California

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    Rio Vista Collision


    What: Beechcraft 35-A33 Debonair
    Where: Rio Vista California
    When: Feb 19 2012
    Who: 2 aboard
    Why: After the helicopter and plane bumped over Rio Vista, the pilot had to make a hard landing short of Byron Airport, 8 miles south of Rio Vista Municipal Airport. Apparently the plane struck the chopper’s skids. The 1961 six-seat Beechcraft plane involved in the collision is registered to Ronald A. Gawer of Brentwood in Contra Costa County.

    When the Solano Fire crews arrived on the scene, they found the pilot with minor injuries, and the passenger was unhurt.

    According to the owner of the chopper flight school, the chopper was hit from behind by the Beechcraft.

    IDENTIFICATION
    Regis#: 433JC Make/Model: BE33 Description: 33 Debonair, Bonanza (E-24)
    Date: 02/19/2012 Time: 1844

    Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: None Mid Air: Y Missing:
    Damage: Substantial

    LOCATION
    City: RIO VISTA State: CA Country: US

    DESCRIPTION
    N7508Y, A ROBINSON R22 HELICOPTER, AND N433JC, A BEECH A33 AIRCRAFT
    COLLIDED, NEAR RIO VISTA, CA

    INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
    # Crew: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
    # Pass: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
    # Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

    OTHER DATA
    Activity: Unknown Phase: Unknown Operation: Other

    FAA FSDO: SACRAMENTO, CA (WP25) Entry date: 02/21/2012

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    California Chopper Collides with Plane Midair


    What: Vertical CFI Helicopters Robinson R22 Beta II
    Where: Rio Vista California
    When: Feb 19 2012
    Who: 1 aboard
    Why: The helicopter clipped the plane over Rio Vista. The chopper was eight miles from the airport when it crashed.

    Although the contact broke off the tail of the chopper and ended the severed rotor up 50 feet from the fuselage, the pilot walked away. She was reported to be unhurt; She is an experienced commercial airplane pilot who was logging night-flying hours alone toward a helicopter license.

    IDENTIFICATION
    Regis#: 7508Y Make/Model: R22 Description: R-22
    Date: 02/19/2012 Time: 1844

    Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: None Mid Air: Y Missing: N
    Damage: Substantial

    LOCATION
    City: RIO VISTA State: CA Country: US

    DESCRIPTION
    N7508Y, A ROBINSON R22 HELICOPTER, AND N433JC, A BEECH A33 AIRCRAFT
    COLLIDED, NEAR RIO VISTA, CA

    INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
    # Crew: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
    # Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
    # Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

    OTHER DATA
    Activity: Unknown Phase: Unknown Operation: OTHER

    FAA FSDO: SACRAMENTO, CA (WP25) Entry date: 02/21/2012

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    Stolen Cessna Smashed up in Fresno

    What: Cessna 172N Skyhawk en route from Buchannan Field Airport
    Where: Fresno California
    When: Feb 5 2012
    Who: 1 fatality
    Why: Apparently Ray Pirro who was not a pilot snuck into Buchanan Field and stole the Cessna Skyhawk that took his life. Pirro had no pilots license, was covered in tattoos, was recently released from prison, and apparently just took the plane to take a joy ride. He flew into power lines and smashed up by Barstow Avenue. Owner Felix J Boston is a retired lieutenant colonel. He had left the plane in Buchanan Field Airport and was surprised to find someone had taken it. He called the plane “his baby” and regrets its loss.

    The thief had covered the plane’s registration numbers and stopped off at a Stockton Walmart for junk food. (The crash site was strewn with Cheese whiz.) There was still gas in the plane, so it did not run out of gas, but striking the power lines may have been Pirro’s downfall.


    IDENTIFICATION
    Regis#: 7582D Make/Model: C172 Description: 172, P172, R172, Skyhawk, Hawk XP, Cutla
    Date: 02/06/2012 Time: 0006
    Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Fatal Mid Air: N Missing: N
    Damage: Substantial
    LOCATION
    City: FRESNO State: CA Country: US
    DESCRIPTION
    AIRCRAFT STRUCK POWERLINES AND CRASHED INTO A FIELD, THE 1 PERSON ON BOARD
    WAS FATALLY INJURED, 12 MILES FROM FRESNO, CA
    INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 1
    # Crew: 1 Fat: 1 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
    # Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
    # Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
    OTHER DATA
    Activity: Unknown Phase: Unknown Operation: OTHER
    FAA FSDO: FRESNO, CA (WP17) Entry date: 02/06/2012

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    Sacramento Bird Strike

    What: United Airlines Boeing 737-800 en route from Sacramento to Houston
    Where: Sacramento
    When: January 21, 2012 6:00 a.m.
    Who: 0 injuries
    Why: On takeoff, the plane suffered a bird strike which damaged an engine. The plane landed, and passengers disembarked. Passengers were provided alternatives, but the United Airlines Boeing is out of commission until repairs can be made.

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    17.8 Million Awarded to Surviving Family

    What: F/A-18 Military Jet from the carrier Abraham Lincoln landing at Marine Corps Air Station Miramir
    Where: San Diego neighborhood
    When: DEC 8, 2008
    Who: Young Mi Yoon, 36; her daughters Grace, 15 months, and Rachel, 2 months; and her mother, Suk Im Kim, 60.
    Why: A witness said the plane was chugging along with what seemed like one engine. Then…”roar of engine and all of a sudden, woop, dead silence.”

    In George’s Point of View


    Dead Silence. The rogue jet flattened a house, silenced four lives, and stole the joy from the lifetime of tomorrows of Don Yoon (who lost his wife, daughters and mother-in-law), Jun Hwa Lee (who lost his mother, sister and nieces), Sanghyun Lee (who lost his wife, daughter and grandchildren.) Maybe it’s a cheap trick to keep repeating Young Mi, Grace, Rachel and Suk Im Kim in multiple incarnations, but like all of us, they were composed of all the hats they wore, and their lives touched a lot of people; and I don’t regret the repetition. I’m wishing I knew the names of poor Young Mi’s two siblings, so I could repeat the relationships twice more. How better to express that those four lives lost are ever so much more than we can define?

    Where there had once been plans of a Korean family wedding, the joy of cousins, reunion of generations, and decades of Christmases like the one just past, for Don Yoon and his in-laws, there’s now only pain, and following that, an immeasurable vacuum. I guess there’s no point on my dwelling on how great the loss, or the irony. Don Yoon came to the US at 18 to build a better life, and one minute before that jet crashed, he had the American dream.

    I guess you could say it went from dream to nightmare. The three years since that crash have ended with the U.S. District Court in San Diego awarding the surviving family members $17.8 million. I don’t need to be a gambler to know that they would trade every penny to have their family back.

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    Baldwin vs American Attendant


    What: American Airlines flight
    Where: LAX
    When: Dec 6 2011
    Who: Alex Baldwin
    Why: Refusing to stop playing the game “words with friends,” Alex Baldwin was ejected from an American Airlines flight by an irate flight attendant. It was waiting at the gate (not in the air.)

    He was rebooked on another flight, but not without attempting twitter revenge, badmouthing American Airlines, and also filing a complaint against a flight attendant who was like a “retired Catholic school gym teacher from the 1950’s.”

    Baldwin is not the only individual we heard about this week who was removed from a plane due to conduct, but the others were taken to a mental unit or released into police custody.

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    Crew Injured in Turbulent Approach to Oakland


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer DJ Reed – OPShots Photo Team

    What: Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 en route from Albuquerque,NM to Oakland,CA
    Where: Oakland
    When: Dec 1st 2011
    Who: 95 passengers and 5 crew
    Why: On approach to Oakland, the plane flew through ten seconds of turbulence that injured the cabin crew.

    The pilots made a safe landing half an hour later, after which two members of the crew were hospitalized.

    In George’s Point of View


    Given the time and place, we might be able to chalk this one up to the Santa Ana Winds.

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    PJ Helicopters Pilot Injured in Chopper Field Crash

    What: PJ Helicopters Hughes MD500D turbine
    Where: SW of Colusa
    When: 10 27, 2011, 3 PM
    Who: pilot
    Why: Thursday Bradley Hall had ported electrical workers to a platform when the chopper failed, lost altitude and made what has been described as a crash and a hard controlled landing. It crashed in a field off Wescott Road at Colusa National Wildlife Refuge.

    Hughes was airlifted to Enlie Medical Center in Chico.

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    Blackburn Canyon Cessna Crash, Tehachapi Wildfire


    What: Cessna 210
    Where: Blackburn Canyon, Tehachapi, California
    When: Sept 4, 2011
    Who: 2 aboard, 2 fatalities
    Why: A Cessna that crashed in Blackburn Canyon, Tehachapi, California killed both people aboard the flight and ignited a fire that caused the evacuation of hundreds of homes south of Bakersfield. Two were confirmed dead in the crash, and it has not (yet) been confirmed if there were more than 2 aboard.

    As of Monday, the number of evacuations had grown from 100 to 650 to about 1,500 homes homes. The threatened area was the mountains around the crash and a seven square mile burn area, all threatened by a raging forest fire. Firefighters concentrated on creating a fire-break.

    A DC-10 water tanker has been part of the firefighting team, including 600 firefighters and more than a dozen aircraft.

    Tehachapi, with a population of 8,000, has some renown as an area with wind farms. Smaller fires spread to San Bernardino National Forest and rural areas of San Bernardino County.

    The fire has been 95% contained.


    raw video


    Early news report

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    Cerritos: Aeromexico Shattered Lives

    In George’s Point of View

    It is a strange, sad phenomenon how tragedies live on.

    On August 31, 1986, a Piper and a Douglas DC-9-32 collided over Cerritos California. The Piper, carrying the pilot and two passengers was going from Torrence to Big Bear. They departed Torrence at 11:46. The DC-9 from Mexico City was approaching Los Angeles with 58 passengers and 6 crew aboard. At 11:52 am, the DC-9’s left horizontal stabilizer sheared through the Piper’s cockpit like a can-opener.

    The Piper crashed in the Cerritos Elementary School playground; the DC-9 in a Cerritos neighborhood destroying five houses, damaging seven more and killing an additional 15 on the ground.

    Descriptions of the collision still fill me with horror.

    The accident predates some of the precautionary measures we have now. Now, the Piper would have a Mode C transponder, which would indicate that it was too high, breeching LAX Terminal Control area; LAX was not at that time equipped with automatic warning systems.

    It has been twenty-five years since that accident happened. A memorial ceremony now is being held commemorating the tragedy in the Cerritos Sculpture Garden, and another in Loreto, Mexico. The tragedy is being remembered by at least 30 US families, 20 Mexican families, in at least one home in Colombia, and one in El Salvador. It is being remembered in the neighborhood the wreckage demolished, where families neither need nor want a plaque to remind them of their loss.

    There is a reminder of this crash in every light plane, and every jet. In fact, everyone who flies now, everyone who has flown and not died in a crash owes a debt to the victims of this senseless tragedy, because this was the event that spurred the FAA to require “Mode C” transponders that could report three-dimensional positioning on light aircraft. This was the event that spurred the FAA to require TCAS on airliners.

    I still live to breathe the smoggy air of Los Angeles. And as long as I still have the breath of life, I will remember the day when these 82 souls breathed their last.

    Aviation tragedies shatters lives like broken glass, and there is no lawsuit, no settlement, no “all the kings horses, nor all the kings men” who can ever put families back together again.

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    Student Pilot in Palo Alto Lesson Scare

    What: single engine Beechcraft Musketeer on student flight
    Where: East Palo Alto’s Ravenswood Open Space Preserve
    When: 08/23/2011, 9:30 am
    Who: instructor and student pilot
    Why: While practicing touch and go maneuvers at Palo Alto Airport, the plane’s engine failed.

    When the engine failed, the plane went down in the Ravenswood Open Space Preserve. A plane crashed there in Feb of 2010, which shook the neighborhood, but many locals were unaware of when this incident happened. This was an emergency landing, although the plane went off course after glancing against a tree.

    Both Instructor Jassen Todorov and student pilot David Shoemaker survived.

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    Gunfire Strikes LAPD Chopper

    What: Los Angeles Police Department helicopter
    Where: Van Nuys Airport
    When: April 24 2011, 6:00 am
    Who: officers aboard
    Why: In the San Fernando Valley near Saticoy Street and Densmore, gunfire struck the helicopter, which began smoking and leaking fuel. No one aboard the helicopter was hit.

    The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing; at least one report said the chopper landed with a dead engine. The helicopter made an emergency landing at Van Nuys Airport, making an “auto-rotation” to land on the apron at a charter jet service, Clay Lacy Aviation. The helicopter was put aboard a flat-bed truck to be transported to Hooper Air Station for investigation.

    The shooter was tracked down and arrested at his home and in possession of a semi-automatic rifle. The arrest was made at 7:10 a.m near Cohasset Street and Gloria Avenue. No one was injured. The shooter was reportedly distraught over the death of a friend.

     

    * An autorotation is landing without a engine power. The airspeed of the descent turns the rotors fast enough to provide lift for a safe landing.

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    Virgin Australia Boeing Engine Flames On LA Runway


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Nathan Zalcman

    What: Virgin Australia Boeing 777-300 en route from Los Angeles to Sydney
    Where: Los Angeles
    When: April 12, 2011
    Who: 305 passengers
    Why: On making its takeoff run from Los Angeles, the plane emitted a loud “bang!” and stopped on the runway, they believed for a nose gear. It turned out to be the fireball erupting from engine one. Needless to say, the jet was pulled for inspection, and the passengers were given hotel accommodations for the night. They were provided an alternative flight the next day.

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    Alaska Airlines Bird Strike

    What: Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-800 en route from Sacramento to Kahului
    Where: Sacramento
    When: April 9, 2011, 10:20am
    Who: 169 passengers
    Why: After takeoff from Sacramento, a bird was ingested into the plane’s engine, causing engine trouble. The flight returned to Sacramento where it made a safe landing. A replacement flight was scheduled for the afternoon.


    Courtesy of FlightAware

    Recent bird include the Skywest/Delta Canadair CRJ 700 (Portland-Salt Lake City) strike on April 6 2011, the GOL Linhas Aereas Boeing 737-800 (Salvador-Aracaju) strike on April 3, and the Air France Boeing 777 strike in Paris (Paris-HongKong) on Mar 24.

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    Update on El Segundo Helicopter Crash

    What: Heliflite Inc/Aris Helicopter Sikorsky S-58ET
    Where: El Segundo
    When: March 13, 2011. 9:30 am
    Who: pilot
    Why: Earlier in March we talked about the Sikorsky that crashed while lifting an ac unit from atop the Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems warehouse in El Segundo. The injured pilot survived though he had to be extracted from the helicopter. Anthony Savedra, an employee of Excel Mechanical, pulled the pilot to safety. The helicopter capacity is 5000 pounds, and the unit that was being removed from the building was under 4500 lbs, but the helicopter apparently suffered an engine failure (the pilot said the engine when “offline”) while the operation was in progress. A witness in the video below said the helicopter made a popping noise on impact, and there was white smoke; then a few moments later, there was an explosion, and black smoke. The pilot escaped burn injuries.

    The crash started a fire on two floors of the warehouse but no one was injured in the fire, because the accident occurred on a Sunday. Seventy firefighters put out the blaze within forty minutes.

     

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    9 Minute Turbo-Prop Emergency Over Big Sur


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer

    What: Skywest Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia turbo-prop en route from Santa Barbara to San Francisco
    Where: Big Sur
    When: Feb 11, 2011
    Who: 29 passengers
    Why: After losing pressure over Big Sur at around 1 pm, the Skywest flight diverted to Monterey Peninsula Airport and made an emergency landing at 1:09 pm. The landing was made under emergency conditions with crews on standby, but there were no injuries. Some passengers complained to paramedics of ear problems and were examined. After passengers disembarked and were transported to their destinations, the flight crew flew on to San Francisco alone.

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    Newport Beach Crash Plane retrieved

    What: 1968 Beechcraft Musketeer en route from Calexico to Torrance,
    Where: Upper Newport Harbor, NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.
    When: Nov 20, 2010
    Who: Fatalities: 58-year-old Charles Alfred Chambers, 63-year-old Russell Urban of Palos Verdes Estate, 44-year-old Sean Kelly of Hermosa Beach.
    Why: Sunday Pilot Chambers was flying from Calexico on the U.S. Mexican border to Torrance, but diverted to John Wayne Airport when experiencing a fuel shortage. The plane crashed into the water off Newport Beach. The plane was recovered Monday.

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    Small Crash in San Carlos Kills 3

    What: (Registration pending) BE65 65 Queen Air (U-8F Seminole)
    Where: SAN CARLOS, CA
    When: Sept 2, 2010 1850
    Who: 1 pilot, 2 passengers: 3 fatalities
    Why: The plane crashed under unknown circumstances submerged in water about a mile from the airport.

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    Bogus Report

    After a weekend of combing the mountains behind Stanford University, the FAA has deemed the report of a downed Santa Cruz Mountains flight to be a fake. Someone on an emergency air traffic channel had called for help, saying he was a passenger in a plane crashed in the mountains north of Stanford University. However, there had been no mayday signals, no emergency beacons, and no missing aircraft.

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    Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Struck by Lightning

    What: Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 en route from Oakland to Burbank
    Where: Burbank
    When: January 20, 2010 9:57
    Who: 81 passengers
    Why: While en route from Sacramento, the Boeing 737 was struck by lightning. The plane landed safely at Bob Hope Airport, and was examined for damage from the lightning strike.

    Two individuals aboard this flight were taken to Providence St. Joseph Medical Center for treatment.

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    SouthWest Airlines Boeing Struck by lightning

    What: Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 en route from Sacramento to Burbank
    Where: Burbank
    When: January 20, 2010 9:38
    Who: 69 passengers
    Why: While en route from Sacramento, the Boeing 737 was struck by lightning. The plane landed safely at Bob Hope Airport, and was examined for damage from the lightning strike.

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    Breaking News

    What: 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter and Coast Guard C-130
    Where: San Clemente Island
    When: October 30 2009 7:10 p.m
    Who: 7 on board the plane; 2 on the helicopter
    Why: A Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter have collided at San Clemente Island off the coast of California. A search has ensued with three Coast Guard cutters, an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, four navy vessels and multiple helicopters.

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    Beechcraft Fireball Spares Pilot

    What: Twin-engine Beechcraft King Air en route from Hayward Executive Airport to San Carlos
    Where: HAYWARD, Calif.
    When: Sept 16 12:25 p.m
    Who: Pilot
    Why: Witness say after a sputtering take-off, the plane plane’s right wing got low, and the plane had barely got off the runway when it clipped the back of a commercial building just off the airfield. Coming down, the plane was described as a “70 foot fireball”. The pilot was the only one aboard, and he walked away.

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    Sacramento County Plane Crash kills Two

    What: A three-seater plane, a 1969 fixed-wing Champion Citabria en route from the Watsonville Municipal Airport in Wilton (Sacramento county.)
    Where: crashed on Mount Hamilton near San Jose
    When: Saturday 04/18/2009 at 0705
    Who: Pilot and passenger
    Why: The plane at an elevation of about 400 feet on Saturday flew into Mount Hamilton. The pilot and passenger were killed. The reason for the accident has not been determined. The Citabria was registered to Jeff Blanton, of Sacramento, and owned by Blanton and David Hartley.

    The plane WAS THE SUBJECT OF AN ALERT NOTICE ISSUED on 4/19

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    No incident in Miramar

    What: Navy FA-18 fighter jet doing flight operations
    Where: MCAS Miramar
    When: Tuesday night 9 p.m
    Why: When the jet ran low on fuel, the pilot was directed to land at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, which meant flying over Allied Gardens. The sight and sound of a jet flying low over the neighborhood brought back a panicked response, a reminder of an identical jet which killed people on the ground a few months ago in University City. Although the jet landed safely, the still-recovering neighborhood was catapulted back into a terror response–although the jet was completely in control the entire time.

    Without wanting to sound too harsh, one hopes that San Diego recalls there is a military base and planes will be flying there when need be. There was no actual incident. Should they have ditched the jet in the bay rather than safely fly over? Then someone would have been complaining about the cost of a ditched FA-18. Be happy.