Brazilian authorities say a prominent businessman and nine members of his family were killed when the Piper PA-42-1000 Cheyenne 400LS crashed shortly after takeoff from Canela Airport in Gramado in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul on Sunday. Seventeen people on the ground were injured. Luiz Claudio Galeazzi was flying the twin with his wife, three daughters and five other family members onboard. The aircraft reportedly hit the chimney of a house before crashing into a hotel and a store.
Could have been overloaded. For starters, it only has 9 seats, but 10 aboard. Lap child? How much baggage with 10 people? Fuel load? Lots to be answered…
The longer I remain on this planet, the more cautious my thinking and attitudes become. So when your whole family or business colleagues are counting on you, why not let the professionals take you where you want/need to go…
Or engine failure. Had two turbine twins do same thing at the last airport I worked at as ATC. An owner owned King Air about two miles after departure, then shortly thereafter an MU2 right after departure and tried to return to the runway.
I share your feelings. After thousands of hours and working my way up to CFII my risk threshold is lower than when I had 500-1000 hours. The more you know the more you know can go wrong.
Around Brazil there are many “sport aeroportos” similar to the departure airport in this unfortunate story that cater largely individual enthusiasts flying aircraft similar to those in our LSA category. These are untoward airports with no metar service and often with short runways. This airport’s runway was less than 4000 feet and this Cheyenne needed all of that distance under perfect conditions. With full fuel useful load is less than 400 lbs. They had 10 passengers. There was no eparture clearance, Canela is a VFR airport that was “closed” (whatever that means in Brazil) at the time of the flight. The number of reasons this flight should have been a “no go” eclipse any logical argument to attempt the flight. Like Ali Safia launching his Bonanza into the darkness off the cliffs of Avalon with 5 aboard a few weeks ago you just have to scratch your head. I’m no multi-thousand hour pilot and probably could have made a successful departure in my comparatively very simple turbo 206. But I’m sufficiently experienced to know no-one could have paid me enough to try it.
It’s tough to even use the word tragic here because there were so many poor decisions made during this event. Also, so many aircraft in Brazil are operated like cars. Nothing is inspected, checked, or fixed until it breaks or can no longer be operated around. We once looked at an aircraft in Brazil that claimed to have 1500 hours on it but by wear on certain items it clearly had 10,000 or more. RIP to those who had no idea about this flight and full recoveries to those injured on the ground.
You got that right, Doc.