about 1nm

skadi

Yes, I've read everything thanks just curious in a general sense how if it's owned by a company not a private individual(s) it's a private flight that looks like a honeymoon charter.
if it just is, fine.

We know where they took off from and where they crashed but not where they were trying to get to. Was it just a pleasure trip to see the ranch/moon/stars on their wedding night or was he taking them to their honeymoon destination?

Either way, the fact he only made it a mile before crashing - an assumption since we don't know the exact time of the crash - leans heavily towards the disorientation of light into dark in an unstabilsed (I think) helicopter as a likely primary cause of this sad event.

They were on the way to the airport to board a plane for honeymoon.

NTSB investigator Craig Hatch estimated ten to twenty miles in his briefing yesterday.

It's about seven minutes into the video posted at the bottom of this page:

https://www.ksat.com/news/ntsb-terra...on-challenging

From that report...

The hill is five miles from Highway 55. Can you figure out how far that is from the wedding site? I'm not sure I can find the farm property on Google Maps.

Uvalde Justice of the Peace Steve Kennedy posted a picture on social media of the wreckage on the side of Chalk Bluff.

Video of the crash site from KSAT:

Easy, it is not for compensation or hire. They could have used a private pilot to fly it if they wanted.

One of the news reports says the crash happened about 10 mins after take off.

The refueller in the video indicated he refuelled the aircraft around 12:30 before it was flown to the ranch - if the pilot hadn't had adequate rest in the afternoon (possibly becaause he attended the wedding as a family friend) it adds to the fatigue and disorientation idea.

Couple of years ago I worked for a guy who had a 206B that he operated for both business and pleasure. When he got married I did almost the exact same mission: I pre-positioned the ship to the farm of the new wife's family where the reception was held. I hung out at the reception (not drinking, dammit) until He and She decided it was time to go get on their jet to their honeymoon. I forget how late it was, but I hadn't gotten up super early that day. All I had to do was get the ship to the farm before the reception, before all the food trays and paper plates and stuff were set out.

Come time to leave, there were of course bright lights and flash cameras recording the event. I popped out of the site, noting how really dark central Alabama (U.S.) farmland can be at midnight after people go to bed and turn their exterior lights out. Fortunately it was clear with plenty of celestial illumination. Still, you have to be really night current. The real challenge was landing at the small GA airport. It was a black friggin' hole with sparse runway and ramp surface lighting, but no floods. I don't much like unaided night.

In looking at the pictures of the wrecked 206 in Texas, my first question was: Where's the tail rotor?

Seems the pilot was the groom's grandfather with over 24,000 hours.

Where did you get this idea? I don't believe that is correct.

Why didn't they go to bed and have a good shag like other newly weds.

That job hit HARD. I"m guessing this is going to be CFIT, but of course - just a guess like many others. There was a CFIT out north of the PHX area a while back at night, I can't recall the details but just a case of not knowing where the air stopped, and the Earth started.

The few times I fly west TX I actually follow I-10, including the meanderings. Unless I'm headed to the panhandle, and then it's easy to follow 287. I'm about ready to stop flying VFR, night, single engine entirely. Just a condition of too many variables stacking up. As a bizarre side note - the early Bonanza had a flare tray built into the lower side of the fuselage. The plan was, should a problem occur at night, the flares would shoot out 1-2-3, and illuminate the ground below, then the pilot would do a 180 descending to land along the flare path. No - I'm not kidding.

Er, mine had them in a Bonanza certified 2/21/1949. Seems my dog is older than your dog. Anyway, the FAA did away with that mess.

From the above footage it looks like some wires across the top of the fuselage, could that be powerlines or would it be rope from the rescuers to secure the aircraft? Don't know the area at all are there wires in the vicinity and was that 206 fitted with wire strike protection? Very very sad none the less RIP>

In the video posted by Airbubba, there appears to be red coloured cords/cables lying across the wreck. Might these be stabalising lines placed by rescuers? Might they be part of what they hit? They might simply be something that was lying on the hillside and got wound up by the airframe.

Commas, gotta love them. One of the CNN reports said "Also killed was the pilot, Gerald Douglas Lawrence, the groom's grandfather, William Byler, told CNN..."