What: missing Piper Cherokee registered to Douglas Bowles of Hesperia
Where: mountainside in the San Gorgonio Wilderness
When: Flight disappeared Monday
Who: four occupants: Douglas Bowles of Hesperia, and his passengers Joshua Chlebek, 28, David Helland, 60, and Oludare Akinwunmi, 29.
Why: On 2:30 p.m. Monday a sheriff’s helicopter pilot spotted a wreckage. Searchers rappelled down to it; no survivors have been found.
What: Amable Aristy’s Enstrom E480B en route from Bavaro, Punta Cana to Isabela terminal at Higüero Santo Domingo
Where: Batey Lechuga, Guaymate, La Romana province, Dominican Republic in a cane field
When: noon
Who: Miguel Perez and passenger
Why: Cause unknown
A singe engine plane had to make an emergency landing at New Century Airport, Johnson County, Kansas, on the night of October 30.
According to Johnson County spokesperson Jody Hanson, the pilot of Piper PA-32 aircraft decided to make an emergency landing after a bird hit the aircraft’s windshield near Olathe.
The plane landed safely and the pilot did not need medical treatment.
What: Ponderosa Aviation Inc. Rockwell Commander 690A en route from Mesa, Ariz to Safford, Arizona
Where: Apache Junction, Pinal County, AZ
When: Nov 23, 2011
Who: 6 fatalities
Why: On a thanksgiving flight that took off at 6:15, the pilot was flying to Safford and struck a rockface at the Superstition mountains. The children’s mother, Karen Perry, was not aboard. The fuselage is jammed between rocks.
The victims of the crash included Joseph Hardwick, 22, mechanic; pilot and aircraft owner Russell Hardy, 31; pilot Shawn Perry, 39; and Perry’s three children, Morgan, 9, Logan, 8, and Luke, 6.
The plane had just left Mesa’s Falcon Field when it crashed. It is a six hour hike from a campground to the wreckage. A ten member sheriff’s rescue team was flown in by chopper, and hiked down from a mountaintop.
The flight path that the pilot took is a controversial one. The FAA redesignated Phoenix airspace, raising the floor altitude for commercial traffic at almost the same height as the tallest peak in the Superstitions (5,057 feet). Planes such as this one flying east from Mesa’s Falcon Field must either go around the peak or request permission to enter commercial airspace to fly above it.
News Coverage
On January 12, 2012, a privately owned Kestrel Hawk took off from Pattaya Airpark with only the pilot aboard and developed an engine fire while aloft.
At 6:30 pm, the pilot crashed in the area of Huay Yai near the Pattaya Dolphin World and Resort.
The ultralight was beyond repair.
The pilot, Mr. Nawaporn ”Neil” Sawaetwong, sustained critical injuries— severe trauma to his legs and arms and a head injury— and was rushed to the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital.
He was President of the Pattaya Pilot Club Association, Owner of the Pattaya Airpark & Pilot Village and C.E.O. of the Fun Flying Thai Air Service Company.
The Thai Civil Aviation Authority is investigating.
Pictured: A United Nations (Transafrik) L-100-20 Hercules
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Serge Bailleul
What: National Air Cargo/Transafrik International Hercules L-100 en route from Bagram Air Base to Kabul
Where: 25-30km east of Kabul
When: Oct 12th 2010, around 19:30
Who: 7 crew (six Philipinos, an Indian, a Kenyan—all fatalities)
Why: While en route, the airplane disappeared from radar about 6nm northeast of the airfield. The flight impacted a mountain in the Pol-e Charkhi area .
Rescue teams are en route to the high altitude location.
Mother of a German victim of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 has sued the Ukrainian government for keeping the airspace open during military conflict.
The MH17, en-route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed on July 17 in the Ukrainian airspace. It is presumed that the plane crashed after it was shot by a surface-to-air missile fired from Donetsk region of Ukraine. All 298 people aboard the plane were killed in the crash.
According to media reports, the mother of a German victim has claimed that the government of Ukraine did not close the airspace during military conflict because of millions of dollars which the country makes through foreign commercial flights. She has filed the case in the European Court of Human Rights, asking for about $1 million as a compensation for the suffering she had to endure.
Renowned German lawyer Elmar Giemula, who is a professor of aviation law, will be presenting the case in court.
