Military Officials: Small plane down in Indiana
By LOLITA C. BALDOR (AP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON — U.S. military officials say a small, single-engine plane crashed near Muncie, Indiana, after operating erratically. The pilot may have had a health problem or was suffering from a lack of oxygen, they said.

Military officials do not believe it is terrorism-related, said a spokesman for U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command. Instead, Michael Kucharek said the pilot may have blacked out due to a condition known as hypoxia.

FAA spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere confirms the private plane crashed at about midday local time in a swampy area near Muncie, Ind. She said the pilot had been unresponsive to air traffic controllers. He had filed a flight plan and was headed toward Muncie, she said.

The plane crashed in a swampy area on a farm near Muncie, officials said, adding that the pilot was the only person on the plane. Kucharek said the pilot took off from a small airport near Grand Rapids, Mich., and was at an altitude of about 23,000 feet and descending slowly. He said the plane was heading south-southeast and had been speeding up and slowing down to dangerous speeds. Law enforcement was on the scene.

According to Kucharek, the plane was a single-engine propeller M20M Mooney, and it had about four hours of fuel left when officials noticed the problems. Military aircraft were launched to check the plane.

In 1999, a charter jet crash killed pro golfer Payne Stewart and four others, flew halfway across the country on autopilot before crashing in a pasture in South Dakota. Everyone on board had apparently lost consciousness for lack of oxygen after a loss of cabin pressure, and the plane crashed after it ran out of fuel, investigators said.

The flight log shows 1 minute altitude excursions of 5-7000 feet. This looks like a transponder problem to me until the end.

This why single pilot on oxygen at flight levels scare me. This is a Mooney

Stephen






AP – Map locates small plane crash in Randolph County, Indiana
By RICK CALLAHAN, Associated Press Writer Rick Callahan, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 10 mins ago

INDIANAPOLIS – A small, single-engine plane crashed into an open field in eastern Indiana on Wednesday after the pilot became unresponsive and the plane started to speed up and slow down at dangerous speeds, officials said.

The pilot may have had a health problem or was suffering from a lack of oxygen, officials said.

Military officials do not believe the crash was terrorism-related, said Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command. Instead, he said the pilot may have blacked out due to a condition known as hypoxia.

The defense command said the flight left Grand Rapids, Mich., and lost communication with ground air traffic controllers. The online site flightaware.com listed the flight's destination as Muncie, Ind.

The plane crashed about 12:40 p.m. EDT Wednesday into a field in a rural area of eastern Indiana, about 60 miles northeast of Indianapolis and 185 miles south of Grand Rapids, NORAD said.

John Erickson, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, said F-16s from the Indiana National Guard had intercepted the plane but that the aircraft crashed on its own. Officials would not comment on the condition of the pilot.

Controllers in Indianapolis reported the plane had been circling with the pilot slumped over in his seat at around 25,000 feet, said Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. It wasn't immediately clear if the pilot intentionally flew to that altitude, then passed out, or if the plane ascended after the pilot lost consciousness, he said.

The plane was a single-engine propeller M20M Mooney, and it had about four hours of fuel left when officials noticed the problems, said Kucharek.

In 1999, a charter jet crash killed pro golfer Payne Stewart and four others and flew halfway across the country on autopilot before crashing in a pasture in South Dakota. Everyone on board had apparently lost consciousness for lack of oxygen after a loss of cabin pressure, and the plane crashed after it ran out of fuel, investigators said.

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[Admin edit - merged with existing topic - JC]

From the track, it looks like he flew all the way to TVC VOR, then a big RH turn back south to GRR and then on to Muncie. TVC listed as the filed route. Weird.

I looked at his past flights and all I checked were flown at or below 11,000MSL. Charlevoix (40 NNE of TVC) was a frequent destination, TVC was not.

The F16s where sent after him within 25 minutes of takeoff. The investigation will probably shed light on when he became unresponsive.

The flight track just looks like he had TVC and the IAF for the GPS 14 approach at Muncie in his flight-plan and the GPSS chaufeurred him around until it ran out of waypoints. At that point, he started flying this cloverleaf pattern over Muncie, either after the AP disconnected or while it was 'hunting' to hit the fix (for hahas, I put the Century IV on 'VOR' and altitude hold and allowed it to track to a VOR. Then I just sat back and watched the show. Once I reached the VOR, it started to turn into a standard rate turn to the right for about 180deg, then a roll to the left, then a complete circle over the VOR. could have gone on for another 4.5 hours at that point, at cruise speed those turns are pretty wide, and yes I had a block altitude for this from approach).

Beg to differ, my friend.

There's a very nice, mostly empty piece of sky between about 150 and 230 that I just love to be in. Hardly ever do I see or hear anyone else at those altitudes on my trips. Having that kind of altitude flexibility give you lots of options.

Now, understand that I have a very healthy respect for the environment I'm in at those altitudes and I've been through the training to recognize the onset of hypoxia.

The P Baron has a visual annunciator if the cabin goes over 12,5000....I'm wondering if the Mooney has any type of annunciator to alert the pilot in case of low oxygen...

Just my .02

GA is a pretty broad stroke for that statement.

I can't imagine very many Gulfstreams, Hawkers or equivalent want to be flying below (or even close to) FL180 for very long

That's going to make operating my Citation pretty inefficient.