It wasn't me. But was a fellow cardiologist, who seemed to fly a lot, commercial, instrument rated. Very tragic. Apparently was around a 1000 foot deck with tops 1800, would be strange to have that sole precipitant of disorientation.

Radar track and audio of the crash:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cketg_L6E4

Some harrowing post-crash footage (warning, disturbing). 100LL provided a lot of heat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVaGU1AVQDE

 

That doesn’t mean a lot.
I know a few Commercially rated Private pilots.
There’s a difference.
Being legally ‘current’ and being proficient are two completely different standards.
You can fly every single day, if it’s from palm tree airport to palm tree airport in clear and a million then it doesn’t transfer over to IFR skills.
I’m not happy to say he couldn’t fly an ILS in an aircraft that likely had good equipment and an autopilot. Single pilot IMC is no joke.
He couldn’t track a localizer and couldn’t fly a climbing turn.
He had no business being where he was.

 

Looks like the marine layer that I've flown in there many times before.

But going in and out of clouds in a broken layer can be very disorientating for someone not prepared or trained for it. Even when prepared for it it can be annoying and not fun. Whether they are on IFR or VFR clearance, they have to transition to IMC flying, which some people are not prepared for, regardless of what their certificate says.

 

I agree, he lived in southern california and worked in Arizona, could have made that trip with less than 1 percent having any sort of clouds. That marine layer just doesn't look that bad on the day he crashed from pics and metars, but perhaps if he was not used to instrument flying in real life he may have just hoped he would break out and was still flying 'seat of pants.' Engines spinning until impact, but always a possibility of some other rare malfunction. Unfortunately I agree looks like disorientation. Those of us on the East Coast get a lot of real weather and thus practice I guess.

 

The second video, on scene, shows a multitude of first responders who acted together to ensure the home owner was out, and finally to tear down the fence to aid the home owners dog. Queries were raised about the UPS driver, and the occupants of surrounding houses. Those people were on the ball, thought and acted clearly, exercised good teamwork for people who appeared to not know each other, and acted in the face of a rapidly growing threat that had enough radiant heat it was setting fire to the bushes near the home. Given that they stopped to help and acted as they did, I'm suitably impressed. Nice job.

 

The guy was a collegue of my best friend from college. It was pretty cloudy that day. From the tape he sounds disoriented, not panicked from an engine or control failure. Instrument failure, AI? Plane was older, pretty sure it still had steam gauges.

 

Aaaaand.... Dan blames it on the vaccine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFAnWlxwgc8


His reference material is for a vaccine that's not even approved in the US.

 

Is he really rocking a hat that says “DTSB”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

One thing Dan did point out was the cloud cover. He made the point that it wasn't that bad, highlighting it on the video of the crash. Granted the pilot didn't get a lot of IMC time on that route but he was fairly experienced. I doubt the COVID thing but I suspect another medical issue caused the problem.

 

I've been in and out of those fields a lot. GA traffic gets stuck between terrain and the B above, and that's right where the clouds hang out. On a day like that you could log some actual, and that's exactly where we'd go to do it... practice approaches to MYF and SEE. Might not get much inside the marker, but you'd be in it pretty good on the vectors. You can definitely be in effective hard IMC in a broken layer, and false horizons can make it worse.

But I suspect something more was wrong, maybe a failed instrument. Maybe aggravated by the automation. The guy was overloaded and I don't think he knew why... he had enough experience that he would have just declared if he had a fire, engine out, etc.

He was relatively young, looked fit, and probably pretty healthy so not an obvious candidate for incap. But he was commuting home, maybe he did a 20-hour shift.