Fatal Ferry Flight! NTSB Prelim PA-31P 

Tell me if this is a real story.

Should have flown on the back of a flatbed.

@@2Phast4Rocket it's real

Glad he retired. I guess it's better crashing his own airplane than an airliner with 100's of passengers 🙁

In a hanger sitting it shouldn't have been in terrible shape. Old fuel clog up the carb or something? Sorry to hear that.

Remember: "Arguing with a fool, just proves that there are 2 of them"...

you can't help stupid. Stay in aviation long enough you occasionally come across this kind of personality type. Best to get as far away as possible once you do.

I knew the accident pilot and I scratch my head at the decision he made or the circumstances surrounding it. It’s easy to sit alive on the internet and not see the Swiss cheese model which stacks up to a mishap. Instead of saying, “That could never happen to me.” Change the perspective to, “how could I find myself in the same situation?” Many pilots kill themselves by exceeding their experience to handle a situation. Fortunately, channels like this allow you to learn by their poor decisions and better equip you with experience.

What if the dead pilot wasn't disclosed three pilots declined before... that's shady...

money, the lack of OR the desire of@@boommasterkc-135____8

Bidenomics is an unrecoverable death spiral

😂 haaaaAAAaA!

Yep, FJB!

You misspelled FDJT, but spelling is likely not your strong point

@@shoalsailing Don't get your LGBTQIA2S+ panties in a wad.

Sweet! Good judgement beats superior pilot skills in a pinch like this! 😂😂

Did you go to NAIA in South Carolina ?

...in the failure of others (who may or may not be truculent transgressive bleep-wits).

Correction, regulations are written in the blood of others.

Pretty sure the owner got his insurance paid in full...

I think you'll find that the saying is more like: Rules, Regulations and Standards are written in blood. I am an engineer and I have worked in some industries where the rules are incredibly strict and you here all the time in such industries about its written in blood and sometimes "the blood of innocents" as an allusion to the fact most times the people actually responsible are NOT held accountable.

Yeah, it cannot be pleasant for the lineman to have fuel gushing out of the aircraft!

My mechanic used to call the pressurized Navajo a pig-aho. Sounds like he was right.

😣

If fuel is leaking out, that also means air is leaking in. The potential for a vapour lock is incalculable. That might be the reason he never got full power - it's a fuel delivery problem.

I was around a P-Navajo some did pilot service for the owners I flew the company CR. Much better aircraft. Tried to talk them into a Cheyenne. To no avail. One day , I noticed a slight miss in the left engine. Told the mechanic. He said he heard it too. Was told to Ignore it. When the boss got back from his fishing trip to Montana (he was the pilot) he'd have a look. Engine failure enroute if the thing barfed on takeoff on a Backcountry strip. He sold the P. (2nd Engine in 800 hrs.) Used the CR for quite a while then a C-90

How do you know it had that particular engine?

I have flown with many airline pilots who are not so great. Many, not all, lack skill and judgement for GA aircraft.

looking for more backstory. Thanks.

​​@@pittss2c601, I read an article about that issue a long time ago. One conclusion/theory was that airline pilots are so used to having a copilot handle the heads down aspects of aviating, navigating, and communicating that they get overwhelmed when they have to do all those tasks by themselves in addition to actually physically flying the aircraft.

I knew Colonel Captain Doug and was under the same impression. I have no idea what he was thinking and wish he hadn’t made up his mind on that decision. He was like no one I’ve ever met.

The Airbus computer makes you a good pilot.

But it is speculation with conviction...

I have personally been there. It sucks, keeps you up at night worrying that you've squandered your life savings and will never recoup your money. But the worst thing you can do is double down on stupid - when the 3rd ferry pilot specifically told him "No, none of us will fly that thing, it's not safe", he should have called it quits and reevaluated his options.

Ironically, this flight likely completely solved the financial problems. Insurance doesn't cover suicide, but it DOES cover stupidity. His insurance will pay out and his next of kin will be doing alright.

Sometimes it's too old and stubborn.

It's most probably cognitive decline that caused him to make this decision, financial pressure or not.

I know of a Seneca sitting IN a hangar for 3 month that had been mouse infested and had tens of thousands dollars worth of damage due to them little ctritters...

Yeah I bet my Jeep could have beat that Piper in a drag race YIKES!

Why do these stories always seem to start with “the pilot-mechanic”? Reminds me of the B-17 crash. I don’t even change my own oil.

@@goldeneaglejk2678 at least not without having an oil analysis and opening the filter to check for anything unusual. Long story short if you’re going to invest in $100,000 plus airplane what’s the cost of an oil change, right?

@@LowWingFlyer The major fuel leak is the key point. The bladders were dry rotted to the point where they probably contaminated the fuel with small particles of rubber not to mention what else was growing in there.

@@bovineknievel410 yes, for the life of me, why would anyone still take off when they see something like that?

One of those instances where "if I don't reach X speed by the camera man... we will abort takeoff..."

..like a run-up OF DESPERATION.

He could have put it down in the field before the trees. What a bizarre series of decisions by this apparently experienced (but old) pilot.

​@@MeppyManI thought the same. Perfectly good field to set it back down on. The last of many opportunities to back out.

@@MeppyMan I agree, crashing in that field and making the insurance claim yourself would be much better than the final result just 1/2 mile later.

It can, for sure. In a hurry going nowhere.

Rephrase the question thus "What - were they thinking ?"

Wtf

The registry does show a different owner. I know those are horribly out of date sometimes, but I unless it changed hands in the last year or two, the pilot did not appear to be the owner.

Fatally poor decision making whoever the pilot was. I'm thinking it was someone with a big watch and shiny big brass ones; we've all know the kind at one time or another when we've been around airports long enough.

I’d be curious to know if the owner informed Doug of the three other declines to fly it.

So why on earth would he have continued the takeoff if he had no financial interest at stake?

God rest him

Nothing more expensive than a cheap twin.

@@scarybaldguycheap twins are always hell. If you’re not paying at least half a million expect at least one major 5 figure bill to bring the plane up to code

I know so many bad cases involving "the owner's son".

​@@SteamCraneme too, and they have nothing to do with aircrafts or pilots... Entitlement is dangerous, especially at work places involving big machinery.

Everyone knows what they should sound like - it's a very distinctive buzzing sound. No buzz - something dreadfully wrong.

@@josephoberlander you should hear it with 4 blade Mt composite props

@@josephoberlander I also wouldn't say everyone. They didn't build very many before the much more sensible Cheyenne came out.

@@paynej32013 ooo :) I bet it's even louder. lol.

"Texas" Every shady, half assed, semi criminal deal in business aviation I've ever been involved with, has come out of Texas. Not all......but given relatively equal pricing, and a choice between an unknown Texas shop, and one north of the Mason-Dixon, I'm going with them Yankees every time. Like the repaint on a C-750 the pilot was getting quotes on. "Legit" shops (Duncan, West Star) were quoting around $100k. A shop in the DFW area quoted $25k. I was asked to review the bid. For starters, anyone with half a brain knew they were cutting corners somewhere. I made a laundry list of questions that I had. Might as well have talked it over with the gerbils at the pet store. You can probably guess whose bid they took. Needless to say, it didn't turn out well. The problems started a couple of weeks before the completion date, when all the employee (bi-weekly) paychecks bounced.

yep, the laws of physics can't be pencil whipped

I’m usually reluctant to find any capriciousness whatsoever in a fatal accident but in this case I must make an exception. It appears to be a clear-cut case of suicide by aircraft.

"Will it run"? is the single most ignorant question used by many u tubers-Aaargh!

You could see it once he became airborne. The plane precessed to the right rather severely until it cleared the horizon. I wonder what the wind conditions were.

Well, I agree with him. Put it in "landscape" mode and the picture looks so much better.

Me too!

Looks like the pilot would have been better off aborting with a runway overrun than what actually happened.

I heard that the Aerosmith's crew turned down that aircraft prior. Skynyrd's manager wanted to cut costs for their trip, so sent them on that plane with badly tuned engines...the rest is history.

@@empireoflizards That is true. Tragic.

Was he fired after the sand blasting?

@@205rider8 He just got a lecture from what I heard.. lol

Lucky it was just a paint problem!

A recent accident involving owner maintenance (see his You-Tube channel) was a Piper Malibu totaled on landing after the nosewheel didn't align after gear extension. Owner had just paid for new engine and avionics and was planning a new interior and possible sale or trade for a new plane. Owner admitted he tried to adjust the nosewheel strut or scissors himself without consulting factory service, possibly to save money. I think part of this is the FAR's don't mandate good judgement, it's assumed pilots already possess that. This was difficult to watch, no acceleration past the camera and no abort.

Just because you see a person sitting on a motorcycle, that does NOT mean you saw a biker, let alone a proficient one. Just because you see a person with a wrench in his hand, that does NOT mean you just met a mechanic... AND Just because you saw a person sitting in an airplane, that does NOT mean you just saw a pilot. I've met a LOT of machine owners and operators with collections of tools. I've seen a LOT of truly REMARKABLY EGREGIOUS flaws and outright failures in the decision-making paradigms of the people using those tools trying to fix just about everything... as "relatively minor" as taking the guards off a tablesaw, to as ridiculous as paperclips, old nails, and random wires run through the keeper holes and slots on automotive axles keeping the hubs in place... People BETTING THEIR LIVES on these gambles, and 90% of them are entirely about being too cheap and lazy to walk to the parts place and buy the requisite hardware to fix it properly... Just the axle... That keeper hole/slot configuration is SUPPOSED to be held in place by a COTTER PIN... It's not even a special kind of one! It's going to cost 15 Cents... and the time to go get one and install it properly... BUT no. Let's put a nail in and BEAT IT OVER WITH A HAMMER instead... That oughta do... There's a LOT of really dangerous people out there being dangerous entirely because they have this mistaken ideal that JUST knowing the difference between a claw hammer and a wrench qualifies them to work on ANYTHING... at all. ;o)

​@@bernieschiff5919as a certified diesel mechanic...I agree 100% with your comment. I've seen it all in my 25+ years as diesel mechanic. Especially when it comes to wiring. Open up the dash and it a literal rats nest of wires ...all going to a big glob where they get power. Ive put the dash back together and said " I can't help you"! Or get the cutters and start cutting. Snip snip snip throwing handfuls of wires out on the floor. And these are dump trucks and heavy equipment that don't leave the ground,mostly. I can only imagine what some fool would try in an aircraft.

My ex boss had his private pilot certificate for over 15 yrs..He was from Venezuela.He currently had a 18 wheeler trucking business and a diesel engine repair shop based out of Orlando FL...He bought an old Cessna 152 and was repairing it ,I assumed with a certified aviation mechanic... Obviously I guess he tried to save money and scam the system!! He took off in his 152 single engine airplane with 2 of his buddies.Had engine issues,lost power and instead of immediately push that nose down he fought it!! Stalled the old plane killed himself and his buddies.. Another pilot with a tool box!! Your saying makes total sense to me now!! RIP Ernesto!!

@@carloscortes5570last time I checked a 152 is only a two seat plane. Thinking that was part of his problem 😂

Until one quits

@@26betsam Huh? The point of the counter rotating props is that it is much safer if one quits.

Correct. No critical engine. However, I have heard both engines are critical in a light piston twin.

@@jerryhargis7730 That's true depending on how you look at it. Loss of an engine in any twin (including a B777) is an emergency, but some can continue to fly on a single engine and others will just get you to the crash site faster. This was a turbocharged Navajo with one occupant. That thing should have been able to climb with one good engine, but I guess he didn't have one good engine. A fully loaded Apache would be a different story.

So was Doug, the owner wasnt on board.

I can think of a few YT channels in particular...

Good point.

Is it free to park outside?

Howard Winters??

@@scottadair4962 Never knew the big bosses. Only big guy shop super named Danny Shamoon(?). I think I got the job by accident because I went Christmas Eve and got a job app from some drunk old guy named Hall. When I showed up with the filled app, Danny looked puzzled. I later found out they weren't hiring but since I got the app from Hall they thought I had connections with him.

@@scottadair4962 1980

Doug should have taken the advice of those three ferry pilots before he endangered himself and everybody under his flight path.

I wonder how the writer of that obituary would have written given the assignment to eulogize Adolf Hitler. " Adolf was a leader among men..."

⁠​⁠@@williamford9564Stupid analogy. A pilot who made a terrible mistake is not Hitler, and when writing about the totality of a well-lived life you don’t let one mistake override the rest. Sad truth is that for many, decision making is impacted in the late 70s. His stupid mistake doesn’t take away a lengthy and honored career.

Almost 80 years old, flying solo an old, unairworthy airplane!. Not good!

@@sergiothepilot It’s sometimes very difficult taking the keys away from some seniors.

Kinda sounds like the guy with the submarine that imploded doesn't it?

​@@joevignolor4u949Yes, a little bit. He seemed to have a lot more ego involved. Money (or lack of it) also a factor. Sometimes people take unfortunate chances b/c of their financial status, but that's not an excuse for poor decisions.

Yes, having grown up in the Kansas City area, Missouri is infamous for unintuituve pronunciations of several city names, to trip up the uninitiated... Versailles (verSALES) Nevada (nehVAYduh) Cape Girardeau (jirAREdough) :)

@@big_beak And, don't forget Auxvasse (Ah-Vahz),

@@big_beakit’s Midwestern or maybe American. Illinois has a small Teheran, tuh-HAIR-un.

I think he was the pilot.

The FAA has nothing to do with safety. :(

Yeah, that guy is hiding at his lawyer's office.

Garbage in the fuel distributor on each engine. Relatively simple fix.