The Bermuda triangle strikes again

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While looking through the NTSB database for the month of January I found the following accident.
NTSB Identification: MIA00FA064

Accident occurred JAN-05-00 at ATLANTIC, AO
Aircraft: Cessna 172R, registration: N156RA
Injuries: 1 Fatal.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

On January 5, 2000, at about 2146 eastern standard time, a Cessna 172R, N156RA, registered to Cessna Aircraft Company, leased to Airline Training Academy, operating as a 14 CFR Part 91 instructional flight, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean about 4.1 miles east of St. Augustine Airport, St. Augustine, Florida. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. Components from the accident airplane washed to shore about 5 to 7miles north of St. Augustine Inlet, St. Augustine, Florida. The private pilot was located on January 6, 2000, and was fatally injured. The flight originated from Orlando, Florida, about 1 hour 31 minutes before the accident. According to Jacksonville approach the pilot contacted them at 21:41:51 and requested VFR flight following to Craig Municipal Airport, Jacksonville, Florida. The pilot was provided a transponder code, and identified at 2,500 feet. At 21:45:24, the airplane was observed on radar at 2,000 feet heading 013 degrees. At 21:45:51, the airplane was observed at 1200 feet heading 051 degrees. The pilot stated at 21:46:00, " Ah, JAX I do not see anything." Jax approach attempted radio contact with negative results. The airplane went off radar at 21:46:01.

Is this another case of the Bermuda triangle swallowing another aircraft?

Incidently, the reason I went to this particular page wasn't to look for any mysteries, but to compare the number of accidents post rollover with those reported prior to to rollover. There doesn't appear to be any significant difference in numbers. However I did note that there has been 9 times the number of incident/accidents involving C172s compared to MD-80s.

To look at the exact details for air accidents in any month just look at this site.

-- malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), February 22, 2000

Answers

Thanks for the report and for the link, Malcolm. It's my understanding that there are around 1100 MD80's in operation. Do you have any idea how many C172's there are? And, thus, how the "nine times" figures correlate?

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), February 22, 2000.

Woah nelly,

I tell you , there ain't no Y2k problems in the 172. That thare airplane control surfaces are controled by cable and pulleys. As unsophisticated a flying beast as there ever was. No buffers on that one, Hawk ;)

Them little bitty planes are known as "Doctor Killers", and there are a bunch of em out there. The reason there are more accidents in 172s than MD-80s, or any other commercial airliner is that the training and experience level of the pilots in the 172s are much less than the big guys.

Also, the 172 is used as a primary trainer. And is the logical first plane for many new pilots.

Sounds like he flew into a cloud, or got disoriented at night, A La JFK Jr.

Jest a Dum ol' Pilot Who Sez:

"Little planes crash more than big planes"

-- Jestadumb (old@pilot.com), February 22, 2000.


Unless this Person was also someone,who needed to be gotten rid off,like JFK jr.,by People who saw his political or other Potential.

-- 007 (QQ@QQ.QQ), February 22, 2000.

Jestadumb, Perhaps I should have tried to show just how far my tongue was pushed into my cheek when I submitted that little titbit of information.

And for the record, I am Chief Flying Instructor (voluntary) at the local flying club where we fly gliders and C172s.

-- Malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), February 22, 2000.


Malcolm

I knew that! Just assumed Justadumb had misread what you had written and had misunderstood why I had asked the questions I did. For that matter, perhaps you did too. I will try to clarify. By saying the Cessnas had more incidents than did the MD80's, you were implying that the MD80 incidents were irrelevant in terms of y2k. Neither you nor I mentioned y2k in our posts. My question of you went along the lines of: if there were 10 out of 1100 incidents with the MD80, the correlating 90 Cessna incidents would be out of what total number of airplanes? Then a more accurate comparison of percentages for the two types of airplanes could be made. Does that make sense?

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), February 22, 2000.



The pilot stated at 21:46:00 "Ah, JAX I do not see anything."

At 21:46:00 (9:46PM) on 5 Jan 2000, it was nighttime and a student pilot was flying VFR over water, with no filed flightplan. Same type of situation which JFK Jr found himself in.

No visual references to keep his plane level and he probably was not well trained for what to look for to visually pick up an airport at night. The classic "death spiral" was the likely result.

This is the largest class of "Bermuda Triangle" crashes which occur nowadays, private pilots with less than 100hrs flying, out flying VFR 5 to 10 miles offshore and losing sight of the land in the haze.

I almost lost my younger brother that way, but he got re-oriented and got back into sight of land. He never flew off-shore again while he lived in Florida. From then on he preferred to take his chances flying over the Everglades.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), February 22, 2000.


Malcolm,

Rogah! Tongue in cheek mode copied!

There appears to be lotsa expertz in aviation here, ya know, all that talk about buffers and what not!! Sorry for the misread on the clearance!

Jest a dumb ol' Pilot who sez:

"Squawking 1200 on Y2K, CAVU" ;)

-- jestadumb (old@pilot.com), February 22, 2000.


Rachel, I really have no idea how many C172s there are operating. Certainly here in NZ it would be the most popular light aircraft, and for that reason alone I know I shouldn't have tried to compare it with a large commercial aircraft.

An MD-80 carries around 50 times the number of people, flies at 5 times the speed, and is probably in the air for 40 to 50 times the number of flying hours of a C172. The MD-80 has two very experienced pilots on board, both of whom hold all the required ratings for the potential conditions they may meet, while the C172 will generally have a relatively inexperienced pilot, often flying at the limit of his ability.

I would expect to find plenty of C172 incidents for every large commercial carrier incident, and that is exactly what the statistics do show.

-- Malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), February 22, 2000.


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