Catalina Island Baron Crash 8 Oct 2024

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Theme: "Weightless" Aram Bedrosian

[blancolirio]

Sad update- sounds like the Baron pilot went out Catalina to pick up some fellow pilot/friends who were stranded there with maint. issues.

[speedonsteel]

My wife and I had reservations for 2 nights at Avalon for our anniversary a few weeks ago. We flew into Palm Springs the night before in order to fly to Catalina first thing in the morning the next day. You have to arrange for transportation from the airport to Avalon in advance as there are only a few services that will transport you between the airport and the town. The fog at Catalina and the weather to the island was terrible. We made the decision to rent a car to drive to Long Beach and take the ferry to the island. I never gave it a second thought about going to plan B but some of my aviation "friends" questioned my decision making. This terrible accident re-enforces that we need to make good decisions and not look back regardless what others think. Keep up the great work!

[Mike_Blunt]

I'm not a pilot, I live in Northern England and work in a factory, but I appreciate your brilliant content and hope you make a huge contribution to aviation safety.

[gonetoearth]

As someone that flies into Catalina on the regular basis I will tell you it’s dicey even during the day. However runway 4 is preferred to depart simply because it is downhill. Night time is suicide. Also the up and down drafts at each end are very significant because of the elevation Mesa type situation. It’s a significant drop off on both sides of about 700 feet. Bad news.

[bingsballyhoo]

Thanks. Local CA news had the facts in this case all screwed up, so it's nice to get the truth of the matter.

[CharlieFoxtrot]

I pulled the time lapse from one of the Alertca cameras that’s on a different peak, but facing the direction of the airport (early on, before the 24-hour playback window disappeared). The marine layer came in quickly from the west right at sunset and got up to nearly the 1500’ MSL level by the departure time. While we can’t see the airplane nor directly see the departure end of 22, throughout the video we can at least see that the very top of the hill the aircraft crashed into was not obscured by fog. That hill tops out 100 feet or so below the airport. Not long after, you see the lights of several ground vehicles, then you see an LA County Fire Bell 412 come in.

So while the crash site itself was just below the fog line (which came and went throughout the rescue op), there is fairly good evidence to lead me to believe there was no fog at the elevation of the departure end of runway 22 at the time of departure. Due to the remainder of the airport being lower, it’s hard to say whether there would have been fog on the first half of the runway, but as it’s leeward (east) of the crest, it’s less likely than it would have been to the west. That doesn’t preclude any other illusion they may have encountered.

[thedownwardmachine]

On taking off from a foggy, unlit runway:

"I lined up on the runway as straight as I could using the only two runway centerline markers I could make out over the nose of the Seneca. There might have been a momentary hesitation in my hands before they shoved the throttles forward but soon I was speeding down the runway. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I could barely make out the edge of the runway and the centerline stripes came at me faster and faster. My feet danced on the rudder pedals as I fought to keep the plane going straight down the runway. If things started to get away from me I’d have to jam on the brakes quickly to avoid running off the side of the runway. But I had it. The centerline stripes were coming at me faster and faster, straight and true. As my speed increased I lifted the nose of the plane slightly prior to takeoff, but when I did that the nose blocked the few centerline stripes that were my only visual cues to keep going straight. I was speeding down the runway with my main wheels still firmly planted on the asphalt blind as a bat. Crap. I hadn’t thought of that. I was going too fast to stop so I locked onto the directional gyro compass and used that to hold my heading. An odd sense of calm came over me as I roared blindly down the runway. It was as if I just accepted the situation as unchangeable and could only do what I could do. Instead of trying to haul the plane off the ground early I let the speed build up normally and smoothly rotated into the air. I didn’t feel the plane hit any runway lights so I assumed I’d managed to keep the plane going straight enough for government work. When I saw the altimeter start to climb I raised the landing gear and let out the breath I’d apparently been holding. Dinner was excellent."

McCauley, Kerry. Ferry Pilot: Nine Lives Over the North Atlantic. (pp. 253-254). Kindle Edition.

[dfwdon]

I am based at F46 Rockwall Texas and it has the same issue. You can't see either end from other. Started my training June of 1979 at KADS and my instructor regularly made me do touch/go's and full stops at F46 day and night. I'm so grateful for such a wonderful flight instructor. His exceptional and wise instruction (for such a young CFII of 20) contributed to my 46+ years of safe flying. Thank you Mr. J. Renaud! (you can't teach good judgment, but you can exhibit it to your students)

[markg]

I own & fly a '69 Baron. They have installed seats for four folks. One can add two more seats in the rear but weight in the back two (small temporary) seats typically require some offsetting weight in the nose baggage compartment. Depending how large / heavy that fifth passenger was, the offsetting weight (if used at all) could have them close to gross weight...or out of W&B limits. I keep a scale & ballast in my hangar & careful W&B calculations are a must for each flight with more than four folks, esp if anyone has luggage.

[AZFlyDive]

I've landed there six times. I would sleep in the plane before attempting a takeoff at night. A couple of times, the airport was sticking out above the marine layer. That is an interesting sight.

[stevegiron]

I along with the people from 10 other planes spent the night at Catalina long ago. We flew in at about 12 noon for lunch with severe VFR weather. Remember those 1990's all you can eat summer bbqs??? At about 3pm a fog bank was seen rolling in. We all ran to our planes and started up and headed to Rwy 22. I was #3 for departure. #1 took off, #2 accelerated down the runway and then aborted as the fog rolled in at the departure end. I lined up, added full power and about 5 seconds into the roll, I aborted and took the first runway exit. I knew I'd only need 10 seconds into IMC and then it would have been VFR all the way back to LGB. I has passed my IFR written, had a few instrument lessons, plenty of time in the sim, I KNEW I could climb through the thin layer, make a 180 to the north and be in VFR conditions quickly. I also knew that if I had an engine issue I could not get back to the airport. I had flown in there 30 times previously and knew the surrounding terrain has never been survivable for an off field landing. 30+ years later I'm here to tell this story. The layer was slow moving and the airport stayed open an extra hour to let us depart. No one was able to depart. We all took the shuttle down the mountain into town, all ate at the Italian restaurant. It was a co-worker and I, and we had to call the boss to tell him we were stranded on an island in the pacific ocean. We were only 1 hour late to work the next day in downtown LA.

[dandaniel]

During my flying days 30 years ago I learned a non-textbook landing approach technique expecially useful for flying into Catalina. Because, as Juan referenced, Catalina is akin to landing on an aircraft carrier (sheer dropoffs at both ends) I would find a bug spot on my windshield and fix it on my proposed landing spot on the runway. And I held that bug spot on there until over the threshhold. It was like my own glideslope. I found that technique useful frequently.

[isabelfox]

when i came back from my daily walk with my oma our neighbor told us the sad news. they were good friends with one of the passengers who was also a neighbor down the road and were in shock. she started taking flight lessons a couple years ago and is a mother. you never think something like this will happen so close to you. it really is a reality check. thank you for providing more information so quickly

[julzb]

Sounds like they should have waited for the morning. Get thereitis, very tragic. RIP to the victims and condolences to families. Covered thoroughly as always Juan.

[hotttt]

Back in 1966 I had just gotten my private ticket . I wanted to impress the young lady and suggested we fly to Santa Catalina Island from San Carlos California. She seemed excited about the idea. I started checking out my sectionals flight duration in assessment one50 etc. etc. etc. then I noticed on the note going into the airport at Santa Catalina Island, a note that said experienced pilots only. I went and talked to Mr. Vanvleet. My instructor about the experience pilots only business. He looked at me and he said "if you have to ask you or not" I decided not to go to Santa Catalina, for a few more years, it's a horrible, horrible accident and my condolences. Go out to the family and their friends.

[AirSafetyInstitute]

Thanks for covering this, Juan. Lots of good takeaways for GA pilots.

[calcutronsmith]

A post on the Airplanes and Coffee group says the back story on this crash is that a flight school had an airplane that flew into Catalina earlier that day and when it failed a mag check before departure, the 3 people on board got stranded on the island. The flight school owner and another pilot flew the Baron from KSMO to KAVX after hours to attempt to fix the aircraft and when they were unable, they decided to ferry the 3 stranded people back to KSMO that night. It is possible that they got special allowance from the operators of KAVX to do the after hours flight. Based on flight records, the stranded aircraft was likely N116FR, which flew to KAVX from KSMO earlier that day and has never left.

[thomaslemay]

I planned a flight to Catalina in my RV4 . GOOD weather before departure at Catalina. In the time it took to go from Upland (I toped off at Upland) to Catalina the marine lawyer moved in . I could see the runway but I could also see heaver fog coming in so I turned back and went back to Tehachapi. After filling up at California City. My plan was to visit my Son at Catalina see camp. He survived without the visit and I made it home safely.

[DianeCooperTW]

I was waiting for your explanation of this case

[steveneldred]

This probably doesn't have anything to do with this incident. I do not fly, but have had a lifelong love for aircraft. Years ago a friend of mine and some of his friends flew from somewhere on Michigan's mainland to Beaver Island for a weekend of fishing. He had gone on this trip several times before and knew people on the island. When it came time to go back to the place on the mainland of Michigan where they had departed from, the weather had become bad. My friend told me that he and his fishing friends were in a bar at Beaver Island airport waiting for their plane to come in. While they were there they were talking with a woman, the wife of a doctor, who owned recreational property on the island. She told them that she would never fly to or from the island, but always went by boat. But, because of the weather, the boat wasn't running. She told my friends group that her husband, who was a pilot, had insisted and forced her to have him pick her up by airplane; she was terrified. Eventually the airplane arrived to pick up my friends. But, the bartender, who my friend had known over the years, said, "DO NOT GET ON THAT PLANE!" They were dumbfounded, as he had been a friend. They said, "The plane got here, it doesn't have far to go to get us back to where it came from." Again, the bartender said, "DO NOT GET ON THAT PLANE!" He upset them so much, they didn't get on the plane. A while later the doctor arrived, as I recall it was in a Beechcraft Bonanza. Boyd, my friend, watched as the doctor forced her to board the plane, while she was crying all the time. They set in the bar with their beer and watched as the doctor took off and crashed a few seconds later, neither survived. He told me he spent the rest of his life thanking that bartender.