What: Front Range Helicopters
Where: near Mount Morrison
When: April 04, 2010
Who: Pilot instructor 29-year-old Jesse Whitsett of Fort Collins and student Michael McDonald
Why: The student was practicing a “remote site landing,” a move required for a license. McDonald was practicing to get his license.
After the crash, the pilot radioed in his location. Neither instructor nor student was seriously injured, although McDonald did go to the hospital.
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Contact Photographer Alan Olivieri
BRAZIL’S WORST-EVER AIR DISASTER
200 Feared Dead in Sao Paulo Crash
At least 195 people were killed in Brazil’s worst plane crash, a product of a country with an inadequate air travel network that has been plagued by havoc.
Witness Paulo Carol imagined he was at the set of a Hollywood disaster film when right in front of his taxi, an airplane crossed six lanes of the Avenida Washington Luis. He and his passengers fled on foot.
Airbus A-320 operated by the Brazilian airline TAM, skidded off the runway after touching down and collided with cars and through a gas station before slamming into a TAM maintenance building. 180 deaths were passengers on the Airbus jet. Fifteen more deaths included Tam employees in the building.
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Luiz Santos who barely escaped the explosion, said “The airplane was coming right at me. I could hear the sound of the engines and then it exploded.” His windows and the back end of his truck were shattered, but Santos and his passenger escaped.
Flight JJ 3054 left Porto Alegre at 5:16 p.m. and landed at Congonhas two hours later. The plane apparently touched down too far down the runway.
Accidents have made flying in South America dangerous to contemplate. Flight controllers are overworked, underpaid and untrained, and rely on aging and defective radar technology in the Amazon.
In September, a Gol airlines Boeing 737 collided with a private jet over the Amazon, killing 154. That investigation is ongoing.
The country’s air travel infrastructure has been unable to keep up with Brazil’s fast economic growth.
A Cessna 414 crashed into a farm field near Bloomington airport in Illinois, on April 6.
The plane took off from Indianapolis at around 11 p.m. CT, however at 12:15 a.m., Peoria air traffic control informed the Central Illinois Regional Airport that the aircraft’s flight had not been completed.
Multiple search teams were then launched which spotted the plane’s wreckage near McLean County Road 2100 East and Rt. 9.
All seven people aboard were killed in the crash. The deceased include Illinois State University’s associate head coach Torrey Ward and athletic department’s deputy director for external relations Aaron Leetch.
The NTSB and the FAA are investigating.
What: Lonn D. Greiner’s Cessna 180 en route from Birchwood to Seldovia
Where: Alaska
When: May 27, 2011
Who: 5 aboard
Why: Not long after a successful takeoff, the nose of the cessna pitched up, then it banked and fell. Witnesses say that the engine sounded fine.
The cessna crashed on train tracks, resulting in a fire. All 5 aboard were killed in the crash. The Alaska Railroad shut down the tracks until the wreckage was removed.
All aboard were members of the Greiner family from the Anchorage suburb of Eagle River. Lonn Greiner, 46, from Eagle River; three of his children, Glory, 13, Nathan, 11, and Grace, 10; and his 69-year-old mother, Carolyn Greiner. They were on a Memorial Day holiday.
Greiner performed jet maintenance at Ted Stevens Anchorage International.
What: Merpati Nusantara Xian MA-60 en route from Sorong to Kaimana
Where: Kaimana, West Papua
When: May 7, 2010 12:21 pm
Who: 21 passengers (including 2 children and a baby), 4 crew, 2 technicians
Why: After flying a holding pattern for a quarter of an hour, the plane was on its final approach when it crashed in shallow water .3 miles before it reached the runway. On impact with the water, the plane broke in two and sank, with the passengers trapped within. Officials say bad weather and low visibility (6,600 ft) are responsible for the crash.
Crash victims are being paid Rp 50 million (US$5,850) by State insurance firm PT Jasa Raharja, according to published reports. The total is 1.35 billion Rp. Reports do not say if this is an interim payment.
A two-seater small plane crashed and caught fire near the northern end of Lake Mead in Las Vegas.
Authorities confirmed that two people were killed after the plane went down near Echo Bay Airport, at around 9 p.m. on June 12.
The Clark County firefighters and volunteer units from Overton and Moapa responded at the scene.
Both the bodies were recovered after fire crews extinguished the fire. Their identities have not so far been disclosed.
London’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch is working the first helicopter accident in London since 1976. A review of helicopter flight regulation over the UK capital is already underway.
In low broken clouds with visibility of 2,300 feet, the AgustaWestland struck a crane on January 16 on top of the Tower at St George Wharf and fell to the street around 8 a.m.. The pilot had diverted to Battersea heliport due to bad weather.
Warning lights were on the building but not on the crane. (Crane lights had an allowed shut off around daylight.
