Private aircraft crashes at Tampa

It's a shame people die because of pilot laziness and carelessness. Here's how it happens. These aircraft sit out in the weather where water condensation builds up in the fuel tanks. Then a pilot decides to go fly. He drains water from the fuel tank with a drain valve, but depending on how long the aircraft has been sitting effects how much water condensation has gathered. Aviation gasoline is a light blue color and in some light it's hard to see. Some pilots finish by draining a little fuel on their finger to feel the cold fuel evaporate. However here in Florida the heat and humidity mask the fuel's coolness. The tragedy happens when the pilot starts the engines and lets them and manifold heat up as they taxi out to the runway. At this point the engines are running on fuel that was in the fuel lines not the fuel tanks. The pilot takes off with everything looking good until watered fuel gets to the engines. Usually between 1,500 and 3,000 feet in the air the engines quit for lack of good fuel. It happens less often in the northern climes where the finger test of fuel feels colder than water. Also, It's the pilot with about 2000 hours of flying that will be the most careless of flying safety needs. Physicians are the highest risk group for flying accidents.

Very interesting, but is there not a more precise manner to bleed the water off with certainty? I know that my friends in south Florida put these bags in their closets which collect the humidity in the closet and convert it to water which every couple months they exchange it out. Would not the same de-watering technology be better than manually feeling the jet fuel as you bleed it off?

2seaoat wrote:Very interesting, but is there not a more precise manner to bleed the water off with certainty? I know that my friends in south Florida put these bags in their closets which collect the humidity in the closet and convert it to water which every couple months they exchange it out. Would not the same de-watering technology be better than manually feeling the jet fuel as you bleed it off?

"is there not a more precise manner to bleed the water off with certainty?"

Yes there is water detection and shunting devices but I suspect they're cost prohibitive for most private aircraft. They're found on most all jet aircraft so far as I know.

I suspect they're cost prohibitive for most private aircraft

I have told the story of a friend who was flying an experimental plane which crashed into a Publix Store where he was severely burned and died twenty days after the crash. His family has been devastated because you cannot insure experimental aircraft and the Publix store alone is suing his estate for over 30 million. He was very successful, but his wife is going to be literally penniless after the lawsuits. It just seems with all the remarkable safety of large commercial planes, they could become more stringent on private plane safety. However, folks like the freedom......and yes the risk of flying these planes.

2seaoat wrote:I suspect they're cost prohibitive for most private aircraft

I have told the story of a friend who was flying an experimental plane which crashed into a Publix Store where he was severely burned and died twenty days after the crash. His family has been devastated because you cannot insure experimental aircraft and the Publix store alone is suing his estate for over 30 million. He was very successful, but his wife is going to be literally penniless after the lawsuits. It just seems with all the remarkable safety of large commercial planes, they could become more stringent on private plane safety. However, folks like the freedom......and yes the risk of flying these planes.

There is a new category of aircraft called "sport aircraft" which is more regulated than "experimental", safer to fly and is more expensive than ultralight and experimental. However, all these aircraft can be fitted with a parachute jettisoned safety chute that lowers the aircraft to the ground in the event of an engine failure.

FYI Slice, I believe that the crash happened in Fort Lauderdale and not Tampa. The plane had just taken off from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport when the pilot experienced engine failure and was attempting to make an emergency landing back at the airport.

Regardless of Fort Lauderdale or Tampa it was still an unnecessary tragedy.

In edit: My apologies, this thread is about a different crash and not the one in Ft. Lauderdale. Pardon my ignorance.

2seaoat wrote:

I have told the story of a friend who was flying an experimental plane which crashed into a Publix Store where he was severely burned and died twenty days after the crash.

play the video on this page to see the scene and hear the 911 calls.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/02/us/florida-plane-crash

What the inside of the Publix looked like after the plane crash.

Bob,

Thanks for those links. I had been dealing with this in the abstract, but I am very sad about how Kim ended his life. He was moved to a burn unit and they had induced a coma because he had third degree burns over most of his body. After a month he simply slipped away. I knew him through a mutual friend who liked to hunt geese. I would invite my mutual friend out to my islands to hunt geese. He had this argo six wheel type ATV which could drive through the water, and he would net and camoflauge the vehicle and they would get their geese which would fly into the north end of my islands. It was fun to watch them get so excited and enjoy the beautiful natural area of the islands, but the currents off the north end are very dangerous and they almost lost their vehicle in the current, and he could easily have drowned before this crash.

He was a very successful workman comp lawyer and would give seminars nationally about workman comp issues. He was wealthy, but what I have heard is that the estate will completely be lost and his wife who did not work not only lost her husband, but the experimental airplane could not be insured and folks are suing the estate. I have invited some other people to hunt this winter now that I am living here instead of just visiting and I think of Kim when I see how much they enjoy themselves......some people just have a zeal for the risky ventures.....but they usually die with a smile......sadly after watching this video......I do not think Kim had a smile.

While Publix initially debated demolishing the store and rebuilding it, they instead were able to gut the store and rebuild it. They held a grand reopening ceremony in late June.

Publix stated in their lawsuit that it took $800,000 to rebuild the store and that they lost millions of dollars in sales during the nearly three months they were out of business. The lawsuit also states the two pilots weren't adequately trained to fly the homemade aircraft that Presbrey had purchased only six weeks before the crash. The suit also claims he failed to properly inspect it before takeoff.

http://www.examiner.com/article/publix-files-lawsuit-against-the-estate-of-pilot-plane-crash-at-deland-store

I had heard that the lawsuits were over 30 million.......that there are personal injury suits on top of the property damage. About five people had injuries, and one girl had very serious injuries, plus his passenger was really messed up. I know he did not use common sense when he drove the six wheel atv into the swift current, and my friend who brought him out confided in me that they almost drown as the vehicle got caught up in the current. I have told stories on the PNJ where I have had to go into the currents in late November and December, and strip down to save hunters who had got caught up in the current. Some folks will never assess risk very well.....and sadly.....I think I am one of those people.

They could not determine the cause of the crash that killed my cousin. All we know is that the plane went nose first into the ground shortly after takeoff. There was not enough left of his or the pilot's bodies to tell much of anything. The hunting dogs' bodies were fine, which disturbed me at the time.

There was not enough left of his or the pilot's bodies

I know in this accident.....I have heard third hand that Kim was talking in the Publix store......he was initially conscious and talking to bystanders.....when you look at the damage in the photos.....and see steel girders bent and broken.....you wonder how anybody survived, let alone was talking after the accident. However, this was a lightweight experimental plane, and as the plane becomes heavier, contains more fuel, and flies at higher elevations.....you understand what is going to happen to the human body.

Ghost_Rider1 wrote:FYI Slice, I believe that the crash happened in Fort Lauderdale and not Tampa. The plane had just taken off from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport when the pilot experienced engine failure and was attempting to make an emergency landing back at the airport.

Regardless of Fort Lauderdale or Tampa it was still an unnecessary tragedy.

You are absolutely correct. My bad.

Slicef18 wrote:

Ghost_Rider1 wrote:FYI Slice, I believe that the crash happened in Fort Lauderdale and not Tampa. The plane had just taken off from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport when the pilot experienced engine failure and was attempting to make an emergency landing back at the airport.

Regardless of Fort Lauderdale or Tampa it was still an unnecessary tragedy.

You are absolutely correct. My bad.

Now it appears that others have brought up a different crash in DeLand that happened in 2012. If the purpose of this thread was to confuse me, then all of you have been very successful.