[Peetwo]

From the ABC:-

One of the reasons I miss the old Air Safety Digest (ASD) is that it never failed to provide a timely reminder to both old and new generations of airmen (I do include the ladies in the honorific title ‘airmen’) of the old killers – Carby ice for example; VFR into IMC; all the ‘traditional’ killers of aircraft and crew and some ‘new’ wrinkles in the old rules which govern that mysterious ethos ‘airmanship’. Fuel injection, GPS, auto pilots which work, cool head sets which take away the noise, no requirement for position reports, radio generated landing bills and a solid belief that ‘our’ engine will never quit; all lull us into a ‘false’ sense of security; a cocoon of belief that all will turn out well in the end, the legislation assures us of this – we are all so much ‘safer’ now .

And yet the grim reaper still earns a crust from the same old traps. Murphy has never resigned and continues to enjoy his law.  But then; and not be mawkish, perhaps fate is the hunter after all. Don’t know – who’s to say you won’t get out of bed, feeling great and fall over the cat – land on your head and it’s lights out. Be careful, but not afraid; there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but very few old, bold pilots.

Enough said: “set ‘em up here barkeep, we shall drink a quiet toast to those gone before us, to await our arrival".

"Beud 'iidhanak" - Selah.

Update: Doomed flight may have been an Angel Flight mission.

Via the Oz..  

Three people dead in light plane crash

The wreckage of a light plane that crashed in Suttontown. Picture: Matt Loxton

• Meredith Booth, Michael Owen
  
• The Australian
  
• 7:38PM June 28, 2017
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A teenage girl, her mother and a 78-year-old pilot have died after their four-seater plane crashed in foggy, cold and wet conditions minutes after takeoff in regional South Australia.

The crash happened this morning about 3km southwest of Mount Gambier Airport, in the state’s agricultural southeast.

Pilot Grant Gilbert. Picture: Facebook

The pilot and owner, understood to be businessman Grant Gilbert of Mount Barker, an Adelaide Hills community 35km southeast of the capital, was taking the Mount Gambier locals, a 43-year-old woman and her 16-year-old daughter, to Adelaide when they died on impact minutes after takeoff around 10.24am.

The girl is believed to be a student from Grant High School in Mount Gambier.

Records show Mr Gilbert became the licence holder and voluntary operator of the 25-year-old single-engine plane in February 2014, using it predominantly for trips between Adelaide and South Australian regional centres Mount Gambier, Port Lincoln and Murray Bridge.

It is understood he was a dedicated Angel Flight Australia volunteer who flew country people to non-emergency city medical appointments.

Early reports today said the French-made Tobago TB10 aircraft flew an erratic path shortly after its scheduled takeoff at 9.50am, before crashing nose-first and somersaulting after impact to the base of a hill in a paddock.

Flight path of VH-YTM before crashing at Suttontown. Picture: FlightAware

Limestone Coast Detective Superintendent Grant Moyle said the purpose of today’s flight was unknown but would have an impact on the local community.

South Australian Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said on his Twitter feed: “Terrible news in our state’s South East. God rest them.”

Supt Moyle said there was no fire at the crash site, in a paddock near the intersection of Walker and Sunnybrae roads at Suttontown, 435km southeast of Adelaide.

Police said they had not yet spoken to any witnesses who may have seen the crash.

“Plane crashes are tragic no matter where they occur but it certainly will have an impact on the whole community down here in the Mount,’’ Supt Moyle said.

Some next of kin had been advised and Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators were due to arrive at the site tonight, he said.


Three people have been killed after a plane crashed near Mount Gambier Airport in South Australia.
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Flight logs show the plane had been destined to arrive at Adelaide Airport at 11.30am before a further scheduled flight to Murray Bridge at 12.10pm.

It is the second serious plane crash in South Australia in as many months, with the ATSB still investigating the cause of the Rossair plane crash near Renmark Aerodrome in May that killed three experienced pilots Martin Scott, 48, retraining pilot Paul Daw, 65 and Civil Aviation Safety Authority officer Stephen Guerin, 56.

The Rossair crash was South Australia’s worst air disaster since eight people on board a Whyalla Airlines flight were killed when it crashed into the Spencer Gulf, on May 31, 2000.

ATSB expected their investigation into the Mount Gambier crash to take five months.

Very, very, sad - RIP