A Cessna 310R light twin crashed approximately 13 minutes after takeoff from Boca Raton Airport (KBCT) in Florida. All three on board were killed. According to news reports, sources say the pilot reported a rudder-related control issue. As seen on ADS-B Exchange, it made a series of nine, widening left-circling maneuvers in an apparent attempt to return to KBCT. The Cessna is registered to a Wilmington, Delaware limited liability corporation, Reprop LLC.
Interesting the light twin was able to fly for 13min after TO but only achieved 525ft and 125kts in the final circling maneuver according to the article. That speed is above blue-line, though it could have been in the final descent? Seems sad given they were able to gain initial altitude and fly that relatively long time without stall/spin that they were not able to climb above 1000 ft and fly around in a slip to burn off fuel. Will be interesting when NTSB looks at the wreckage to see if throttle and props were full forward in an attempt to gain altitude. Ideally would have been nice to put her down at a big wide-open airport with firetrucks in high-speed no-flap landing using slip to compensate for rudder rather than just set down anywhere. Sad to see this.
It’d likely be something never before attempted, but I wonder how effective asymmetric thrust would be to counter a rudder stuck at the stop. Also, is there any ATC audio on this? If he was flying for 13 minutes, I’d assume he tried to communicate.
I’ll postulate that they could have kept climbing, and it would have been a necessary step before trying to bring back the right engine. My other guess is that last turn resulted in a slow skid that stalled into a roll.
From what I understand from friends of the pilot…he was an accomplished aerobatic pilot. If he couldn’t get it on the ground a doubt I’d have come close. Sad day.
The landing gear was extended for the short video. That rules out a significant loss of power as a 310 will not maintain altitude on one engine with the gear down. It is possible that the alleged control issue got worse at higher speed thus the reduced speed. Hard to tell from the video but it appears to show a substantial amount of left rudder.
I knew the pilot from the aerobatic community in Pompano in the early 90’s. I left the area in 1993 and don’t remember seeing him again after that. He was 81 so not likely he was still involved in aerobatics.
Bob Stark was the aerobatic pilot. His son Stephen was also a pilot. No confirmation of who was in left seat. Stephens 17 year old daughter was passenger. Previous post suggested that Bob was the PIC but I have not seen any confirmation of that.