The accident in which the Mooney caught the three-wire, along with the rest of the Tower, in Gaithersburg, Maryland drew quite a bit of attention given its rather rare occurrence of the plane hitting the tower, remaining intact, and both occupants surviving the incident.
There is an early analysis courtesy of AOPA which is rather interesting:
In short, the pilot was flying IFR, doing an RNAV 14 approach and had clear issues both getting onto the appropriate heading to reach the initial fix and then handling after hitting the final approach fix. With weather conditions below minimums and some windshear, the pilot descended below the RNAV vertical guidance and seemed to be off laterally as well to strike the tower.
3 comments:
That's pretty much the way I saw it. Issues holding a course, issues flying the Rnav course, way off the glide slope. Just piss poor flying in really bad conditions.
There's an airport around here where if you go to low on the Rnav you'll do that exact thing. High line on final.
Lucky no one was hurt, really.
Well...As they say...I'd rather be lucky than good. Luck is more reliable.
That having been said, I'm pretty sure his supply of Luck is gone, kaput, empty, used up...Ad Infinitum!
B: Yep it is amazing they made it. Looks like bad decision making to do an approach with the weather below approach minimums and it went downhill from there.
juvat: I'd agree, Id say at least 8 of his nine lives were expended on that one!
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