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Possible CTLS down, Breezy Point, NY


paul m

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Looks like it was N622BT registered to an owner in NH.

 

Flightaware shows it departed KPNE for Portsmouth NH.

 

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N622BT

 

Quite a large stretch of water to fly single engine at night. Recorded track seems normal till Breezy Point then ends heading away from shore. No indication of a chute pull as yet.

 

Many small airplanes fly this route around the Class B and JFK. Quite a few have tried to , or attempted to, land on the beaches there if they had a problem.

 

Fog and mist reported in area. Body of a man recovered search called off till daylight due to lowering visibility and high surf.

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Looking at the FlightAware tracking data, the airplane never climbed above 1100' MSL.  So...night, over ~20 miles of open water, in a VFR-only light single, at no more than 1000-ish AGL...

 

Seems like the pilot stacked the deck mighty steeply against himself.  Of course there might be more to the story, so we'll have to wait and see.

 

The last radar track data before impact showed a descent rate of 615fpm.  Doesn't seem like a BRS deployment, unless he pulled at the last second and the chute was not fully deployed.  A BRS descent is usually about 1500fpm.  Almost seems like he lost awareness of his altitude and just descended right into the water.

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The strangest thing is the right turn near Breezy Pont having flown in a steady straight line pretty much right after take-off. To his left the bright lights of the Long Island shore-line with JFK in sight. To his right black sky, black ocean, and few lights except the numerous fishing boats out nearby so little visual reference. The FlightAware track ends heading southeasterly although he must have turned towards the shore  and descended further for the witnesses to report 'erratic behavior'.

 

Looking at the NY Class B he would have entered it at 1000' at Breezy Point unless he turned away to the right and that position corresponds to the edge of the Class B there, so I wonder if that's what he was doing. He could have run along the beach at low altitude and turned inland once clear of the Class B and avoided the Class C at Islip. 

 

 The report will determine if he was utilizing flight following and whether he was denied clearance into Class B and whether he lost control turning away to the right to remain clear.

 

Flying across that stretch of water at low altitude at night seems quite a risky proposition.

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The strangest thing is the right turn near Breezy Pont having flown in a steady straight line pretty much right after take-off. To his left the bright lights of the Long Island shore-line with JFK in sight. To his right black sky, black ocean, and few lights except the numerous fishing boats out nearby so little visual reference. The FlightAware track ends heading southeasterly although he must have turned towards the shore at and descended further for the witnesses to report 'erratic behavior'.

 

Looking at the NY Class B he would have entered it at 1000' at Breezy Point unless he turned away to the right and that position corresponds to the edge of the Class B there, so I wonder if that's what he was doing. He could have run along the beach at low altitude and turned inland once clear of the Class B and avoided the Class C at Islip. 

 

 The report will determine if he was utilizing flight following and whether he was denied clearance into Class B and whether he lost control turning away to the right to remain clear.

 

Flying across that stretch of water at low altitude at night seems quite a risky proposition.

 

I wondered about that too.  Maybe there was mist/fog or some other obscuration he was trying to get around?

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Interesting to look at his flight the day before which looks like his inbound flight to Philly.  The route looks like the same he was attempting but in reverse.  Of particular interest is him flying at 100 AGL around 8:05am for 3 minutes at on his inbound flight at looks to be the same point where he went into the water on his outbound flight.

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In a modern well equipped airplane like a CTLS he could have simply asked for help.  He could have squawked 7700 and headed inland toward the lights and the beaches. He could have contacted NY ATC and simply monitored their freq as he attempted to circumnavigate the Class B. He could have issued a MayDay with them if needed. Islip had a Class C not far away too and JFK tower isn't that busy at 8.00 pm after the departure rush.

 

 He could have declared an emergency and worried about the repercussions, if any, on the ground. He must have known he had a chute and he ended up only 1.5 miles from shore where it could have been better deployed.

 

I shouldn't try to second guess…but aviate, navigate, and communicate isn't always just when something bad happens.  Flying at night single engine VFR over water in busy NY airspace, get as much going for you as possible.

 

Tragic indeed.

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I wonder if he had an autopilot? Looks like the same scenario that happened to Young Kennedy a few years ago. If they would use the autopilot, it minimizes the chance of pilot disorientation when ground reference is lost.

Sad outcome never the less.

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The strangest thing is the right turn near Breezy Pont having flown in a steady straight line pretty much right after take-off. To his left the bright lights of the Long Island shore-line with JFK in sight. To his right black sky, black ocean, and few lights except the numerous fishing boats out nearby so little visual reference. The FlightAware track ends heading southeasterly although he must have turned towards the shore  and descended further for the witnesses to report 'erratic behavior'.

 

Looking at the NY Class B he would have entered it at 1000' at Breezy Point unless he turned away to the right and that position corresponds to the edge of the Class B there, so I wonder if that's what he was doing. He could have run along the beach at low altitude and turned inland once clear of the Class B and avoided the Class C at Islip. 

 

 The report will determine if he was utilizing flight following and whether he was denied clearance into Class B and whether he lost control turning away to the right to remain clear.

 

Flying across that stretch of water at low altitude at night seems quite a risky proposition.

 

I will say, having flown out from Destin Florida, that flying outwards towards the ocean at night is scary as hell (this is the departure procedure). I had to drop my vision to my instruments because, despite being a clear night with only a cloud puff or two, I absolutely could not tell where the horizon was due to all the lights pollution behind me drowning out the stars.

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I'm almost positive that this plane was the one that Adam Coffey sold two years ago. Prayers for all involved.

The plane I sold went to Brad McGee (shown here in the video the day he bought it).  I retained my tail number N764AC for future use.  This was a 2011 serial number CTLS that was delivered in April of 2012.  It was fully loaded with dual Dynon Skyview, Dynon A/P, Garmin 796.  At the time of my private sale to Brad it had 40 hours TTSN and was less than a year old.  At the time, I was ordering a new Jubilee CTLSi for me.

 

In checking the FAA website N622BT is registered to Brad McGee.  If that is the plane that went down, this would be the CTLS I sold him (used) in March of 2013.. Completely tragic.  Prayers to those involved.  

 

In looking at the flight tracking information the speed throughout the whole flight was constant right up until the end.  I'm sure the investigation will tell us but it appears to be a constant powered, controlled descent (if I'm reading the data right).  Some of you are more familiar with reading the tracking data than I.  I would expect the speed to vary if the engine was out, or the plane was diving in some type of control loss?

 

Low altitude, ocean at night, constant speed, seem to be clues.  This is a very tragic outcome.  Brad was a very nice man.  I pray for his family.

 

https://youtu.be/DcSQvOPoqNc

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Teams were still searching for the engine, and Moats said there were no flight data recorders on the plane.

 

From the linked article above.  Searching for the engine?  The engine is shown in the photos...

No flight data recorders?  FD locked out that feature out of Skyview too?  I suspect not. 

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Interesting to look at his flight the day before which looks like his inbound flight to Philly.  The route looks like the same he was attempting but in reverse.  Of particular interest is him flying at 100 AGL around 8:05am for 3 minutes at on his inbound flight at looks to be the same point where he went into the water on his outbound flight.

This was a very astute observation in my opinion.  I would not have personally thought to look that closely at the previous days flight.  There were many data points, you picked these 4 out in a list of 100 or more.  Without making any negative comment about the merits of flying 100 feet off the deck, it does seem to be another clue in the chain, not necessarily on the accident flight but rather just in terms of "risk level" that was "acceptable" to the pilot.  We all have our own personal limits and risk tolerances.  I know in my case I'd always prefer to be on the ground wishing I was flying as opposed to being in the air and wishing I was on the ground.

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When Adam posted this plane for sale in March 2013, I joked to CT_MATT and a few of our friends, "do you think that my wife would notice the difference?", if I swapped my plane for his. It was a great deal at the time! I saw this plane in person that July at FDUSA as the owner had a hard landing and it was substantial damaged. Firewall, gear leg and even the wingtips. Now this. It will be interesting to see the NTSBs take on it.

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Aside from and in no way to minimize the tragedy of Brad's death, it really bothered me to see the tangled mess in the water and on the truck and realize the plane was once mine.  I quite literally felt ill when I found out.  Look no farther than my avatar on my posts to see me standing next to it.  I have owned 3 planes, a piece of me remains connected to each one.  I rode around in this one with Brad before he headed off to NH back in March of 2013 with his wife, so we shared the cockpit together which somehow makes me feel even more like a part of me went down with him.  I will be watching for the NTSB's findings on this accident to be sure.

 

I didn't realize he had a hard landing shortly after buying it, I'll assume that FDUSA fixed that up and it was not a factor here 2 1/2 years later. I'm sure over the last 3 years he had built up quite a bit of time in it.  I know in my first CT it took about a year to feel good about landing it.

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Very sad indeed on the other hand I'm not sure for you guys in the US but in Australia my dynon skyview ADSB transponder transmit its altitude in ft corrected to 1013 hPa and that is the altitude displayed on flightradar24

So the 100ft altitude he was flying at mite not be actual altitude.

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