This accident just occured about 4 hours ago. This comment and video description will be updated as more information on the crash releases. For now, icing conditions is the most probable cause. UPDATE: The pilot was removed through front windshield. He was brought to a local hospital but has since been transferred into a Boston trauma center.
Any content on the crash that happened a few weeks ago in Greenfield Massachusetts with the owner instructor and student out of Westfield MA crashing into a mountain side? @VASAviation
Wow just saw this from our local news 2 hours ago and you are already on it. Very crummy weather this morning and near icing condition on the ground. Not a good day for flying.
Nice work by ATC. They kept trying to communicate, and giving him information - Terrain, weather, etc. Very quick thinking and keeping everything ready for a possible landing, like holding the other company, and keeping the ground vehicles clear of the runway. Well done!
I couldn’t disagree more. ATC has a duty to attempt to contact a NORDO aircraft and issue LAAs but this bordered on badgering. Clearly, this pilot is fighting for control of the aircraft and doesn’t need to waste brainpower on talking on the radio. What is ATC going to do for them? They can’t fix the problem the pilot is experiencing. They can’t get the prop feathered or level the wings for them. Asking the pilot to IDENT over and over is irresponsible. Clear the airspace/runways, turn the lights on bright and shut up. This guys #1 priority should be to AVIATE. Maybe a quick call once every 60 secs might be appropriate? Guess what? If they need a vector, they’ll ask for it.
@@barrett313I agree asking him repeatedly to come up on the radio or ident was a bit much, but broadcasting terrain, altitude, and weather conditions in the blind may have been helpful.
@@barrett313 You couldn't be more wrong. ATC was giving him all the information he needed, not requiring a readback. If he can't talk and needs to fly then we understand, but we have to give him all the info he needs to get out of the situation. I hope you aren't a pilot or ATC, you're dangerous.
Well done by everybody to try to help him out. I liked the blind call of clear for any approach. He was clearly doing everything he could just to keep it in the sky.
Wow, that was a fast post. Just saw the live press conference on the Boston news 15 minutes ago! They mentioned the pilot was responsive during rescue. He was removed through front windshield. He was brought to a local hospital but has since been transferred into a Boston trauma center.
I was in my house doing my morning prayers when I heard him over my house and knew something was wrong - I started praying for him and specifically asked for his life to be spared and that he would not hit any houses….he did not!!!!
I think as pilots, we can get too comfortable flying in bad conditions. I’ve turned down flights all week in a BE-9L because ceilings all around were @ 200’ or less and single pilot IFR after losing an engine and shooting a single engine approach to mins is asking for trouble. Not to mention icing. Just because an airplane is FIKI capable, doesn’t mean we have to take it there, and for sure a BE99 cannot live in those conditions.
Indeed. Although I have never flown in more than light icing conditions when I was coursing my multi engine in the Seneca, I would definitely consider not only the capabilities of my aircraft but also my equipment and my own skills and limitations. Then I jumped to the Citation which is more sophisticated in that regard so I never had the real chance of fighting with my thoughts about dispatching my flight or not in a light twin. Love to read the experiences of pilots that fly those regularly.
Correct. It's not worth your life. I only had one close call for icing (over the mountains and couldn't get lower) and I never want to be in that situation again.
Good call on your part. I think there may be quite some invulnerability attitude or complacency among pilots who go out in weather like that. Just because a plane is capable of dealing with something doesn't mean you need to force the limits
Great call on your part! The only thing is that with these 135 companies such as mentioned in this video, if the weather is legal for takeoff and landing and you refuse to fly, the companies will most likely not take that lightly.
Sure, but we have no idea the actual situation. Just because someone gets socked in. doesn't mean they were "too comfortable flying in bad conditions". I was a crew chief in the Army and sometimes flying in less than ideal weather was part of the gig. There is no way to say this guy was "too comfortable". Sometimes stuff happens even in perfect conditions. It is easy to look at one aspect and dial into that.
You could tell that the ATCs desperately wanted to help Wiggins 1046. They were trying hard to figure out what was going on, to let him know he could return to the airport and they would help him, and that he was approaching an area of high terrain. Glad the pilot survived, and hope the ATC folks are doing alright.
What people may not realize is that at a small part 135, especially a cargo one. If you don’t fly you are either punished or fired. It could be possible the pilot was not comfortable with the weather but departed anyways due to toxic management. I would know, I fly the same aircraft for another 135 and experience this first hand. I hope he recovers and gets back to flying
@@buckmurdock2500legally there is no one getting fired for refusing to fly for safety reasons. However, refusing to fly enough puts you on the radar to get fired for a “hard landing.”
@@buckmurdock2500 But you might suddenly find you're not being scheduled for anything much anymore.... It's the same way McDonald's fires young people without having to fire them. Just reduce their shifts down to nearly nothing until they stop showing up.
And look where it gets them. Potential loss of pilot, hull loss with the impact on their schedule that comes with that, delayed or lost freight with consequent impact on customer trust, the certainty of an insurance hit, and of course the FAA comes knocking. Win win.
Well done! you posting so fast and perfectly, ATC and first responders and planning for first responders on the ground. A+ work by everybody is always so inspiring! and the pilot made it!
That's right near me. I work just off route 3 on the NH/MA border. It's raining heavily here and near freezing at ground level. HE SURVIVED! Brilliant. He crashed just off the road I take home.
Sighh, sad, he tried so hard to keep it flying by the looks of things. I pray he recovers fully. Thanks for the vid VAS, accidents we can learn from is its only saving grace.
One time I flew through a blizard because I wanted to make it to my brother's birthday. I had so much ice on my plane I could only see through a tiny hole on the windshield. I got to the point I was point I was full power on my little twin Cessna and all I could achieve was a decent. Lucky for my I was already descending towards my destination. After I landed, the ramp agent just stood there looking at the plane. He said he had never seen so much ice on an airplane in his life. Mind you this airport was on the Nothern border between NY and Canada. I do everything to avoid flying in snow now.
@TrainerAQ I had a similar experience early in my flying career 30+ years ago. I was a newly minted IFR pilot heading to a New Years Eve party in upstate NY with my wife. We got into some icing during descent and the windshield iced over. Couldn't see out the front windshield. I tried shooting the ILS but could see nothing at the DH. Came around for a second attempt and while shooting the approach I stuck my arm out the pilots side vent window (Piper Archer) and with a credit card was able to scrape a little hole in the ice, just enough to see the runway lights as I hit DH. When I landed I could not see anything and asked the controller if he could tell me when to turn to exit the runway. I was able to get to the taxiway with his instructions where we shut down and had a tug tow us in. The airplane was coated with 1/2 of ice all over. When I saw that my knees started to shake and I could hardly stand!!! Never did that again!!! Now have over 35 years and 10,000+ hours in the cockpit!
My friend, you were So Very Lucky to live through that experience. Glad you and your wife made it safely to the airport. But what led you to believe you could fly that route in those conditions?
@@autobreza7131 According to the weather reports the conditions we flew through were not expected to arrive for another hour after we landed. Between inflight rerouting and other delays and not the most accurate weather forecasting we got the short straw. Remember this was over 30 years ago and the weather forecasting was not as accurate back then.
@@eagle2019 Got it... even today it seems that NOTARs (to this non-pilot aviation enthusiast) are sometimes stale or incomplete. Really glad you made it home in demanding conditions!
@autobreza7131 Frank Borman, Apollo Astronaut, once stated, "A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skill." Thankfully, that day i had the superior skill to keep us alive. Now a days i rely more on superior judgment!
ATC did fantastic, gave the pilot every chance he could to get it the airport, even stepping it down to avoiding obstacles in front of him as the last attempt.
From a former airline pilot ...Even if equipped, flying in known or unintentional icing conditions in a turbo-prop or piston gives me concern. Almost lost a buddy flying a Saab turbo-prop commuter out of LAX due to flash icing, then flip in IMC. If not for a sky pointer, the aircraft and 30+ pax would have been lost.
Sorry I didn't detail@@leeksoup3199 Sky pointer: An instrument that literally always points up, regardless of the aircraft's orientation. In a flip or spin in IMC, it's either the best or only way to know which way is up...and thereby, know the correct flight control inputs to recover. Added comment - My buddy recovered, then hit the boots, then actually flipped again, and hit the boots again. Nasty stuff.
Talk about continuing to fly the aircraft! The longer it went on, the more I was routing for the pilot to pull off a landing even though I knew it was a crash. I hope he does an interview with someone in aviation. What an incredible effort to get the airplane down.
Wow that's not far from where I live. Definitely looked like a gnarly day to fly, lots of moisture in the air, and only a few degrees above freezing at ground level. Glad they survived the impact, continuing to pray for them as they recuperate.
Heard a faint emergency from the pilot on your tapes about 3:25 in and sure sounds like a lot of noise in the cockpit. Weather was terrible - live just across the river sleet on the ground here - awful day. Critical in a Boston trauma center according to news of last hour. Looking at his track, he likely flew over downtown Manchester twice while paralleling I-293/NH101
The reason for the accident was because he was distracted from his door flying off - not just because of the icing or the weather. Beech 99's have a "pilot hatch" door in the cockpit that is used to climb in and out of from a ladder kept behind the copilot seat. The pilot took off and only had one of the two hooks latched that keeps pilot hatch door shut. It appears he tried to re-latch the second hook in flight. As soon as you do this - the hatch opens up and rips off the plane and takes your $1000 headset with it. The pilot was left sucking in all the cold air and snow. Eventually he became disoriented and lost control of the plane and made impact with the ground. I use to fly freight in Beech 99s though inclement weather like this. It's certainly not for the faint of heart, but I want to let it be known - icing did not bring this plane down. They handle ice like a champ.
News said he just barely clipped the power lines, and crashed 100 feet from a houses. Sounds like he messed up himself, his planes, and the trees badly, but did a good job of not causing any serious damage or injuries on the ground.
I would try not to let them get to you if you can help it. I kinda like seeing what people might have to think on how it happened, lets me think about why I disagree with some points or think about different potential causes that I didn't think of. Its not like the judgement of the youtube comment section will change how the actual investigation is handled. At the end of the day we can just agree to be thankful that they got out of this one alive and that the NTSB will do a proper investigation before making any kind of decision.
Dang, I used to fuel N53RP in Lansing as part of the morning UPS Launch. So you're telling me in the past year Wiggin/Ameriflight had the incident in Lansing (where the pilot didn't remove the rudder lock), the crash of N55RP that killed the pilots, and now ANOTHER 99 incident?
The incident in Lansing, if I recall from the NTSB Final, was rudder trim related not rudder lock related. The aircraft had just come out of maintenance, during which the rudder trim was set full over and not re-centered, and the pilot did not check it before departing.
I'm glad to hear that the pilot survived. I'm curious whether it was due to adverse weather conditions that hindered the normal operation of the aircraft. Did the radio equipment malfunction, or was the pilot too busy to respond to ATC due to other priorities?
I wouldn't be surprised with the track that he was going that he was struggling to control the plane. I'm going to guess iced wings with the temperature and the rain
If the pilot was having issues controlling the aircraft due to icing, it's likely that the radio antenna iced over too. Even when ice, water blocks all but the lowest frequencies of radio waves. When I say "all but the lowest" frequencies, I mean even things as low as the AM radio broadcast range down around 1MHz don't work thru water. VHF for aircraft communications up in the low 100's of MHz would be significantly degraded thru even 1/2 inch of ice on the antenna, and if the aircraft is having control issues, I'm nearly certain that there was more accumulated ice than that.
@@44R0Ndin you don’t know this. If it’s really icing then the pilot would have said something. Like get me out of this icing. They heard him requesting an approach and he declared an emergency. Also his flying is very erratic, if you’re iced up you’d probably be just going straight trying to climb or descend
@@essel23fly I know that I don't know this, if you'll read my original statement closely again you'll notice that I never claimed to know anything. I thought I was pretty clear that I was speculating, maybe I have to use the words "I'm speculating, but" in the future.
@@A.J.1656He stalled twice, possibly three times and recovered all of them before eventually going down. I’d say he did an excellent job at aviating and navigating.
Total flight time shows 17 minutes. That's a long time trying to decide something is wrong, especially after the first stall is 2 mins after departure. Declare emergency or just get back to the field. Plan, plan, plan. His company departed MHT 20 mins after he crashed. Wild.
Obviously some sort of flight control issues, maybe icing. Pilot fought hard and did what you are supposed to do, never give up and fly your aircraft to the crash site. Probably what saved his life. Great job pilot, get well soon.
And the industry wants to approve single pilot airline operations! It's way too easy to become task saturated when things go wrong with no one to help.
I bet you he never heard one call as he was so hyper focused on keeping Wings level and some kind of altitude before he lost Lift , it would appear he flew it to the crash site though good for him
Sorry if this is a dumb question, did not having a door cause the crash, perhaps result in difficulty controlling the airplane or it crash because of some other issue?
It’s like trying to fly a twin turbine airplane skydiving and add 25mph to terminal velocity (120 mph) in freezing temps and precipitation. Headset was probably blown off, he might have been wearing glasses which would be gone, every piece of paper in the cockpit was lost (approach plates), IMC (Instrument Conditions) with no visual at all of the ground, very low ceiling, this pilot fought for his life for a full 15 minutes. He was able to get the airplane on a very ragged left downward and base turn to runway 35 before he went in. This guy deserves a Disguised Flying Cross as far as I’m concerned. I’m a 22,850 hour retired ATP.
This video doesn’t accurately display that he stalled at least two times, possibly a third time. Once after departure when the track turned South, again when it turned from West to East and possibly another time shortly thereafter. Aviate, navigate, communicate. Especially in a one pilot operation communication is the last thing you’ll do, and ATC will definitely be aware of your struggles.
This happened literally 5 minutes from my house (I live in the Peppermint Corner area of Derry shown on the map.) Didn't hear anything about it until I saw this video.
Weather was shit today up here in Montreal probably the same system, definitely a recipe for icing, half raining half snowing at sea level. I wonder did the ice cover his antenna so bad he couldn't pick anything up, I know its aviate navigate communicate but he probably could have got a word in at some point. Hope hes doing well, definitely not a good situation to be in.
As someone who survived unforcast icing in the PacWest, I can tell you that past a certain point, the airplane does not want to fly, particularly on the tail.
Wonder if Wiggins is going to start hiring FOs after this. There’s a good change a crew environment could’ve resulted in a different outcome for this one.
I was iced a couple of times. Both within 2 hours of an excellent VFR weather briefing. One with losing altitude. Fortunately my decent rate, a vector to FAF, and the end on a runway coincided. Twice lost com temporarily with ice in solid IMC, once while on vectors heading straight to Pikes Peak. Fortunately came back on crossing I-25. Turned out to be a hairline crack in the antenna base. Used to fly X-country a lot at night. Plane dropped an exhaust valve and blew a cylinder off, daylight fortunately. All totaled from personal experience, I guess flying isn't a good idea. I'll stick to sailing now that I know that earth isn't flat, supposedly!. Lol
Crazy I heard this thing fly right over my house, I jumped out of bed and ran to the window in hopes to catch the plane to see whats up. But instead there was alot of cloud cover. From where I was the plane was struggling the Throttles were absolutely pinned and you can tell the pilot was fighting the aircraft to some capacity. I did call this into the NTSB as I am directly under the flight path. Hopefully this helped with their investigation.
If you were not able to control the aircraft, remember the order is aviate, navigate and then communicate. So he may have been doing some serious aviating while in heavy icing. If ATC can't help you, why spend the energy and time if there are more important things to do.
I am very curious as to why icing would result in not communicating and flying erratically for several minutes. That said, rain and mist, temperature 2c on the surface with low clouds? That's a recipe for moderate to severe icing right there. In fact, the BE99 manual specifically mentions that the airplane may not be able to keep up in conditions just like this.
@fastfiddler1625 Aviate. Navigate. THEN Communicate. This is drilled into pilots on day 1.When you are fighting to keep the plane in the air due to severe icing you don't have time to push the mic button. The flight path seemed to be that they were fighting to keep altitude.
It’s also entirely possible there was a radio communications failure. Ice buildup on the antenna(s) could have caused a receiving/transmitting degradation.
This is less than 30 minutes from my house, never knew. Weather is overcast and only a light rain, not windy. Wonder what happened that he wouldn't say anything at all. Probably a good thing the ground is very wet/soggy right now. Not sure on the "marginal weather + icing" in the video title, but I'm no pilot either. Temps are well above freezing and he didn't get very high.
@TheDAVE858 You sound like a highly experienced Commercial pilot. Can you tell us how many thousands of hours you have in the cockpit and what aircraft you fly??? Oh BTW I'm sure you can tell us where MH370 is???
Very interested to hear what happened here. Based on conditions, control surfaces may have iced up but the lack of communication is what is concerning.
If you're already fighting the aircraft for control, airspeed, and altitude, then radio communication is your third concern, in order of highest to lowest priority. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate, in order of decreasing priority. If one of those is taking up too much of your time for the others to be done, you drop off the lowest priority one first, until all you're doing is flying the plane.
Yeah. Is he NORDO due to ice, radio malfunction, task saturation, or health emergency? I don't think he could have transmitted if he wanted to; that track allowed for one mayday. My money's on ICE but my best wishes are for a full recovery. And hat-tip to ATC & VAS.
I just can't imagine how it would feel to stand there in the tower watching this plane, calmly trying to give the pilot information and not having any idea if they heard or not, and then watching the low altitude and the obstacle ahead...
i think its for planes that have issues with comms and that type of nature. so in this case the comms were not being transmitted so a ident is required so it lets the atc know that communication with that plane will be unsuccessful due to faulty/busted radios
Pressing IDENT is quick and the button is normally at an accesible place in the cockpit. They also request it when they suspect a kind of radio problem. They can't hear the pilot but they think pilots can hear them, so they have them click IDENT to know whether they are listening or not
ATC is is not hearing any response from the pilot. They can't tell if the pilot can hear them, but has lost transmission capability, or is unable to respond for whatever reason. If the pilot can hear ATC and presses Ident on their transponder, then ATC will know they are being heard and can issue further instructions. It is (should be) an easy button push on the transponder that will cause that unit to transmit a signal that will highlight the aircraft on ATC's radar. These controllers continued to give instructions not knowing if they were heard at all, in hopes the pilot would hear and be able to follow them. Especially the low altitude warning. I feel for those controllers who try so hard to talk pilots in trouble back to safety only to see the return disappear into the ground. Thankfully the pilot lived. Hopefully he'll be able to debrief this flight and the aviation community can learn from this accident.
It appears that ATC never heard back from pilot about his situation and intention, if is just radio transmitting failure, ident is another way for pilot to acknowledge that he/she is still be able to receiving from atc.
What likely happened was the control surfaces iced up, and the pilot was applying significant input force to keep the airplane flying. Keying his mic or pressing the IDENT button requires having a free hand.
Must've been horrifying for the ATC too. Hearing radio silence from the subject aircraft while clearly watching on the radar that they are struggling and eventually went off the radar. I can't imagine the pressure on the shoulders.
bet they could hardly sit still in their comfy chair, drinking coffee, thinking about what they could do when they get off work and drive home in complete safety. must be unbearable pressure.
The input for correcting tail stalls in icing is opposite for wing stalls. Adding flaps with tail icing is almost certain disaster. I hope the pilot's injuries are not too serious.
I don’t think icing was the cause of the crash as the plane kept flying for a good amount of time. Most likely the pilot suffered some medical issue that caused him to be disoriented. He might be suffering from vertigo and not having visual cues made it worse.
I’m honestly so tired of our airplanes not having even basic autopilots in some cases. Some do most don’t. Some cases like this may have been preventable
Not a passenger plane, Wiggins flies about 10 or so Beech 99’s. This one I believe was bought recently or is still contracted with Ameriflight as it still has the Ameriflight livery. Beech 99’s are still pretty widely operated but almost always in a cargo configuration. There were no passengers on board this flight, only the sole pilot.
ATC tried everything they could. I expect the pilot first got disoriented in IMC, then started icing. Sometimes it is better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, instead of in the air wishing you were on the ground.
My flying in icing conditions is limited to RC models... Just to see what would happen. The 5 lb model landed at full throttle wieghing 16 lb. Just 5 minutes in freezing rain.
The pilot was clearly following directions (at least some of them), but never pressed IDENT. They didn't seem able to respond on the radio, but how would such a failure also affect their ability to IDENT? This uses the transponder, not the VHF radio. Was the pilot partially incapacitated, maybe?
Pure speculation: If you're fighting the controls, the last thing you want to do is look for a tiny button you almost never use, then take a hand off the controls and press it. Even if the pilot could find and use the ident button without looking for it, I assume both hands were busy on the flight controls.
![[REAL ATC] Piper PA-28 Dakota CRASH LANDING ON MAJOR HIGHWAY | Pilot Survived!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/WJSAPPpfA1g/mqdefault.jpg)
![[REAL ATC] Piper PA-28 Dakota CRASH LANDING ON MAJOR HIGHWAY | Pilot Survived!](/img/tr.png)
This accident just occured about 4 hours ago. This comment and video description will be updated as more information on the crash releases. For now, icing conditions is the most probable cause.
UPDATE: The pilot was removed through front windshield. He was brought to a local hospital but has since been transferred into a Boston trauma center.
You're fast!
Any content on the crash that happened a few weeks ago in Greenfield Massachusetts with the owner instructor and student out of Westfield MA crashing into a mountain side? @VASAviation
Holy!!
Wow just saw this from our local news 2 hours ago and you are already on it. Very crummy weather this morning and near icing condition on the ground. Not a good day for flying.
Hoping for his full recovery 🙏.
Nice work by ATC. They kept trying to communicate, and giving him information - Terrain, weather, etc. Very quick thinking and keeping everything ready for a possible landing, like holding the other company, and keeping the ground vehicles clear of the runway.
Well done!
Indeed. Especially that they seemed to understand that he was having troubles and needed to get on the ground asap.
I couldn’t disagree more. ATC has a duty to attempt to contact a NORDO aircraft and issue LAAs but this bordered on badgering. Clearly, this pilot is fighting for control of the aircraft and doesn’t need to waste brainpower on talking on the radio. What is ATC going to do for them? They can’t fix the problem the pilot is experiencing. They can’t get the prop feathered or level the wings for them. Asking the pilot to IDENT over and over is irresponsible. Clear the airspace/runways, turn the lights on bright and shut up. This guys #1 priority should be to AVIATE. Maybe a quick call once every 60 secs might be appropriate? Guess what? If they need a vector, they’ll ask for it.
My first thought. Aviate then communicate. They gave him everything he needed. Great job.
@@barrett313I agree asking him repeatedly to come up on the radio or ident was a bit much, but broadcasting terrain, altitude, and weather conditions in the blind may have been helpful.
@@barrett313 You couldn't be more wrong. ATC was giving him all the information he needed, not requiring a readback. If he can't talk and needs to fly then we understand, but we have to give him all the info he needs to get out of the situation. I hope you aren't a pilot or ATC, you're dangerous.
Well done by everybody to try to help him out. I liked the blind call of clear for any approach. He was clearly doing everything he could just to keep it in the sky.
Wow, that was a fast post. Just saw the live press conference on the Boston news 15 minutes ago! They mentioned the pilot was responsive during rescue. He was removed through front windshield. He was brought to a local hospital but has since been transferred into a Boston trauma center.
thanks for the information.
He's conscious now from what I read
I don't want to even think about the struggle he was going through. I hope he pulls through and gets some time off in a warmer climate.
The fact that the pilot survived is a miracle. I pray for a speedy recovery!
I was in my house doing my morning prayers when I heard him over my house and knew something was wrong - I started praying for him and specifically asked for his life to be spared and that he would not hit any houses….he did not!!!!
Me too and to aviation gods as well.
people crash all the time and live. Maybe save the miracle for actual miracles
@@SandraLisa636 close call
Yeah, poor guy. I felt sorry for him, just watching this. Hopefully he'll recover soon.
I think as pilots, we can get too comfortable flying in bad conditions. I’ve turned down flights all week in a BE-9L because ceilings all around were @ 200’ or less and single pilot IFR after losing an engine and shooting a single engine approach to mins is asking for trouble. Not to mention icing. Just because an airplane is FIKI capable, doesn’t mean we have to take it there, and for sure a BE99 cannot live in those conditions.
Indeed. Although I have never flown in more than light icing conditions when I was coursing my multi engine in the Seneca, I would definitely consider not only the capabilities of my aircraft but also my equipment and my own skills and limitations. Then I jumped to the Citation which is more sophisticated in that regard so I never had the real chance of fighting with my thoughts about dispatching my flight or not in a light twin. Love to read the experiences of pilots that fly those regularly.
Correct. It's not worth your life. I only had one close call for icing (over the mountains and couldn't get lower) and I never want to be in that situation again.
Good call on your part. I think there may be quite some invulnerability attitude or complacency among pilots who go out in weather like that. Just because a plane is capable of dealing with something doesn't mean you need to force the limits
Great call on your part! The only thing is that with these 135 companies such as mentioned in this video, if the weather is legal for takeoff and landing and you refuse to fly, the companies will most likely not take that lightly.
Sure, but we have no idea the actual situation. Just because someone gets socked in. doesn't mean they were "too comfortable flying in bad conditions". I was a crew chief in the Army and sometimes flying in less than ideal weather was part of the gig. There is no way to say this guy was "too comfortable". Sometimes stuff happens even in perfect conditions. It is easy to look at one aspect and dial into that.
You could tell that the ATCs desperately wanted to help Wiggins 1046. They were trying hard to figure out what was going on, to let him know he could return to the airport and they would help him, and that he was approaching an area of high terrain. Glad the pilot survived, and hope the ATC folks are doing alright.
A door from the crash was recovered a half block from my daughter’s house in Manchester …several miles from crash site
Stby for an update! Thanks for posting Victor!
What people may not realize is that at a small part 135, especially a cargo one. If you don’t fly you are either punished or fired. It could be possible the pilot was not comfortable with the weather but departed anyways due to toxic management. I would know, I fly the same aircraft for another 135 and experience this first hand. I hope he recovers and gets back to flying
Was just thinking this, par for the course for amf or really any of the low time 135 ops out there preying on inexperienced pilots
No, there is no punishment for refusing to fly.
@@buckmurdock2500legally there is no one getting fired for refusing to fly for safety reasons. However, refusing to fly enough puts you on the radar to get fired for a “hard landing.”
@@buckmurdock2500
But you might suddenly find you're not being scheduled for anything much anymore....
It's the same way McDonald's fires young people without having to fire them. Just reduce their shifts down to nearly nothing until they stop showing up.
And look where it gets them. Potential loss of pilot, hull loss with the impact on their schedule that comes with that, delayed or lost freight with consequent impact on customer trust, the certainty of an insurance hit, and of course the FAA comes knocking. Win win.
Well done! you posting so fast and perfectly, ATC and first responders and planning for first responders on the ground. A+ work by everybody is always so inspiring! and the pilot made it!
I grew up in Manchester NH and visited the tower at MHT last summer. Great guys work up there .
That's right near me. I work just off route 3 on the NH/MA border. It's raining heavily here and near freezing at ground level. HE SURVIVED! Brilliant. He crashed just off the road I take home.
Sighh, sad, he tried so hard to keep it flying by the looks of things. I pray he recovers fully. Thanks for the vid VAS, accidents we can learn from is its only saving grace.
Indeed. I hope this is of help for those light twin pilots
I saw this video before I saw the actual news story. This was like 4 hours ago. You're quick.
Thanks for watching
One time I flew through a blizard because I wanted to make it to my brother's birthday. I had so much ice on my plane I could only see through a tiny hole on the windshield. I got to the point I was point I was full power on my little twin Cessna and all I could achieve was a decent. Lucky for my I was already descending towards my destination. After I landed, the ramp agent just stood there looking at the plane. He said he had never seen so much ice on an airplane in his life. Mind you this airport was on the Nothern border between NY and Canada.
I do everything to avoid flying in snow now.
@TrainerAQ I had a similar experience early in my flying career 30+ years ago. I was a newly minted IFR pilot heading to a New Years Eve party in upstate NY with my wife. We got into some icing during descent and the windshield iced over. Couldn't see out the front windshield. I tried shooting the ILS but could see nothing at the DH. Came around for a second attempt and while shooting the approach I stuck my arm out the pilots side vent window (Piper Archer) and with a credit card was able to scrape a little hole in the ice, just enough to see the runway lights as I hit DH. When I landed I could not see anything and asked the controller if he could tell me when to turn to exit the runway. I was able to get to the taxiway with his instructions where we shut down and had a tug tow us in. The airplane was coated with 1/2 of ice all over. When I saw that my knees started to shake and I could hardly stand!!! Never did that again!!! Now have over 35 years and 10,000+ hours in the cockpit!
My friend, you were So Very Lucky to live through that experience. Glad you and your wife made it safely to the airport. But what led you to believe you could fly that route in those conditions?
@@autobreza7131 According to the weather reports the conditions we flew through were not expected to arrive for another hour after we landed. Between inflight rerouting and other delays and not the most accurate weather forecasting we got the short straw. Remember this was over 30 years ago and the weather forecasting was not as accurate back then.
@@eagle2019 Got it... even today it seems that NOTARs (to this non-pilot aviation enthusiast) are sometimes stale or incomplete. Really glad you made it home in demanding conditions!
@autobreza7131 Frank Borman, Apollo Astronaut, once stated, "A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skill."
Thankfully, that day i had the superior skill to keep us alive. Now a days i rely more on superior judgment!
ATC did fantastic, gave the pilot every chance he could to get it the airport, even stepping it down to avoiding obstacles in front of him as the last attempt.
I don't always comment but always watch everyone and like many comments per video. Thanks VAS and the quality commentors.
Thank you for watching
From a former airline pilot
...Even if equipped,
flying in known or unintentional icing conditions in a turbo-prop or piston gives me concern.
Almost lost a buddy flying a Saab turbo-prop commuter out of LAX due to flash icing, then flip in IMC.
If not for a sky pointer, the aircraft and 30+ pax would have been lost.
sky pointer?
Sorry I didn't detail@@leeksoup3199
Sky pointer: An instrument that literally always points up, regardless of the aircraft's orientation.
In a flip or spin in IMC, it's either the best or only way to know which way is up...and thereby, know the correct flight control inputs to recover.
Added comment -
My buddy recovered, then hit the boots, then actually flipped again, and hit the boots again. Nasty stuff.
@@MarcPagan thanks for explaining
It looks like everybody was trying their best to help the pilot.
Talk about continuing to fly the aircraft!
The longer it went on, the more I was routing for the pilot to pull off a landing even though I knew it was a crash.
I hope he does an interview with someone in aviation. What an incredible effort to get the airplane down.
I have 1000+ hours on the 99 and several in this tail. Glad the pilot made it, and hope for his recovery.
Was just watching the update from MHT Airport on WMUR (local NH news outlet).
i'm gonna say ice built up on the radio antennas and a good case of spatial disorientation....
Agreed. Just replaced an antenna last week. When loaded with ice they really get beat up.
If his windshield iced over hard that wouldve screwed it worse too.
Fly safe guys. The vis/cigs have been atrocious across the conus lately.
My county airport hasn't had a flight op since damn near last week. "Pure Michigan" weather.
@@jimmiller5600 jeez hopefully some relief soon. It's been difficult finding alternate airports for 121 dispatching.
@jimmiller5600 lol
Wow that's not far from where I live. Definitely looked like a gnarly day to fly, lots of moisture in the air, and only a few degrees above freezing at ground level. Glad they survived the impact, continuing to pray for them as they recuperate.
Wow. I watched this track on Flight radar 24 on my phone at lunch and.... there is already this video!!
VASAviation on point, you know
Heard a faint emergency from the pilot on your tapes about 3:25 in and sure sounds like a lot of noise in the cockpit. Weather was terrible - live just across the river sleet on the ground here - awful day. Critical in a Boston trauma center according to news of last hour. Looking at his track, he likely flew over downtown Manchester twice while paralleling I-293/NH101
Could you make a video of the 12/14/23 crash landing on I-26 in Asheville, NC? The pilot and passenger survived and it was amazing how calm they were.
Literally about 10 miles from me, happened 3 hours ago, and you already have the audio up.
👏 👏 👏
Scary stuff! skew t graphs are very important piece of information imho
This guy was busy as heck for a while trying to save himself, I'm glad he did and hope he didn't put himself in this position.
Who else would put the pilot "in this position" but himself? This is a harsh lesson that some pilots fail to heed and , even less, acknowledge.
@@gerardpully762 Amazing how many trained NTSB investigators are on this channel commenting today!!!
I’m sure ameriflight will put all the blame on him after pushing him to get the packages out on time
This guy is a WARRIOR!
Damn Victor that was quick that was this morning!
The reason for the accident was because he was distracted from his door flying off - not just because of the icing or the weather. Beech 99's have a "pilot hatch" door in the cockpit that is used to climb in and out of from a ladder kept behind the copilot seat. The pilot took off and only had one of the two hooks latched that keeps pilot hatch door shut. It appears he tried to re-latch the second hook in flight. As soon as you do this - the hatch opens up and rips off the plane and takes your $1000 headset with it. The pilot was left sucking in all the cold air and snow. Eventually he became disoriented and lost control of the plane and made impact with the ground. I use to fly freight in Beech 99s though inclement weather like this. It's certainly not for the faint of heart, but I want to let it be known - icing did not bring this plane down. They handle ice like a champ.
I hope Juan will be able to do a video on this incident 👍👍
yeah, he's usually lost on 135 ops.
Used to fly this plane on a daily basis out of KBUF. That’s wild!
Me too but out of KSLC
My best friend is a jetblue pilot and was driving by as they were pulling him out.
EXCELLENT job by ATC. Could you imagine the infamous Kahului Controller in this situation?
Hoping for a speedy recovery of the pilot.
There was a farm that was like a landing strip a mile ahead...He must have just missed those high tension power lines in the crash zone...
News said he just barely clipped the power lines, and crashed 100 feet from a houses. Sounds like he messed up himself, his planes, and the trees badly, but did a good job of not causing any serious damage or injuries on the ground.
. Probably the only reason he survived is because he attenuated his speed on those power lines...
This is the second Wiggins crash in the past six months. Another Beech 99 crashed nearby in Maine on a training flight in August, killing two aboard.
Wow the speculation here is just crazy. We don’t know what happened yet. Pilot would have stated his issue.
@essel23fly Yes it is amazing how many trained NTSB investigators are on this channel commenting today!!! So many keyboard experts!!!
I would try not to let them get to you if you can help it. I kinda like seeing what people might have to think on how it happened, lets me think about why I disagree with some points or think about different potential causes that I didn't think of. Its not like the judgement of the youtube comment section will change how the actual investigation is handled. At the end of the day we can just agree to be thankful that they got out of this one alive and that the NTSB will do a proper investigation before making any kind of decision.
@@IrishmanAC it doesn’t help you to speculate what happened to this pilot
Dang, I used to fuel N53RP in Lansing as part of the morning UPS Launch. So you're telling me in the past year Wiggin/Ameriflight had the incident in Lansing (where the pilot didn't remove the rudder lock), the crash of N55RP that killed the pilots, and now ANOTHER 99 incident?
The incident in Lansing, if I recall from the NTSB Final, was rudder trim related not rudder lock related. The aircraft had just come out of maintenance, during which the rudder trim was set full over and not re-centered, and the pilot did not check it before departing.
@@Joe-ef7sk Thanks for the correction; that's what to get for relying on my bad memory
I'm glad to hear that the pilot survived. I'm curious whether it was due to adverse weather conditions that hindered the normal operation of the aircraft. Did the radio equipment malfunction, or was the pilot too busy to respond to ATC due to other priorities?
I wouldn't be surprised with the track that he was going that he was struggling to control the plane. I'm going to guess iced wings with the temperature and the rain
If the pilot was having issues controlling the aircraft due to icing, it's likely that the radio antenna iced over too.
Even when ice, water blocks all but the lowest frequencies of radio waves.
When I say "all but the lowest" frequencies, I mean even things as low as the AM radio broadcast range down around 1MHz don't work thru water.
VHF for aircraft communications up in the low 100's of MHz would be significantly degraded thru even 1/2 inch of ice on the antenna, and if the aircraft is having control issues, I'm nearly certain that there was more accumulated ice than that.
@@44R0Ndin you don’t know this. If it’s really icing then the pilot would have said something. Like get me out of this icing. They heard him requesting an approach and he declared an emergency. Also his flying is very erratic, if you’re iced up you’d probably be just going straight trying to climb or descend
@@essel23fly
I know that I don't know this, if you'll read my original statement closely again you'll notice that I never claimed to know anything. I thought I was pretty clear that I was speculating, maybe I have to use the words "I'm speculating, but" in the future.
That looked like a desperate battle. If it turns out the pilot has survivable injuries then I'd say he won the battle.
Extreme example of “Aviate, Navigate, Communicate “
Extreme in that he failed to do any of them?
I noticed he appeared to climb when told the minimum altitude West of the airport was 2500.
Would it be plausible that antennas iced over and weren't able to sufficiently transmit and receive?
@@A.J.1656He stalled twice, possibly three times and recovered all of them before eventually going down. I’d say he did an excellent job at aviating and navigating.
Total flight time shows 17 minutes. That's a long time trying to decide something is wrong, especially after the first stall is 2 mins after departure. Declare emergency or just get back to the field. Plan, plan, plan.
His company departed MHT 20 mins after he crashed. Wild.
Obviously some sort of flight control issues, maybe icing. Pilot fought hard and did what you are supposed to do, never give up and fly your aircraft to the crash site. Probably what saved his life. Great job pilot, get well soon.
I think the fact the cockpit door blew off the aircraft had something to do with it.🤔🙄
@@AUNZAnonWe did not know that until today, the title has been edited
And the industry wants to approve single pilot airline operations! It's way too easy to become task saturated when things go wrong with no one to help.
We've had a couple weeks of freezing rain and generally terrible flying weather in New England lately
I bet you he never heard one call as he was so hyper focused on keeping Wings level and some kind of altitude before he lost Lift , it would appear he flew it to the crash site though good for him
looks to me that the pilots crew door departed the aircraft. It has happened before.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, did not having a door cause the crash, perhaps result in difficulty controlling the airplane or it crash because of some other issue?
It’s like trying to fly a twin turbine airplane skydiving and add 25mph to terminal velocity (120 mph) in freezing temps and precipitation. Headset was probably blown off, he might have been wearing glasses which would be gone, every piece of paper in the cockpit was lost (approach plates), IMC (Instrument Conditions) with no visual at all of the ground, very low ceiling, this pilot fought for his life for a full 15 minutes. He was able to get the airplane on a very ragged left downward and base turn to runway 35 before he went in. This guy deserves a Disguised Flying Cross as far as I’m concerned. I’m a 22,850 hour retired ATP.
You can tell that he fought that airplane all the way
This video doesn’t accurately display that he stalled at least two times, possibly a third time. Once after departure when the track turned South, again when it turned from West to East and possibly another time shortly thereafter. Aviate, navigate, communicate. Especially in a one pilot operation communication is the last thing you’ll do, and ATC will definitely be aware of your struggles.
Those controllers did everything they could.
My friend drove by the crash site today. Sad.
This happened literally 5 minutes from my house (I live in the Peppermint Corner area of Derry shown on the map.) Didn't hear anything about it until I saw this video.
Weather was shit today up here in Montreal probably the same system, definitely a recipe for icing, half raining half snowing at sea level. I wonder did the ice cover his antenna so bad he couldn't pick anything up, I know its aviate navigate communicate but he probably could have got a word in at some point. Hope hes doing well, definitely not a good situation to be in.
Brooo I bid for that Manchester run before the parent company handed it over to Wiggins! That’s wild
As someone who survived unforcast icing in the PacWest, I can tell you that past a certain point, the airplane does not want to fly, particularly on the tail.
I actually work at MHT, definitely the craziest thing to happen in a while
Wonder if Wiggins is going to start hiring FOs after this. There’s a good change a crew environment could’ve resulted in a different outcome for this one.
That flight path was VERY squiggly, must've been a butt clenching situation where each seconds feels way longer than normal. Glad the pilot survived!
I was iced a couple of times. Both within 2 hours of an excellent VFR weather briefing. One with losing altitude. Fortunately my decent rate, a vector to FAF, and the end on a runway coincided. Twice lost com temporarily with ice in solid IMC, once while on vectors heading straight to Pikes Peak. Fortunately came back on crossing I-25. Turned out to be a hairline crack in the antenna base. Used to fly X-country a lot at night. Plane dropped an exhaust valve and blew a cylinder off, daylight fortunately.
All totaled from personal experience, I guess flying isn't a good idea.
I'll stick to sailing now that I know that earth isn't flat, supposedly!. Lol
Crazy I heard this thing fly right over my house, I jumped out of bed and ran to the window in hopes to catch the plane to see whats up. But instead there was alot of cloud cover. From where I was the plane was struggling the Throttles were absolutely pinned and you can tell the pilot was fighting the aircraft to some capacity.
I did call this into the NTSB as I am directly under the flight path. Hopefully this helped with their investigation.
I'm seriously confused by the comments. Everyone is talking about icing, but what did that have to do with the pilot not communicating?
They’re reading the title of the video and assuming everything after that
If you were not able to control the aircraft, remember the order is aviate, navigate and then communicate. So he may have been doing some serious aviating while in heavy icing. If ATC can't help you, why spend the energy and time if there are more important things to do.
What does VAS stand for in VASavaiation?
I am very curious as to why icing would result in not communicating and flying erratically for several minutes.
That said, rain and mist, temperature 2c on the surface with low clouds? That's a recipe for moderate to severe icing right there. In fact, the BE99 manual specifically mentions that the airplane may not be able to keep up in conditions just like this.
@fastfiddler1625 Aviate. Navigate. THEN Communicate. This is drilled into pilots on day 1.When you are fighting to keep the plane in the air due to severe icing you don't have time to push the mic button. The flight path seemed to be that they were fighting to keep altitude.
It’s also entirely possible there was a radio communications failure. Ice buildup on the antenna(s) could have caused a receiving/transmitting degradation.
This is less than 30 minutes from my house, never knew. Weather is overcast and only a light rain, not windy. Wonder what happened that he wouldn't say anything at all. Probably a good thing the ground is very wet/soggy right now. Not sure on the "marginal weather + icing" in the video title, but I'm no pilot either. Temps are well above freezing and he didn't get very high.
Temps cool as you go higher. So freezing level would easily be in the clouds just a few thousand feet up.
I can't imagine being so task saturated that you can't even hit the ident button on the transponder. Glad no one on the ground got hurt.
@TheDAVE858 You sound like a highly experienced Commercial pilot. Can you tell us how many thousands of hours you have in the cockpit and what aircraft you fly??? Oh BTW I'm sure you can tell us where MH370 is???
probably never heard the request. Com antennas don't work so good when covered with ice.
Holy crap. Thought it was some kind of major failure
Those weather conditions are atrocious.
This crash happened just today???
Yes, at about 9am ET
What does the red letters LA on their flight details stand for?
Low Altitude
Very interested to hear what happened here. Based on conditions, control surfaces may have iced up but the lack of communication is what is concerning.
Maybe antennas built ice as well to a point that stopped working?
Aviate, navigate, communicate. He was struggling with the Aviate part so communicate was the least of his priorities
If you're already fighting the aircraft for control, airspeed, and altitude, then radio communication is your third concern, in order of highest to lowest priority.
Aviate, Navigate, Communicate, in order of decreasing priority.
If one of those is taking up too much of your time for the others to be done, you drop off the lowest priority one first, until all you're doing is flying the plane.
Comms should be last concern in situation like this
Yeah. Is he NORDO due to ice, radio malfunction, task saturation, or health emergency? I don't think he could have transmitted if he wanted to; that track allowed for one mayday. My money's on ICE but my best wishes are for a full recovery. And hat-tip to ATC & VAS.
For those of you that know much more than me, why did he attempt to land on 35 instead of immediately turning left to 17? was he too high up?
@@miketheperformer5972 hey boy, Daddy Trump is your president. ✊🏻✊🏻✊🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I just can't imagine how it would feel to stand there in the tower watching this plane, calmly trying to give the pilot information and not having any idea if they heard or not, and then watching the low altitude and the obstacle ahead...
Ironically, he probably survived because he attenuated his speed on those power lines...
Very strange communication from the pilot, clearly he was awake but not in control at all.
He was following directions, when they give him head and altitude he follows it. He's just unable to respond for some reason.
😢
Tough to listen to. Props to the controllers for not giving up on that pilot!
From the looks of the erratic flight path and lack of comms I’m thinking pilot medical problem.
Ten bucks it was icing. Fully loaded BE99 loaded with ice. Nasty icing conditions that morning down there all the way up here to Portland.
If anyone could explain, why does the ATC constantly request IDENT, when the pilots are already under stress and with increased workload?
i think its for planes that have issues with comms and that type of nature. so in this case the comms were not being transmitted so a ident is required so it lets the atc know that communication with that plane will be unsuccessful due to faulty/busted radios
Pressing IDENT is quick and the button is normally at an accesible place in the cockpit. They also request it when they suspect a kind of radio problem. They can't hear the pilot but they think pilots can hear them, so they have them click IDENT to know whether they are listening or not
Understood, thank you!
ATC is is not hearing any response from the pilot. They can't tell if the pilot can hear them, but has lost transmission capability, or is unable to respond for whatever reason. If the pilot can hear ATC and presses Ident on their transponder, then ATC will know they are being heard and can issue further instructions. It is (should be) an easy button push on the transponder that will cause that unit to transmit a signal that will highlight the aircraft on ATC's radar. These controllers continued to give instructions not knowing if they were heard at all, in hopes the pilot would hear and be able to follow them. Especially the low altitude warning. I feel for those controllers who try so hard to talk pilots in trouble back to safety only to see the return disappear into the ground. Thankfully the pilot lived. Hopefully he'll be able to debrief this flight and the aviation community can learn from this accident.
It appears that ATC never heard back from pilot about his situation and intention, if is just radio transmitting failure, ident is another way for pilot to acknowledge that he/she is still be able to receiving from atc.
Looks to me like some sort of pilot incapacitation.
Caused by the emergency exit door right next to him departing from the aircraft.
Lost the pilots entry door. Looks like
Alaska 1282 flashbacks
Just checking again. Let's check it out.
but what actually happened? why his plane crashed?
What likely happened was the control surfaces iced up, and the pilot was applying significant input force to keep the airplane flying. Keying his mic or pressing the IDENT button requires having a free hand.
aerodynamics don't work so good when the plane is covered with ice.
@@moconnell663I doubt it
Must've been horrifying for the ATC too. Hearing radio silence from the subject aircraft while clearly watching on the radar that they are struggling and eventually went off the radar. I can't imagine the pressure on the shoulders.
bet they could hardly sit still in their comfy chair, drinking coffee, thinking about what they could do when they get off work and drive home in complete safety. must be unbearable pressure.
i was working the time it took off from my work i work at kmht
Maybe ATC doesn't know about Aviate, Navigate, Comunicate?
The input for correcting tail stalls in icing is opposite for wing stalls. Adding flaps with tail icing is almost certain disaster. I hope the pilot's injuries are not too serious.
I don’t think icing was the cause of the crash as the plane kept flying for a good amount of time. Most likely the pilot suffered some medical issue that caused him to be disoriented. He might be suffering from vertigo and not having visual cues made it worse.
???
I’m honestly so tired of our airplanes not having even basic autopilots in some cases. Some do most don’t. Some cases like this may have been preventable
this was one of your planes? What happens if the autopilot is broke? Cancels all the scheduled flights until it's fixed?
Temp 2, dew point 0. Screw that.
in the midwest for most of the week it was +2 all the way to 10,000. No icing. It's called a temperature inversion.
yeah but the closeness to dew point temp sucks balls.@@buckmurdock2500
I was aware Wiggins flies Caravans for FedEx, wasn't aware they fly passenger planes as well. Prayers for a speedy recovery for the pilot.
this is a cargo plane
Not a passenger plane, Wiggins flies about 10 or so Beech 99’s. This one I believe was bought recently or is still contracted with Ameriflight as it still has the Ameriflight livery. Beech 99’s are still pretty widely operated but almost always in a cargo configuration. There were no passengers on board this flight, only the sole pilot.
@@Cellulardoor wiggins is owned by AMF.
Used to have bandits too
ATC tried everything they could.
I expect the pilot first got disoriented in IMC, then started icing.
Sometimes it is better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, instead of in the air wishing you were on the ground.
My flying in icing conditions is limited to RC models... Just to see what would happen.
The 5 lb model landed at full throttle wieghing 16 lb. Just 5 minutes in freezing rain.
??huh??
The pilot was clearly following directions (at least some of them), but never pressed IDENT. They didn't seem able to respond on the radio, but how would such a failure also affect their ability to IDENT? This uses the transponder, not the VHF radio. Was the pilot partially incapacitated, maybe?
The pilot was using all his concentration to save his life...
Pure speculation: If you're fighting the controls, the last thing you want to do is look for a tiny button you almost never use, then take a hand off the controls and press it. Even if the pilot could find and use the ident button without looking for it, I assume both hands were busy on the flight controls.
Aviate, navigate, and lastly communicate. That is how you fly under pressure. No other way to do it.