Cessna 172 missing over North Sea
 

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Sorry, in Dutch only.

4 people in a Cessna 172 are missing after the plane traveling from Zeeland (the South coast of Holland) to Rotterdam airport disappeared.

Apparently fog could be an issue, as the SAR choppers can´t work either due to the restricted visibility. The coast guard is searching by boats at the moment.

Let´s hope for the best!


###Ultra Long Hauler###

"Over the North Sea" probably doesn't quite summarize their position. They were supposedly flying along the coast, well within gliding distance of land, when they disappeared.

I was actually flying quite close to that area at the time. There was a significant amount of sea fog drifting in. Various aircraft were turning back from the coast one way or another. I was maybe 8 miles inland in severe CAVOK conditions, doing aerobatics up to FL50.

I heard ATC trying to contact the plane, but didn't hear anything about them being missed until I got home. Not that I could have made a difference - I wouldn't have gone into that fog anyway to help locate them.

Latest is that the Cessna has been found, apparently on land (Maasvlakte, an industrial/harbour facility). Four survivors currently trapped in the plane.

They were still over sea………..hence the involvement of the coast guard.
And yes, that would be the North Sea.

Great news indeed!
I hear they are severely injured…………I hope they´ll recover.

Does anybody know the registration?

###Ultra Long Hauler###

PH-SKJ

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3820316/Scre...02%20kopie.jpg

A photo serie I came across. Unbelievable.

De eerste foto's van dichtbij #Maasvlakte #crash

Crap; that's from our club. It was down on the schedule today as flying for an inspection by the people we're leasing it from...

Katamarino, please get your priorities right, aircraft can be replaced, people can't. :mad:

Calm down; I was merely mentioning what flight it was down for. My extra concern about it being from our club was due to the chance that the poor people might be closely know to us. I couldn't give two hoots about the condition of the aircraft, as long as it provided enough protection to pull the occupants through alive.

Fair enough, it just didn't come over that way to me - sorry for that. Hope they will all be OK.

Astonishing how totally smashed up it is, considering it was an open beach.

Did they descend into it in zero visibility?

Pehaps that was in the rescue attempt?

Earlier in this thread it mentioned that people were trapped inside, so presumably the aircraft was cut apart to rescue them.

Do we have any idea why the aircraft came down?

Current speculation (and of course, it is only speculation at this stage) was that they ran into sea fog. This would suggest loss of control after inadvertantly entering IMC. Given the terrain around there (coastline with wide, flat, open beaches), spatial disoriantation is the only explanation I can come up with for such mangled wreckage (other than a control failure, I suppose). If this was indeed the cause, they are probably lucky to be alive at all.

If there was decent visibility, an engine failue or most any other mechanical issue would be a complete non-event almost anywhere in Holland. The country is so flat and open, you're always spoilt for choice with regards to an emergency landing.

Let's hope the people involved can report what happened themselves very soon.

Sigh :( Even if it's just speculation, this is such a terrible thing and could be avoided by requiring a little bit of IMC training for a PPL. Most PPL instructors don't have an IR and you get told how terrible IMC is, how little chance you stand as a PPL, etc. I never dared getting even close to clouds and was in total awe when I started my IR. Turned out it's not a big deal at all, stay calm, look at your instruments.

IMC training and IR rated FIs should be mandatory for every PPL. Unusual attitudes under the hood should be equally mandatory.

IF this was the cause then it is all the more sad given the excellent visibility just a few km from the coast (as Backpacker reports, he was doing aerobatics in perfect IMC just a few km away), and also given the perfect flatness of the Dutch countryside. There's not even any terrain to hit.

Naturally we know almost nothing right now though, so it's entirely possible that another more unusual failure led to the accident. It will be very interesting to see the official report, and see if there's anything to be learnt.

Three hours under the hood, including recovery from unusual attitudes, are required in FAA land.

Most PPL instructors don't have an IR

Are you saying that most Euro trained PPL have limited instrument/IR/Unusual attitude training??

... and FAA CFIs have an IR. Not so common over here.

I wound up "inadvertantly in IMC" once before I got my IR. It was extremely disorientating, and I can understand how easily people lose control. It took a huge amount of self control to stay calm and apply the 180 degree turn learned in training; and that was after a good 5+ hours IMC training post PPL with the RAF reserves. I don't think the PPL training would have been enough, which is a very sobering thought.

Assuming all pictures in the gallery linked to a few posts upstream are related to this incident, it looks like they impacted a building prior to touch down, seriously damaging it and causing at least one apartment to catch fire.
What damage to the aircraft wasn't caused by the initial impact itself is most likely due to the very hard landing that must have followed.

Wishing a speedy and full recovery to all involved,

DG800