The NTSB says a Pilatus PC-12 medevac aircraft broke up in flight shortly after taking off from Reno Airport on Friday night. All five people aboard the Care Flight aircraft were killed when the aircraft suddenly disappeared from radar as it was climbing on departure from Reno International Airport to Salt Lake City Friday evening. The wreckage was found near Dayton, Nevada, about 24 miles southeast of Reno. The missing parts were about 1200 yards from the main wreckage.
Just seems risky to have a single point of failure in that type of environment. The patient had two professionals to attend to them. Maybe the plane should have as well.
Single pilot IFR nighttime in an ice storm. No way to know just yet with the circumstances of the crash work, but I can picture many scenarios were a copilot would have saved the mission.
Certainly that would hold true if this was a case of spatial disorientation. Wouldn’t have made any difference if the plane was torn apart by extreme turbulence, but that’s rare; usually that’s pilot aided.
These type of flights do require a SIC unless the company has the ops spec which allows for an operating autopilot to substitute for the second pilot. As another poster pointed out inflight breakup due to turbulence is rare, especially since it is known that the flight did reach FL190. Also there is no indication in this article of wreckage scattered over a wide area which would happen if plane broke up in flight. With a departure in a snowstorm, icing overwhelming the airplane or not turning on the ice protection could have happened. I wonder if anyone with PC12 experience could comment on the ability of the plane to handle ice. RIP.
There’s an article on February 23rd titled: “Instructor Dies During Flight, Pilot Thought He Was Joking”. Incapacitated pilot is so rare how could it possibly happen twice in a week?
Just found out from another site the NTSB has found that there was an inflight breakup of this plane. Part of a wing and the elevator was found about 3/4 mile from the fuselage. As far as why, hopefully the NTSB can figure that out. RIP.
copilot would have just added to body count. Crew has got to be able to know when to leave it in the hanger. Just takes experience to spot the “pilot killer” storms…this had all the earmarks of one…
At 19k msl (10-15k agl) cruise climb with missing components less than a mile from main wreckage, inclined to believe inflight break up was symptom of LOC, not cause. Icing/turb leading to autopilot issues and/or distraction of single pilot could be factors, hopefully enough data survives to develop answers.
I saw the flight track all was good then it started to spiral down before contact was lost. With the autopilot this plane has you have to wonder how this could happen? Maybe severe icing the deicing equipment couldn’t handle? I am sure the missing pieces would show that? Pilot incapacitation would be my guess but waiting on the experts to come to a conclusion.