It's very sad. When he was with the Phillies, I actually met him and took his picture. I need to find that.
*Warning: Speculation follows!* Sad, sad story. The SR20 he was flying was equipped with the Garmin G1000 system - a full suite of instruments on two large screens. You have an electrical failure, you are fucked...except for a small 2" set of instruments that don't need power to run. Add to that the marginal VFR weather they were in, and you might just run into this kind of situation. He did have an instructor with him though, which is kinda fishy considering they got themselves into a situation like that with someone who very likely had over 1000 hours. Lidle himself had about 400 - which is enough to know the basics of navigation and (I presume) use a VOR - which will get you unlost anytime. And the G1000 has a nice GPS system too, so he should've known where he was...take the screens away though, and that whole theory goes out the window. Kinda odd that the reporter mentioned the CAPS parachute system - deployment of that over NYC would be suicide, as you have no control over your drift when you're under the chute. Again, very sad that this happened...and hopefully, if it's proven it was the fault of the SR20/G1000, Cirrus can improve their design so that nothing like this happens again.
Hm. Possibly trying to turn back because of a fuel pump failure (in which case the shitty booster pump will give you about 50% power)...? Interesting. That might actually go as far as to explain it...although it's most definitely not fuel starvation, they wouldn't have taken off with bone-dry tanks... I guess we'll have to wait for the NTSB report to come out instead of trusting the popular media...they're very notorious for getting aviation-related stories wrong. Edit: It seems that Lidle might have been trying to avoid the LaGuardia Class B airspace - there's a small VFR corridor of class E (non-restrictive) airspace that follows the East River, but closes off before LGA. Top of that airspace is 1100...trying to turn back from the 'end' of that corridor and not bust airspace can be a tight turn, and I can see how you could let the steep turn required turn into a pseudo-spiral dive, lose a bit of altitude and find the buildings. Note that I just looked at a VTA chart for New York City - this isn't reported by anyone right now. Just more speculation. An engine failure at 1100 would also give you about 10 seconds before you're below skyscraper height in NYC if you're in that corridor. Trying to find a decent forced landing site could've done it too in the event of a failure.
Here's the sad part, the 9/11 conspiracy theorists are having a field day with this: "Where are the wing markings on the building?" "How could his passport have survived the fire?" "The building's owned by the same people that owneed WTC 7 and are building the Freedom Tower!" "Where's the plane wreckage?" "Why did NORAD scramble fighter jets? Perfect excuse for them to redeem themselves after 9/11" I'm a 911 Truth supporter, but for fuck's sake, I really wanna just smack these people.
Heard about it yesterday. It's really sad. But I think it's a bit weird how something like this could have happened... esspecially in Manhatten. Of course they won't stop a small plane with jetfighters but you know...
Wanna bet? The new FAA legislation more or less indicates that force can be used 'if deemed absolutely necessary to ensure the safety of possible targets, ground installations and other aircraft'. If I go tooling around in my PA28 with the transponder set to 7500 (the code for 'hijack') around sensitive airspace (NYC being a prime example), and I ignore all radio calls made to me, I can fully expect to be intercepted...and possibly fired on if I make a hostile move. -------------------------------------------------------- New report on the possible cause: engine failure due to carb icing. Long story short, because the carbeurator is a small venturi tube, it's susceptible to icing at temperatures up to 20 degrees C, and high humidity conditions. It's possible that the carb iced up, the engine stopped, and in an attempt to find a suitable landing site, the plane found the building instead :sad:
I like you. You're smart. They showed a video on the news earlier. His plane made a weird maneuver and they speculate the engines shut off from the maneuver he did make, and that's what caused the crash. @tasta Man, that's ridiculous. I support the whole "truth" thing, too, but that's just going overboard.
Bank-induced fuel starvation? Super. The SR20 is supposed to be immune to that. If that's what they conclude caused a loss of power...well, Cirrus is gonna have some major work to do. For those who don't know what I mean...the fuel inlets in each tank are at the lowest point in the tank. You typically operate on one tank (L or R) in cruise, and both during takeoff/landing. If he took off on only one tank, and then banked towards that tank (with a helluva bank angle, ~60 degrees, which is a LOT), that could actually draw fuel away from that inlet and starve the engine. Right outta the SR20 checklists, Before Takeoff section: FUEL SELECTOR ............................................................. BOTH Hm. Maybe he didn't use his checklists. Big mistake. I always use 'em, even if I have it memorized.
I got this on my phone a couple days ago, pretty weird :/ Strange coincidence... A plane crashed into a bldg in nyc on 10/11/06 now turn the date upside down and look at it...
God, I didn't even realise that. Messed up coincidence. @Joe: Shocking that they would shoot a small plane down but they didn't...
I didn't even notice that either. I HATE stuff like that. It gives off this eerie feeling. Strange coincidence.
That coincidence doesn't even make sense. It'd end up being 90/11/01. I'm pretty sure the months don't even go up to 90.
Shut up. I think everyone should've been more concerned that I wasn't sure if months went up to 90 or not...