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Four Lost in Fatal Cessna Accident in Birchwood Alaska

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After taking off from Birchwood, a privately owned Cessna 172P Skyhawk crashed and burned in a forest close to Birchwood Airport, in Birchwood Alaska. Pilot/owner George Kobelnyk, 64, co-pilot Christian Bohrer, 20, Sarah Glaves, 36, and Kyle Braun, 27 all died in the crash. A post impact fire destroyed much of the evidence in the debris field. Kobelnyk not only had his flight instructor certification, but also had worked for the NTSB and the FAA. Locals heard the plane was flying low before it crashed but the cause of the accident is unknown. The impact blaze started a forest fire that also had to be handled. The accident is under investigation by the NTSB, FAA, Cessna, and Lycoming who manufactured the engines. The first responders included the Chugiak Fire Department and police department. The NTSB expressed condolences.

Two Dead in Cedar Fort Cessna Crash
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Two Dead in Cedar Fort Cessna Crash

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A twin-engine Cessna Citation Jet CJ1 owned by Donald L. Baker and his wife Dawn Hunter, crashed near Cedar Fort, Utah. Witnesses saw the airplane on fire and coming to pieces, and heard an explosion. The plane was due at Tucson but never arrived. Two unidentified bodies were recovered from a large debris field a mile long and a quarter mile wide. Snow and fog have been hampering recovery efforts. The names of the victims will be confirmed before they are released. FAA spokesman Allen Kenitze said the Cessna 525 “crashed under unknown circumstances.”

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Washington Plane Crash Survivor Autumn Veatch

autumnSixteen year-old Autumn Veatch tried to save her step-grandparents after she survived a fiery small plane crash impacting a Washington mountain. The Beech A35 aircraft struck Saturday and she survived two days on her own, after scrambling out of the burning plane with her hair on fire.She tried but could not rescue her grandmother, Sharon Bowman, nor her grandfather, Leland Bowman.

The Beech A35 Bonanza crashed in the North Cascades, west of Mazama, WA between Kalispell and Lynden. Weather was a key factor in the accident. A second plane crashed into Twin Sisters mountain in the North Cascades on the same day.

Some of the footage of Autumn has been collected and is available here:

Survivor’s Journey

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Alba Adriatica Air Show Collision

A couple of acrobatic planes collided in an Alba Adriatica airshow maneuver and crashed into the sea. One pilot was transported to the hospital. The other pilot, Marco Ricci, lost a wing and could not exit his plane, and died. The plane was located four meters underwater, upside down and closed. Divers tried lifting it with air balloons. The National Agency for Flight Safety (ANSV) has opened an investigation. One plane was Van’s RV-7 # I-Amel; the other was Van’s RV-8 with #I-Lovi.

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Minas Gerais Cessna Belly Landing

Unspecified mechanical problems led to a small single-engine Cessna to make ??a forced landing May 21 at Colonel Altino Machado Airport in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Only the pilot and co-pilot were aboard, and neither sustained injury in the belly landing. The landing gear failed. The fire department was called.

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#Missing Mooney M20K found in Maule

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Personal SANTIAGO the Police Special Operations Group found a plane that went missing in Picazo Alto, Chile. The plane was en route between Santiago and Temuco and disappeared from radar at about 3:00 pm May 21. The pilot of record was Raul Alejandro Barria Concha (65), who died in the crash. There were no others aboard. Teams from the Army, PDI, regional Onemi, Fire and Health Service assisted in the search, using the Panguilemo airfield as a hub.

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Small Plane Makes Emergency Landing at Jack Brooks Regional Airport

A private, single-engine plane made an emergency landing at Jack Brooks Regional Airport in Beaumont, Texas, on January 3.

The incident happened when a Southeast Texas family was returning home from vacation in Colorado. Airport authorities said the pilot sought permission for emergency landing after the plane’s landing gear failed to deploy.

The plane landed on its belly. Everyone aboard, including 2 adults and a child, remained unharmed.

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Parking Lot Crash-Landing in Kearny Mesa

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At 5:30 p.m., a single engine Mooney M20L registered to William and Devon Logan of San Diego lost power over San Diego, struck a light pole and crashed in the Kearny Mesa Costco parking lot. One woman died at the scene; the other was evacuated to Sharp Memorial Hospital. Two witnesses who were assisting the injured, were treated for burns. The pilot managed to find the only spot that would not cause a lot of damage to people and property.

The registration says the plane flies with a Porsche engine.

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Small Crash Kills 4 in Russia

On July 13, 2014, around 18:00 Moscow time, a Yakovlev Yak-18T crashed in Ryazan, Russia six miles from Spassk killing four.

Initially, police reported three dead: the pilot and two passengers.

However the names have been released, and there were four aboard. The report said that a local resident engaged the plane in agricultural work.

The pilot, who owned the plane and was flying, was Edward Rustamyan, born in 1958.

Passengers were Valery Baranov, born in 1968, resident of Ryazan, Karen Harutyunyan, a resident of Ryazan, born in 1981.The third passenger was Armenian, Tigran Adamyan, who arrived in the Ryazan this May.

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Mexico Cessna Sport Fishing Hop has at least four fatalities

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On July 10, a Cessna 206 en route from Tamaulipas to Veracruz with seven aboard crashed in eastern Mexico has killed four people and injured two. The fall of the plane did not affect the residents of the town. No cause has been reported for the plane failure.

The pilot reported engine failure at 22:18 to Veracruz ATC around the time the plane disappeared from radar..

The wreckage is being recovered at Rancho Coralillos in the town of Alto Lucero. The remains of four people were found aboard the plane. (Number varies.) Two injured have been named as Sergio Rage Marrón and Jorge Arturo Velázquez Amorringa.

The number of fatalities has been raised to five. The bodies inside the plane were burned, and difficult to identify.

The injured were taken to a private hospital in Veracruz.

The passengers had been going to a sport fishing competition.
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The Secretary of Civil Protection and the Municipal Civil Protection and a navy Mi17 helicopter responded to the scene.

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Eleven Skydivers Die in Polish Plane Crash, Pilot Survives

On July 5, 2014 at around 1600 hours, a private skydiving school was planning a tandem jump from a height of 4000 meters with beginner jumpers harnessed to experienced instructors (opening the parachute at 1700 feet) but instead the exercise met tragedy.

The twin engine Piper PA-31P pressurized Navajo skydiving plane crashed, and was damaged beyond repair in an accident near Czestochowa, Poland. The plane was new to the skydiving school, purchased in May. Witnesses who lived in the village where it crashed said that the plane was flying very low, then listed to one side before it crashed.

Twelve people were aboard the plane. Only the forty year old pilot survived but is in serious condition in a hospital in Czestochowa. The survivor is conscious and breathing without assistance, but has multiple injuries. Firefighters, three emergency helicopters and three ground ambulances responded to the scene and a team of seven investigators from the public prosecutors office secured the area and established a base of operations at the Cz?stochowa-Rudniki Airport (Aero Club of Czestochowa) from which the plane took off and where the crew was planning to land. The cargo plane does not have passenger seating but is built to fly skydivers, and is run by a parachute school.

n11wbpiper Experts say it is unexpected for a twin engine plane to have a crash like this, as it can fly on one engine.

The ten seat twin engine Piper was full—perhaps too full—of skydivers when it crashed into a stand of trees in an uninhabited area just outside of the village of Poplar in Silesia. Some of them tried to parachute out but apparently all were burned. Those aboard included the pilot, one of the owners of the company, three instructors, three customers, and four students. The plane caught fire after impact in Topolów near Czestochowa, Poland.

Firefighters arrived at the scene at 16:20, and pulled three people from the plane before it caught fire. The remainder of the bodies were retrieved after the fire, charred beyond recognition.

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Biplane Crashed during Thunder Over Solano Air Show in California; Pilot Killed

biplaneA 1944 Stearman biplane crashed on a runway at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California.

The incident happened at about 2 p.m on May 4 during the Thunder Over Solano air show, when the pilot was performing an acrobatic aerial maneuver very close to the ground. The specific stunt is known as “cutting a ribbon” where the plane is flown close to ground in inverted position and a knife from the plane is thrown to cut a ribbon, just off the ground.

Air force officials have identified the pilot as 77 year old Edward Andreini, belonging to Half Moon Bay. According to the FAA records, Andreini owned the 1944 Boeing E75 Super Stearman.

FAA and NTSB officials are investigating the accident.

Zombie Plane Crash Kills Movie Crew
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Zombie Plane Crash Kills Movie Crew

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Dennis Monroe, 65, and Josepha Sardinas, 70 died in a Van’s RV-7 plane crash while filming the airplane scene in a a low budget zombie movie in Bellevue Florida. The experimental kit plane circled for an hour over a 20-acre field before it crashed near Monroe Airpark in Summerfield/Belleview. The passenger was filming the pilot as the pilot banked (turned) and the engine quit. The plane went down, impacting nose first in a back yard in the 1700th block of Southeast 140th Street. The plane did not catch fire.

The accident occurred on Sunday. The plane will remain in the back yard until NTSB investigators arrive on the scene. The NTSB is expected to use the film footage in lieu of a CVR which is not required on this type of small homebuilt plane.

Dennis W. Monroe was piloting at the time of the accident. He was Belleview Public Works Director for 26 years.

*Plane built by PAUL T COWDREY

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Investigation into Deadly Cessna 206 Crash near Brisbane Continues

The Cessna 206 operated by Adrenalin Skydivers crashed during takeoff on March 22 at the airstrip, 50km north of Brisbane.  Five persons, including the pilot, two tandem instructors and a couple were killed.

The Managing Director of Aero Dynamic Flight Academy and the Safety Officer of Caboolture Airfield, Bryan Carpenter said the aviation community is shattered by the ­tragic incident. He said it was not possible at this stage to speculate the cause of the accident.  The possible causes could have been a bird collision, a mechanical failure or a center of gravity shift in the plane.  The plane was reportedly having engine trouble on takeoff.

The victims included instructors Glenn Norman and Juraj Glesk, and Logan couple Rahuia Hohua and Joey King.

Adrenalin Skydivers, known as Skydive ­Bribie, uses Caboolture Airfield for picking up tourists for conducting tandem jumps.  They land on nearby Bribie Island.

Adrenalin Skydivers Pty Ltd also had a similar accident in August 2010 killing seven on board.

The investigation is being handled by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

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Telluride Crash kills three pilots


At 11:20 a.m. Sunday, three pilots were en route from Telluride Regional Airport to Cortez, Colorado. After the Arizona Cloudbusters Inc Beechcraft 35-33 Debonair “disappeared,” the Civil Air Patrol instituted a search and found the wreckage a mile from the airport. Sherry Anderson, 57, and Sherman Anderson, 64, of Phoenix, and Eric Durban, 48, of Mesa, died in the single-engine plane crash. There was light snow, one mile visibility and light wind at the time of takeoff. Shortly after takeoff, the plane impacted mountainous terrain then caught fire.

The Andersons were commercial pilots. Durban was a military pilot. They were members of Arizona Cloudbusters Flying Club.

Their last communication was with Telluride airport on takeoff at 12:40p.m. which is when ATC instituted the search. The plane was spotted at 5:17 pm.

An investigation is underway.

Wellington Florida Plane Crash
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Wellington Florida Plane Crash


A Sonex, a two-seat homebuilt kit plane crashed into a lake at Greenbriar Dog Park a mile from Wellington Aero Club, killing the one person aboard the plane. The pilot, Leonard “Link” McGarity had been practicing “touch and goes” The accident occurred on Feb 17 in the morning. By 12:55 rescue crews were on the scene but unable to assist as the pilot died at the scene. McGarity was a longtime professional pilot who flew for American Airlines and Marine helicopters, and had a residence at Wellington Aero Club.

Prior to the crash, witnesses heard the plane sputter.

The Wellington Aero Club is a community built around a runway. A neighbor who is a seasoned aviator was quoted saying of McGarity, “If this happened to him, it’s something wrong with the plane, not him. He knew what he was doing.”

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Jenni Rivera Flight Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed in LA

Even though Rivera had filed for divorce, the widower of Jenni Rivera, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Esteban Loaiza, is suing the owners of the Learjet that crashed on Dec. 9, 2012, killing the Mexican-American “Diva de la Banda” and six others. The wrongful death lawsuit in in Los Angeles Superior Court claims that the 78-year-old pilot and the co-pilot weren’t licensed to fly paying passengers.Also, the 43 year old jet flew unevenly and trembled when it hit cruising speed.

The families of four of the others, Rivera’s deceased publicist, makeup artist, hairstylist and attorney filed a wrongful death lawsuit in January 2013.

The pilot exceeded the age limit for the kind of license he obtained from Mexico, a fact for which Mexico’s civil aviation holds Mexico accountable. The pilot and co-pilot also died in the crash.

The plane’s owners were Starwood Management LLC and its parent company, Rodatz Financial Group.

The plane took off from Monterey and crashed within fifteen minutes.

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Viral Video Pilot’s Engagement Cut Short in Cachoeira do Sul


Last month, Arthur Demetrio must have been full of hope and good news when he took his girlfriend Thays Pereira da Cruz flying, and asked her to marry him by having his parents hold up banners saying “Thays Marry me” in an airfield in Cachoeira do Sul Brazil.

See the proposal here

I wish this were the end of the story.

This Wednesday, Demetrio spoke to his fiancée Thays on the phone.
Later that day, his Cessna 140 aircraft was flying out of the airfield where he proposed.

He crashed in Cachoeira do Sul.

His student Darlan Kabata dos Santos, 31, and he both died. There was almost no warning, though Demetrio had time to tell ATC he was having plane trouble, something about the elevator, which controls the nose of the plane.

Officials informed his fiancée; she was the first to know. The family is devastated.

Arthur Demetrio will be buried in Santa Catarina, where he is from.

The accident is under investigation.

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Experimental Crash in Brazil kills Deputy Mayor


A small plane, an INPAER Explorer#PR-ZAL with three aboard was en route from Campos dos Amarais, Campinas to London but disappeared from radar while talking to ATC in Pirassununga Brazil at about ten on January 23rd. The experimental plane was registered but not certified, and barred from flying over populated areas.

The Brazilian Air Force, Botucatu and São Manuel police forces were searching with a C-105 Amazonas, a H1 and an Eagle Helicopter, and found the remains of the passengers in dense forest, in a rugged area near Monte Alegre.

The Squad of Campo Grande rescue team is on the scene.

Locals who heard the failing engine, a roar and saw a flash of light in the woods notified authorities.

The remains have been identified as:
-Alderman and Deputy Mayor of Suzano (SP) Jessé Almeida,
-Edson Geraldino, identified as owner of the plane.

The identity of the third party, Rubens Geraldino, has not been confirmed by the family. The passengers (uncle and nephew) were from Mogi das Cruzes, SP, Brazil.

Video Below

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Parachute Flight Comes to Quick Halt


On Jan 14, 2013, six people—pilot Marcelo Rodríguez, two instructors and three parachutists—were aboard a Cessna 205 during a parachute flight in Punta el Este, Uraguay.

When the engine lost power, the pilot made a forced landing and flipped. No fatalities were reported. The injured include Uruguayans, two Argentine women and one other. The injured were treated on the scene by mobile emergency units and then transferred to medical centers in Maldonado and Punta del Este.

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Unidentified Body Discovered


Remains of some poor soul were discovered on the banks of the Dordogne River ten kilometers from where the helicopter crash killed Hong Kong tycoon Kok Lam. The body has not been identified yet. Due to its condition after being in the water, the id will have to be found through DNA testing. The remains of 12-year-old son Kok Shun-yu, son of Kok Lam, were found indie the Robinson R44 a day after the helicopter crashed.

The body found in the river may be a person missing since April, which might explain the extent of the damage of the remains.

Kok Lam was owner of the Hong Kong based Brilliant group, which runs upmarket hotels and other properties, including the newly purchased Château de la Riviere.

Read more:

Billionaire Lost in French Helicopter Crash

Helicopter Lost in Dordogne river

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Ultralight Emergency landing, takeoff, crash

On January 10, 2013, a Jabiru J200 ultralight piloted Dennis Horn and co-pilot Manfred Scherbius made a successful emergency landing on the beach crashed on takeoff when it stuck the water. The accident occurred on Martins Bay beach, near Warkworth New Zealand. Nobody on the beach was injure, which is a feat, because the beach was crowded with people in a sandcastle competition. On the takeoff attempt, a wing and propeller broke. The pilot and co-pilot walked away from the incident.

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Copilot Dies in Aspen Crash, Two Survivors


A Canadair CL-600 that burst into flames off the right side of the runway on its second go-round after it veered and flipped off Aspen’s challenging mountain-surrounded runway was registered to the Bank of Utah in Salt Lake City and flown from Tucson. The crash killed the Mexican co-pilot Sergio Carranza Brabata. The Mexican PIC Pilot Miguel Henriqez and passenger Moises Carranza survived with injuries. Both were hospitalized at Aspen Valley Hospital. Everyone aboard was a pilot.

The crash occurred at at 12:22 p.m in ten degree weather and gusty winds; it had been snowing in the area but not at the airport.

Videos below

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Billionaire Lost in French Helicopter Crash

Chinese billionaire Lam Kok purchased a French vineyard, and boarded a helicopter with three others, including his son, the former owner who was flying the helicopter, and a translator, to take an aerial tour of the 65-hectare (160-acre) vineyards and surrounding grounds. Lam Kok’s and James Gregoire’s wives had declined to fly.

Twenty minutes after the flight took off, the helicopter went missing.

The helicopter, flown by James Gregoire, former owner of the vineyard, was missing but a witness came forward and told a mounted policeman that the helicopter had been seen falling into the Dordogne river, and people had been seen struggling in the water.

Emergency helicopters, divers and a hundred foot officers converged on the scene, and were deployed to search. After dark, a helicopter with a searchlight joined the searchers.

Lam Kok, new owner of the vineyard Château de la Riviere was head of the Hong Kong-based Brilliant group which plans to develop a tea and wine tasting center and hotel in Bordeaux.

One of the bodies was recovered around midnight. Rumors are that the body is of Lam Kok’s twelve year old son. The search was halted overnight, but resumed on the morning of the twenty-first. The search has been hampered by strong currents in the river.

Ironically, John Leprince, a former owner of the vineyard, died in a plane crash in 2002, not far from the crash site in the Dordogne. Combined with this crash, this means the last three owners of the vineyard were lost in aviation accidents.

Read More…

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Plane Missing in Clayoquot Sound

A Hutch Air Cessna 421B Golden Eagle en route from Abbotsford International Airport to Tofino BC had one passenger and one pilot aboard when it went missing on December 14, 2013, at 14:25 local time.

The twin engine plane was expected at 2:50 pm. It was over Vargas Island on radar when it disappeared at the densely wooded island in Clayoquot Sound. A search of the west coast of Vacouver island by the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre Victoria has been implemented but has been hampered by fog, rain, low cloud cover and darkness over Tofino. Two search and rescue helicopters pulled out Saturday because of no visibility, and are continuing the search today. A crew is also on the island searching on foot.

JRCC Victoria is located at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt and is responsible for planning, co-ordinating, controlling and conducting aeronautical and maritime search and rescue (SAR) operations within Victoria’s Search and Rescue Region (SRR).