Plane crashes into a house at Chelsea, in Melbourne's south-east

[FlyingVizsla]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-14/plane-crashes-into-a-house-at-chelsea/5812548

 

 

 

A light plane has crashed into a house near The Strand at Chelsea in Melbourne's south-east.

 

 

 

Victoria Police said they received numerous calls from people saying a small aircraft appeared to be experiencing engine problems before it plummeted into the property about 1.30pm AEDT.

 

 

[maddog63]

Pilot has been confirmed deceased. Condolences to family and friends on this trdgic news.

 

 

[turboplanner]

The Strand is a very short street in a very narrow band of residential development between Port Phillip Bay and Nepean Highway.Nortwest of Nepean Highway is open paddocks, parklands, golf courses etc.

 

 

[maddog63]

Police are saying the aircraft may have been homebuilt. They are confident they know who the pilot is but this is to be confirmed and that there has some debrise found along the flight path but are uncertin if it belongs to te aircraft.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

it was smashed to pieces

 

 

[Ignition]

He wasn't gliding, webtrak shows 6-9000fpm and increasing descent rate. From 3000ft, cruising along the beach, to impact in 20 seconds.

 

I assume from that it would have to be structural or medical related.

 

 

[ave8rr]

http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2014/aair/ao-2014-164.aspx

 

This is the second RV-6/A in just a couple of weeks.

 

Condolences to family and friends.

 

 

[Cosmick]

Airframe

 

Year of Manufacture:1999

 

Country of Manufacture:AUSTRALIA

 

First Registered Date:04 July 2003

 

Airframe:Power Driven Aeroplane

 

Landing Gear:TRICYCLE-FIXED

 

Engines

 

No. Engines:1

 

Manufacturer:AERO SPORT POWER

 

Type:Piston

 

Model:IO-360-B1B

 

Fuel:Gasoline

 

Propeller

 

Manufacturer:HARTZELL PROPELLERS

 

Model:HC-C2YR-1BFP/F7497-2

 

Certification

 

Certification Type:ABAA-92

 

CDA Data A:Experimental

 

 

[pmccarthy]

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/chelsea-plane-crash-plane-nosedives-and-hits-houses/story-fnizu68q-1227090101652

 

Lot of photos

 

 

[flyerme]

I have a friend who witnessed this tragedy.

 

Condolences to the pilots family and my heart goes out to all that witnessed the

 

event.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

From a friend this afternoon ..

 

That RV that went into suburban Cheltenham today ( near Moorabin AP )

 

was being flown by one of my Chapters members it seems, his name

 

hasn't been released but it was his plane and he never let anyone else fly

 

it..........and he's not answering his phone......so 2+2+2.....

 

He was an experienced pilot and his plane was nicely maintained, so who

 

knows the cause, there were TV reports of some part of it that was found

 

a long distance from the crash site.

 

No-one on the ground was hurt ( reportedly due to his flying ), so small

 

mercies. The next Chapter meeting isn't going to be too cheery.

 

 

[turboplanner]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/hero-pilot-praised-for-avoiding-disaster-in-chelsea-light-plane-crash/story-fni0fit3-1227090649881

[turboplanner]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/homemade-aircraft-in-fiery-suburban-crash-tops-accident-figures/story-fni0fiyv-1227091877323

[turboplanner]

Chelsea3 is a Melway view of the intersection of The Strand and Camp St. Camp St is the first street parallel to the beach

 

Chelsea2 shows Moorabbin Airport in the circle and the crash site as the red dot

 

Chelsea1 shows just how close site was to the beach.

 

Depending which runway he took off from, Cameron's 3000 feet point would be a very steep climb.

 

 

 

 

 

[poteroo]

Chelsea3 is a Melway view of the intersection of The Strand and Camp St. Camp St is the first street parallel to the beachChelsea2 shows Moorabbin Airport in the circle and the crash site as the red dot

Chelsea1 shows just how close site was to the beach.

 

Depending which runway he took off from, Cameron's 3000 feet point would be a very steep climb.

Perhaps achievable @ 1500 fpm and 90 kts climb, especially if wind was E/SE at time. RV6 with a CSU instead of FP would not have had as good gliding radius, but the beach was only a second or two's glide @ 75 kts? Hope the ATSB can determine the root cause. RIP fellow RV'er. poteroo

 

 

[Ignition]

The climb rate was around 1200-1500fpm.

 

He took off around 1:23:00, was level at 3000 at 1:25:30 (roughly 2.5 minutes), then 30 seconds later at 1:26:00 something has gone wrong and 20 seconds after that at 1:26:20 was the impact into the ground.

 

It looks like he took off from Runway 17 R.

 

 

[acro]

sounds medical...he was an old guy

 

 

[ave8rr]

really? he clearly tryed to make the beach and called the tower before

Reported this morning in the local paper.

(The cause of the crash was still a mystery, but authorities have revealed that the pilot made no distress call).

 

Mike

 

 

[acro]

really? he clearly tryed to make the beach and called the tower before

the rate of descent, no call, last minute maneuvering, yes it sounds medical not mechanical.

 

 

[alf jessup]

The aircraft involved used to reside at West Sale (think it was actually built there), met the fellow a number of times and seemed a lovely old fellow, originally had a modified Toyota auto engine of some sorts in it but had endless trouble trying to get the cooling and HP right, watched it one day take over 3/4's of the 1530m runway to get airborne.

 

He eventually gave up on the Tojo engine and put a lycoming in it, haven't seen it around for awhile so not sure if it was relocated closer to where he lived in Melbourne.

 

May he rest in peace and condolences to his family and friends.

 

Alf

 

 

[poteroo]

The climb rate was around 1200-1500fpm.He took off around 1:23:00, was level at 3000 at 1:25:30 (roughly 2.5 minutes), then 30 seconds later at 1:26:00 something has gone wrong and 20 seconds after that at 1:26:20 was the impact into the ground.

 

It looks like he took off from Runway 17 R.

If your times are correct - then 20 secs to lose 3000 ft is certainly not a controlled glide. An RV6 should glide at approx. 70kts with a 700-800 fpm ROD. At that rate, there should have been over 3 minutes of gliding time @ 70 kts to locate the aircraft in a more suitable area. That's over 3nm, or 5-6 kms. Even if you took the descent as commencing at 1:25:30 - that's 3000 ft in 50 secs which is 3500 fpm. Not a survivable descent rate.

 

These numbers don't correlate well with witness statements that have appeared, but there will be more to come when ATSB get to work.

 

 

[Keenaviator]

The climb rate was around 1200-1500fpm.He took off around 1:23:00, was level at 3000 at 1:25:30 (roughly 2.5 minutes), then 30 seconds later at 1:26:00 something has gone wrong and 20 seconds after that at 1:26:20 was the impact into the ground.

 

It looks like he took off from Runway 17 R.

To lose 3000' in 30" is 6000' per minute. That's a pretty radical rate of decent. This is not consistent with controlled flight. RIP fellow flyer. Laurie.

 

 

[facthunter]

Acro, You are merely stating a view. You haven't made a case for it.. Nev

 

 

[Chook1964]

I saw what clearly looked like a Lycoming in some of the news footage.It was painted bright red.

 

 

[dlegg]

He had already used up some of his lives:

 

THE man who died after his homemade light plane plummeted into a suburban Melbourne home on Tuesday had survived one of modern aviation’s most terrifying and avoidable disasters.

 

John Stephenson, 77, was on board United Airlines Flight 811 with his wife when an issue with air compression caused the cargo door to break open during the flight.

 

The plane had taken off from Honolulu Airport when, at 23,000 feet, differences in air compression caused the plane began to break apart.

 

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/light-plane-victim-john-stephenson-survived-one-of-modern-aviations-most-terrifying-disasters/story-fnizu68q-1227092580169