BE20 forced landing Prince George

[propfeather]

https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/loc ... r-12690102

Yikes, looks like lots of powerlines and a curved road from the photos. Good job keeping it on the road.

[Eric Janson]

This should be an interesting report - how on earth do you end up there with a twin turboprop?

[Rquick]

This should be an interesting report - how on earth do you end up there with a twin turboprop?

Too much air in the fuel tanks is often a leading cause of this type of event.

[7ECA]

One fatality has been confirmed from someone in a vehicle struck by the aircraft. Details are fairly scant though, as to the circumstances.

Indeed it is rare for a King Air to have a dual engine failure, or really any twin-PT-6 powered aircraft. There was a video floating around yesterday apparently taken by a pax onboard showing the aircraft descending dead stick with oxygen masks deployed in the cabin.

[Daniel Cooper]

Rest in peace to the deceased motorist. I've wondered what I would do if the road I was landing on had cars on it. I imagine it's hard to override your survival instinct.

[cncpc]

Rest in peace to the deceased motorist. I've wondered what I would do if the road I was landing on had cars on it. I imagine it's hard to override your survival instinct.

I have landed on a road with cars on it, but it was a dual carriageway, the Coquihalla about five miles north of the old toll booths. Broken prop on a Challenger. So, certainly one of the factors is what kind of airplane, what stall speed, etc. I think that whether its two lanes or six, land in the same direction as traffic. If you can, plan it to arrive at flare height about 15 knots above your normal flare speed. You want a speed that is a bit faster than traffic, and to use whatever maneuverability you have to pick a large gap. You then pass over the vehicle you want behind you, settle into the space and hold off well into ground effect to let traffic behind you slow down. Touch down, if you can avoid braking while you get to the shoulder.

Obviously different situation in a two lane, but I think you will find that people coming the other way twig to the fact an aircraft is in trouble early on and do their part to get to the side and avoid a head on. Most people.

[cncpc]

I hear that the aircraft departed that old Herc strip at Sturdee River. There is fuel there. 260 nautical to PG.

I may be wrong, but I would think an engine would have to be developing power to have enough energy in the prop to fracture it at the hub, probably from contact with a vehicle.

Pilot worked last year around Smithers. Not a lot of multi time, if any, when he was there.

[7ECA]

https://globalnews.ca/news/12030605/pri ... ing-power/

Engine failure enroute at some point, and couldn't make the airport. But, based on (a potentially unreliable witness, one driver who was slightly injured when their vehicle was hit) it's being described as two out on landing.

@cncpc: What are the odds, though, of that prop that separated at the hub being sheered off simply from hitting a vehicle? Hypothetically, if it was that engine that packed it in and was shutdown with the prop feathered and either during touchdown or rollout a vehicle made contact with one of the blades that might be enough force to shear the prop off.

[cncpc]

I did see a picture of the prop somewhere. Don't remember if there was longitudinal bending backwards or forwards. But, your scenario is valid.

[cncpc]

[Inverted2]

Didn’t look like either engine was producing power from the photos. No bent blades.

[‘Bob’]

Pretty sure feathering props is SOP after touchdown off strip regardless of whether engines are turning.

RIP to the victim.

[cncpc]

Pretty sure feathering props is SOP after touchdown off strip regardless of whether engines are turning.

RIP to the victim.

Can you feather props when they aren't turning?

Is the still attached prop feathered?

[cncpc]

Pretty sure feathering props is SOP after touchdown off strip regardless of whether engines are turning.

RIP to the victim.

Can you feather props when they aren't turning?

Is the still attached prop feathered?

[propfeather]

Pretty sure feathering props is SOP after touchdown off strip regardless of whether engines are turning.

RIP to the victim.

Can you feather props when they aren't turning?

Is the still attached prop feathered?

A PT6 should feather as soon as oil pressure is lost (shut down or loss of oil) unless blade latches are installed (not installed on a king air). Regardless of prop lever position, if you're on the ground.

I'm struggling to think of a reason for a king air to have to land on a road unless both engines had quit. Or one failed with the other not producing much power.

[pelmet]

Pretty sure feathering props is SOP after touchdown off strip regardless of whether engines are turning.

RIP to the victim.

Can you feather props when they aren't turning?

Is the still attached prop feathered?

Some propeller types can be manually feathered when not turning. I have personally done it many times as part of a maintenance procedure. Different aircraft/propeller type though.

[co-joe]

This should be an interesting report - how on earth do you end up there with a twin turboprop?

Too much air in the fuel tanks is often a leading cause of this type of event.

Or contaminated fuel. That's about it.

[cncpc]

This should be an interesting report - how on earth do you end up there with a twin turboprop?

Too much air in the fuel tanks is often a leading cause of this type of event.

Or contaminated fuel. That's about it.

There are jet pumps at Sturdy strip. Mining companies doing a lot of heli work in the area. No info on where it was last fueled.

Hard to not see fuel as just about the only issue in this.

[cncpc]

This should be an interesting report - how on earth do you end up there with a twin turboprop?

Too much air in the fuel tanks is often a leading cause of this type of event.

Or contaminated fuel. That's about it.

There are jet pumps at Sturdy strip. Mining companies doing a lot of heli work in the area. No info on where it was last fueled.

Hard to not see fuel as just about the only issue in this.

[yrp]

Too much air in the fuel tanks is often a leading cause of this type of event.

Or contaminated fuel. That's about it.

There are jet pumps at Sturdy strip. Mining companies doing a lot of heli work in the area. No info on where it was last fueled.

Hard to not see fuel as just about the only issue in this.

Could it be contaminated fuel after an hour or two of flying? (An actual non rhetorical question, I would assume not, but happy to hear from someone more knowledgeable).

From someone working near Sturdee, fixed wing charters are not typically refuelling at the airstrip. They think there is fuel there for the helicopters though.

From ADS-B, this was the second of two round trips to Sturdee that day. About 260nm. They were on the ground at YXS for an hour, ought to be time to refuel.

[yrp]

Here is the ADS-B track from adsbexchange.com:

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=c0 ... rackLabels

Previous track for the day shown for comparison.

GEDV - Copy.png (1.92 MiB) Viewed 1517 times

[co-joe]

Could it be contaminated fuel after an hour or two of flying? (An actual non rhetorical question, I would assume not, but happy to hear from someone more knowledgeable).

From someone working near Sturdee, fixed wing charters are not typically refuelling at the airstrip. They think there is fuel there for the helicopters though.

From ADS-B, this was the second of two round trips to Sturdee that day. About 260nm. They were on the ground at YXS for an hour, ought to be time to refuel.

It's a stretch for sure. The PT6 will burn any flammable liquid, so the wrong fuel type wouldn't lead to a failure. Water or debris could certainly take an hour to become a factor, water causing ice crystals at altitude, and blocking fuel filters would take time to develop, but Pratts have oil to fuel heat exchangers that should mitigate this, and the chance of that affecting both engines is remote. Conceivably some kind of contaminant causing an engine problem and then mismanagement by the crew maybe, or a mismanaged fuel leak.

More than likely, the contaminant was air in the tanks. Beech capacitance type fuel gauges are notoriously inaccurate when not expertly maintained, but any competent pilot knows not to trust them and use a calculator with fuel receipts to back up the gauges.

[FL030]

Yep, let's be real. This thing ran out of gas.

[goodlife]

While it may initially have looked like running out of fuel, an aircraft that maintained 2700ft for 90 seconds while slightly increasing groundspeed isn't out of power from both engines. Something else is going on here.

[cncpc]

If fuel exhaustion caused this crash, the tanks would have been empty sitting there on the side of the road. TSB will have checked them by now. To their credit, they have recently been divulging key information within days of accidents. Certainly, I would expect them to have said the aircraft ran out of fuel by now. How did that happen? Yes, that is for down the road. But empty tanks, there is no reason for holding that back.

Was there a Mayday when the left quit? If there was, what did the pilot say his intentions were? Surely he couldn't have said, "Landing on a road" with fuel and the right engine doing just fine.