F******* another Utah plane down. Four on board

[woodchucker]

Looks like this will be another overloaded 172 mishap.

Guy went down in American Fork Canyon. I have not flown in this canyon as it’s too narrow for my tastes. There is no room to 180 out I don’t think.

Hot and gusty today. Terrain is around 7000-7500 at the canyon floor where he went down. Witness reported seeing the plane in a spin or a spiral. Ughhhhh.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

Unknown whether this airplane had the 180 hp upgrade. FAA registry says “O-320 series”; but then it says the same about my 172N, even though it has had an O-360 for more than 20 years.

Flightaware says 180hp - not sure where that comes from.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

Pilot Tyson Colby Brummett is a commercial pilot with instrument, single and multi-engine ratings and a flight instructor. Certificate issued last year and 35 years old, so may be somewhat lower time.

Lack of fire or fuel smell makes one wonder about an out of fuel situation, though the witness description sounds more like a stall.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

Its possible the tanks maintained integrity. Can we read anything into the speed/climb profile? The track seems limited/incomplete on Flightaware. The one thing we can all agree on is that no one should take off in a 172 with 4 full sized adults and expect to have a safe flight.

Particularly on a hot day and in the mountains. Your climb rate is so limited and downdrafts off the ridges can easily overwhelm.

I just don’t see how a CFI would do this. Weird.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

I'm never disappointed when I wonder if I'll see a news story about a GA crash that takes the ineptitude of writers to a new height of stupidity. That this one appeared on the website of an aviation magazine gives it a special award for exceptional stupidity.

It takes real incompetence to link three unrelated incidents into some sort of commonality.

This is how good superstitions get started. Perhaps you could start a nice rumor about the underlying connections :emoji6: