C-182 crashes near Needle Peak

[SpyPilot]

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/2-dead-after-cess ... -1.5669311

[pdw]

This tragedy is in the area where heaviest rains fell the day before (Sunday Nov14) causing the flooding in southwest BC.

[cncpc]

No point of origin, no destination so far.

5:30 pm in pitch darkness, likely bad weather, in a 182?

No CADOR yet.

Pilot and passenger brought to hospital in Chilliwack the next day.

[cncpc]

A 40 year old man and a 35 year old woman from Lloydminster. A couple with 7 children left behind.

From the comments below, it seems they were northbound on the trip.

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?p=4440368

[karmutzen]

"Disappeared from radar", a euphemism if I ever heard one. In that terrain it implies the 182R was high enough to be on radar in the first place, so 9K+? Cormorant couldn't get to it that night due weather, and they fly through almost anything. Needle Peak, so following the Coquihalla northbound, at night, in crap weather. Doesn't make any sense.

[cncpc]

Yeah, those questions are certainly out there.

At some point, he was high enough to show up on radar. In that area, the most likely radar head is the one on top of Fly Hills outside of Salmon Arm, on the west side. Going back in time a few years, a man from Thompson was enroute to Nanaimo and disappeared in a 172 with the last suspected hit at around 6000 where the Thompson flows into the Fraser,, or just about five miles east of there. Estimated or squawking 6000. But it wasn't any Canadian radar that picked that up, it was a US Border Patrol Citation just south of the border in Washington State.

At any rate, the temp at Hope at 5:30 that night was 6C. Expect freezing level at 3000 ASL, very likely a fair bit below where a radar return would be seen. If the Cormorant couldn't fly there, it had to be hard IFR.

Not likely a Hope departure. There are no lights at Hope.

A pilot friend reports that winds were gusting to 70 at Kelowna at that very time.

The 172 has never been found.

[‘Bob’]

….talking about all the time he was saving.

There’s the root cause of the accident.

There isn’t a thing in the world that would make me take a single engine piston aircraft over the mountains VFR at night in anything less than a waxing moon and crystalline skies verses parking the plane, getting a hotel, missing a day or several at home.

What a shame.

[crazy horse]

Flight aware trace is unbelievable.CFBKJ

[CpnCrunch]

Flight aware trace is unbelievable.CFBKJ

So is the gfa and metar. Icing, clouds, 40kt winds, cold front, 3sm in mist, etc.

[photofly]

….talking about all the time he was saving.

There’s the root cause of the accident.

There isn’t a thing in the world that would make me take a single engine piston aircraft over the mountains VFR at night in anything less than a waxing moon and crystalline skies verses parking the plane, getting a hotel, missing a day or several at home.

What a shame.

Or hangar it and fly home commercial, spend those days at home and go pick it up later. You’re not tied to the thing.

[AirFrame]

Flight aware trace is unbelievable.CFBKJ

Wow, they really tried flying around everything they could see on the way. Except for the towering cumulogranite.

[5x5]

….talking about all the time he was saving.

There’s the root cause of the accident.

There isn’t a thing in the world that would make me take a single engine piston aircraft over the mountains VFR at night.

I think you added a bit too much to your statement so I fixed it for you.

[FlyingSince1978]

There was a similar accident of a C182 from YYC hitting Needle Peak in June 2002

http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-repor ... p0109.html

[rookiepilot]

Cormorant couldn't get to it that night due weather,

Stopped reading original article following that statement. Nothing more needs to be said.

[‘Bob’]

….talking about all the time he was saving.

There’s the root cause of the accident.

There isn’t a thing in the world that would make me take a single engine piston aircraft over the mountains VFR at night.

I think you added a bit too much to your statement so I fixed it for you.

Where’s your sense of adventure? Done it lots. Safer than a V1 cut in most turboprops.

[CpnCrunch]

It wasn't night. 3:40pm is about 45 mins before sunset.

[Heliian]

Were they sightseeing first? It looks like they tried to get into hope but got blocked and tried for Merritt.

[CpnCrunch]

Were they sightseeing first? It looks like they tried to get into hope but got blocked and tried for Merritt.

Well, the weather didn't really seem conducive to sightseeing. I assume they were just trying to get through/around the clouds. Looks like 55kt wind from the west at 10,000ft, based on their track log.

[PitchLink]

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/2-dead-after-cess ... -1.5669311

Dicey weather in that area this time of year

[PitchLink]

Were they sightseeing first? It looks like they tried to get into hope but got blocked and tried for Merritt.

Well, the weather didn't really seem conducive to sightseeing. I assume they were just trying to get through/around the clouds. Looks like 55kt wind from the west at 10,000ft, based on their track log.

Agreed, sightseeing in that weather makes obvious nonsense

[cncpc]

It wasn't night. 3:40pm is about 45 mins before sunset.

I wonder where the 5:30 pm thing came from. I think that is the time in the Saskatchewan version of Lloyd.

[karmutzen]

I wonder where the 5:30 pm thing came from.

From the initial news report from CTV. Once the registration was known it could be plugged into FLIGHTRADAR24 for a track and time. Track is bizarre, wonder if he was in any contact with ATC. The 5:30 now appears ambiguous, as in when SAR was notified, not when it actually "disappeared" from radar. I don't know if the last track point was point of impact or how far from there it flew out of radar contact.

From "CTV" on the first post of this thread:
"Lt. Pamela Hogan told CTV News the CAF received a notification that a C182 disappeared from radar at around 5:30 p.m. Monday, and that a Cormorant search and rescue helicopter was dispatched to the area.
While the helicopter was forced to turn back Monday night due to inclement weather, the crash scene was located early Tuesday morning."

[Heliian]

Were they sightseeing first? It looks like they tried to get into hope but got blocked and tried for Merritt.

Well, the weather didn't really seem conducive to sightseeing. I assume they were just trying to get through/around the clouds. Looks like 55kt wind from the west at 10,000ft, based on their track log.

I was wondering what they were flying in circles around over the usa. If they were in the shit that early on in the flight, then why try to continue? I guess the flight school wasn't able to get that across.

[cncpc]

Unbelievable doesn't begin to describe this.

The airplane first appears at Nanaimo at around 7000 feet. So it likely came from somewhere else.

It then proceeds southeast bound, entering US territory, which would have required it to be in touch with some agency. It seems to be at some height. Then it heads north and is lost.

Surely there is some discussion going on in all of this. Surely he was being given options on how to resolve the issues. If one of the options was to land in Bellingham, or anywhere down there, it would have been mildly complicated by the need to clear in.

Anybody got any actuals, and GFA's. For where, yeah, who knows? Little idea where he came from, no idea yet where he was going.

It only seems slightly less absurd if it was daylight. While weather must have been the major issue, in the later stages, hypoxia may have come into it if no bottle in that airplane. It seems that he must have had it in his head that he would find holes to climb to VFR on top, and find other ones to descend in. That seems to be the likely explanation for those circling tracks.

Anybody find a CADOR?

[CpnCrunch]

Metars and taf are at Ogimet metars.
Gfa at Gfaarchive.info