The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating a crash involving a twin-engine Beechcraft 95-B55 which occurred shortly after takeoff from Catalina Airport in California on Tuesday, killing all five on board.
Is there an FAR part 91 rule that prohibits a pilot from taking off from a runway at night with no runway edge lights ? Also, does the Catalina Conservancy have the authority to “close” this airport ? Just trying to differentiate what is “legal” and what is “Safe”. A side note to consider is if you as a pilot or passenger are stranded there after dusk, is there available transportation to take you to Avalon so that you can spend the night in a room vs. spending the night in an airplane ? If not, then you can see the motivation to depart even after “dark”.
Obviously, not much is known for now, but at Catalina incidents on west departures always bring up speculation centered on the pronounced runway “hump”. This arch in the runway creates a powerful visual impression the end of the runway is coming up even though you may still be quite early in the TO roll and can lead to hauling it off into ground effect.
The scenario you describe typically troubles landing aircraft of unfamiliar first time to the airport pilots that didn’t read the AFD. I’ve not heard of this affecting departing aircraft.
As for getting to town after the airport is closed, the bus stops operation at 17:00 however a call to the bus/taxi service can provide transport. Also staff is there past 17:00 and there is plenty of other options like the PD if you are stranded. Also the closed dark airport is no reason for a pilot to crash especially a professional. There are no obstacles and gradual falling terrain off the west side. I’m going to guess one engine out pulled them around and in even though an instructor should be well accomplished in recovery of this, in the dark, probably near full gross probably caused some disorientation. A instructor out of Santa Monica would have be a frequent visitor to AVX.
Juan Brown has a good video on this, worth watching.
It was likely low IFR, but the pilot must have able to see the runway edges well enough to get airborne. The hump in the runway is likely only an issue on landing, and an experienced pilot and/or one who has been there before should not be intimidated by that.
The question is why didn’t he climb. There is nothing to hit if he climbs.
Emergency crews were dispatched following a 911 call from a cellphone that indicated involvement in a collision, providing GPS coordinates for the location.
Only going with the article, but that does not sound like IFR conditions.
the crash site, located in steep, rugged terrain approximately a mile west of the airport
If the plane was a mile from the airport it is a logical to consider it was climbing when “something happened”.
Others point out that this was an experienced pilot, one familiar with the airport and capable of dealing with a potential engine out on take off. Even the decision to take off after dark from a closed airport, while light in judgement, would tell me the pilot was comfortable with the conditions.
There is a lot missing from the article and I hope there is a follow-up. It seems suspicious there is a 911 call stating a collision occurred giving a specific GPS location. Who was the caller, because it had to be someone at or near the spot to give GPS coordinates and it looks like that is not a populated area.
One sick theory is that the call came from another pilot, perhaps involved in the collision, but not as impacted and still able to fly. I hope not. Depending on the conditions, one plane taking off one direction, another flying over head, low wing, does not see a plane till the last moment…Again, looking for more facts as this story develops.
“Who was the caller, because it had to be someone at or near the spot to give GPS coordinates and it looks like that is not a populated area.”
Some cell phones today have an accident detection feature which will first ask the user if things are OK and then call emergency services (with GPS data) if there is no user intervention.
[Apple touted this in '22, three years after Google introduced it on the Pixel 3.]
It was likely the phone. Our son has the same feature on his iPhone; he was hit head-on by two kids in a stolen car driving on the wrong side of the road. His phone automatically notified EMS, and then called me. It also sent a text with the location to everybody in his emergency contact list. It was very helpful…I called him back and he was shaken up (initially didn’t know what happened) but ok.
I Was not aware of that technology, thank you for sharing that with me.
Darkness night, engine failure soon after takeoff, heavy load, complacently not expecting, one mile from the airport speed still low probably, too much to keep it flying. All guesses but easy to visualize. Had it been daylight and he could have seen the terrain dropping away, he would have had some visual push over room to fly down in. Speculation of course. Too easy in a twin to let your mind wander for those first two or so critical minutes.
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