Why on Earth did they fly?

[basys]

Hi Folks

Absinthe?
Heavens above!
Do people still drink that stuff??

Guess so
looking at
[img]http://link%20suspended/RandomImages/Dragon150.jpg[/img]





By Green Fairy
I'd thought Chris mean't Crème de menthe. ;-)



ATB
Paul

[airbee]

I cannot find a reference yet to the accident on the AAIB site. However from additional reporting bits and pieces - It appears that in addition to being 'over the limit' both of the pilots were not qualified to fly in poor weather and were, at the time of the accident, carrying or incurred a possible failure of the primary attitude indicator whilst flying into conditions of very heavy cloud.

Additional: This from 'The Press And Journal'
'An official report by the Air Accident Investigation Branch published yesterday revealed Mr Smith had 99 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The limit for flying planes is 20 microgrammes.
Jackie Smith was more than twice the limit, with 48 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.
The report also said Mr Smith’s licence had been revoked less than three months before the crash because he had not undergone a health check, and Miss Smith’s licence had also expired although this could have been an oversight.
The plane was dangerously overloaded when it took off in cloudy weather, despite neither Mr Smith nor his daughter being qualified to fly in clouds, stated the report.
The report reveals that the plane had no technical faults apart from a failed vacuum pump which would have caused the attitude indicator to become unreliable.
The investigators said: “The characteristics of the final flight path, particularly the high airspeed, the rapid descent and the rate of turn, were consistent with a loss of control following spatial disorientation.
“The vacuum-pump failure, the commander's lack of instrument flying training and his apparent high blood alcohol level, all contributed to the spatial disorientation.”
The report contains four safety recommendations relating to the maintenance of vacuum pumps.
The high alcohol level would have affected the three “crucial organs" needed to fly the plane – the brain, the eyes and the inner ear.'
Who knows whether the presence of alcohol may also have contributed to that faulty decision to fly at all in the known conditions..

[Garry Russell]

All by the way really as when sober he knew he was not licenced so should never have been there in the first place.


Garry

[Tarasdad]

For several years I worked as a police/911 emergency dispatcher. All to many of the incidents I dispatched officers, ambulances and fire and rescue units to were alcohol related. It's reinforced an already very strong dislike of alcohol and how it affects people. When I read about incidents like this one I can't find any sympathy for the main actor (in this case the father) but only for the innocent victims of his stupidity. May sound harsh, but you don't have to handle many fatal accidents for your tolerance to hit zero.

[DispatchDragon]

Ive sat and read and reread the posts here, and the article

I feel that as usual it appears the media treat this as something "new" it isnt

and I quote :

"The PIC was seen by several witness's in the refreshment tent during the course of the afternoon talking to one of the passengers
and drinking brandy"

"The PIC was heard to say at approximatly 1630 as he and the passenger walked to the flight line "Lets go and give Hotel Echo a thrashing"

"The PIC had on several occasions allowed the occupant of the right seat of the aircraft take the controls , The Occupant held a SPL with
approximatll 26 hours TT."

The PIC elected to use the shorter uphill runway (24) towards the Hangars and Car parking area although the wind favored the longer
North-South runway.

The Aircraft was estimated to be 120# below MTOW

It is not known who was at the controls, the only witness, the 13 year old boy in the rear right seat maintains that the PIC taxied the airrcaft
to the end of the runway.

The aircraft was seen to break ground approximatly 2/3 of the length of the runway and immeadiatly pitch up to an extremly high AOA and climb to
approximatly 250ft QFE - the aircraft then performed what aperead to be a stall turn to the left, the aircraft was still in a steep (in excess of 60degree\
nose down) attitude when it struck the first line of cars in the parking area.

Autopsy revealed that the PIC had four times the legal allowed amount of alcohol in his sytem

Those quotes were from an AIB report dated 1966 so , as I said there is nothing new

Leif

Sorry June 26th is approaching rapidly and it will 42 years - and it still seems like yesterday

[basys]

Hi Folks

AAIB report - Piper PA-28R-201T Turbo Cherokee Arrow III, G-JMTT

ATB
Paul

[Quixoticish]

especially after a night playing with the green fairy.

Absinthe? Heavens above! Do people still drink that stuff?? In York???

Ian

On a hot summers day a good French Absinthe over ice with chilled water simply can't be beat. None of this daft burning it and setting it on fire or shotting it, it should really be enjoyed. I tend to avoid the stuff in pubs and clubs, it's usually Czech stuff and is pretty much toilet cleaner, although occasionally you may find some La Fee which is passable albeit dyed rather than naturally coloured. I have to admit to being something of an absinthe snob at times.