we should all wait for the AAIB report as the team making the report , unlike you, will probably contain a pilot and will investigate whether , for example, the crash a/c pilots were IMC qualified and did indeed attempt to climb above the weather only to be brought down by ice:

There are many tragic possibilities.

Nobody knows: leave it to the experts.

RIP

Cusco

Not quite sure how that is to be achieved if the icing level is below MSA.

(I didn't go outside the circuit that day because the forecast icing level down here was only about 1,000' above MSA and I wasn't comfortable with that. Someone who understands met a lot better than me might have come to a different decision.)

CS, as you earn the privilege to fly, and gain experience, the many possible and probable reasons for not flying over weather, in most GA aircraft, will become apparent, and your amazement will recede.

Many of us here have flirted with flight out of VMC when we should not. Now we actively encourage other pilots not to go there, until properly trained, and flying a suitable aircraft. The key to GA safety is NOT using the 3rd dimension when weather gets poor, return from whence you came on the 2nd dimension you came on! If you are flying the valleys, there is no GA aircraft with the performance to safely climb out within the valleys, to safe airspace above - If the flight is not planned to be flown in IMC from the beginning, changing to flight out of sight of the ground along the way is probably very unsafe.

Some GA type destinations cannot be reached at all with a flight planned in instrument conditions.

Damned shame for the young couple just starting out in life.

As a pilot who regularly flies in this area and whose favorite journey is taking the boat on many occasions from Connell bridge up to the logging camp at the very end of loch Etive I can assure you it is very hostile terrain to attempt a forced landing regardless of weather. The glen walls on the part of the loch that doglegs north are pretty much sheer from about 800ft down to and below the surface, my depth gauge was showing at least a hundred feet close to shore and could not measure the bottom in the middle.

Does anyone have the weather for the day in question?

Weather on the day

EGEO 041350Z VRB02KT 3000 DZ OVC007 09/08 Q1025=
EGEO 041250Z 00000KT 7000 OVC005 09/08 Q1025=
EGEO 041150Z 12003KT 060V230 3000 -DZ BR OVC004 08/08 Q1025=
EGEO 041120Z 11003KT 070V160 2000 -DZ BR OVC005 08/07 Q1025=
EGEO 041050Z VRB02KT 1500 -DZ BR BKN016 OVC008 08/07 Q1025=
EGEO 041020Z 09004KT 4000 -DZ FEW010 OVC012 08/07 Q1025=
EGEO 040950Z 09005KT 6000 -DZ OVC014 07/07 Q1025=
EGEO 040920Z 10003KT 5000 -DZ OVC016 08/07 Q1025=
EGEO 040850Z 15003KT 110V170 2000 DZ BKN005 BKN012 OVC014 07/06 Q1024=
EGEO 040820Z 12003KT 3000 DZ FEW007 OVC013 07/06 Q1025=