That plane was out of control when it hit. There was some catastrophic failure. That plane can fly stabilized at 120 knots easily even with both engines flamed out. That was at least a 45 degree bank and greater than 30 degrees pitch down. Speed was well in excess of approach speed,(probably greater than 200 knots).
Given the fact that they were reportedly “cleared to land” they were within 20 miles of their destination. That means rapid depressurization was almost certainly not a factor. It would take the complete failure of a primary control surface to put the plane in that attitude. Could have happened during flap deployment. I know a few accidents that terminated like this with asymmetrical flap deployment. Premier 1a is a docile plane, but it is one of the few biz-jets that can be flown single pilot. So Pilot incapacitation is a real possibility.
Speaking of asymmetries, I recently watched a video about a plane crash caused by asymmetric thrust. And the asymmetric thrust was caused by the autothrottle attempting to adjust both thrust levers, except one thrust lever was bound up mechanically, so one side moved and the other didn't. The autopilot/nav was set to make a turn as this happened, so the initial banking did not alarm either pilot. By the time they caught it, they were almost sideways and at too low of an altitude to recover. This just made me think of that accident, I'm no expert by any means.
The beach 390 Premier 1A is a “previous generation” business jet. My flight department looked at acquiring one but chose not to because Beach (aircraft manufacturer) went bankrupt and they (Beachcraft) no longer exists as an independent entity. That company was acquired by Textron (who owns Cessna and the Citation business jet line of aircraft as well as many others like the “Skyhawk” Cessna 172 that most people use as a trainer and / or first aircraft)
But I digress…
Bottom line: the Beach 390 is an “orphaned” aircraft. Parts are hard to find and Textron no longer supports it. The remaining fleet is small (less than 200 airframes flying worldwide) the fleet remains flying by a devoted cadre of owner-operators who keep them flying from a decade-old parts infrastructure consisting of devoted maintenance facilities and parted out derelicts.
They are good machines, but parts and service are a challenge. One can buy them very cheap, (less than 7 figures) that makes their “on paper” acquisition price to performance ratio appealing. But to get one…means a certain lifetime of parts and maintenance hassles and nightmares.
This accident happened in good weather…based on video….and the crash itself was so bad…so outside the “operational envelope” of an airplane on “final approach.” That I have to deduce that either the pilot died at the helm, or something very important broke very badly in the last moments.
I have a personal fascination with this accident because I do this for a living, but given the obvious total destruction of this, and the fact that it happened where it did…we’ll probably never know what happened. And since it’s an “orphaned airplane.” Even the manufacturer will be un-interested in figuring it out.
That plane was out of control when it hit. There was some catastrophic failure. That plane can fly stabilized at 120 knots easily even with both engines flamed out. That was at least a 45 degree bank and greater than 30 degrees pitch down. Speed was well in excess of approach speed,(probably greater than 200 knots). Given the fact that they were reportedly “cleared to land” they were within 20 miles of their destination. That means rapid depressurization was almost certainly not a factor. It would take the complete failure of a primary control surface to put the plane in that attitude. Could have happened during flap deployment. I know a few accidents that terminated like this with asymmetrical flap deployment. Premier 1a is a docile plane, but it is one of the few biz-jets that can be flown single pilot. So Pilot incapacitation is a real possibility.
Speaking of asymmetries, I recently watched a video about a plane crash caused by asymmetric thrust. And the asymmetric thrust was caused by the autothrottle attempting to adjust both thrust levers, except one thrust lever was bound up mechanically, so one side moved and the other didn't. The autopilot/nav was set to make a turn as this happened, so the initial banking did not alarm either pilot. By the time they caught it, they were almost sideways and at too low of an altitude to recover. This just made me think of that accident, I'm no expert by any means.
The beach 390 Premier 1A is a “previous generation” business jet. My flight department looked at acquiring one but chose not to because Beach (aircraft manufacturer) went bankrupt and they (Beachcraft) no longer exists as an independent entity. That company was acquired by Textron (who owns Cessna and the Citation business jet line of aircraft as well as many others like the “Skyhawk” Cessna 172 that most people use as a trainer and / or first aircraft)
But I digress…
Bottom line: the Beach 390 is an “orphaned” aircraft. Parts are hard to find and Textron no longer supports it. The remaining fleet is small (less than 200 airframes flying worldwide) the fleet remains flying by a devoted cadre of owner-operators who keep them flying from a decade-old parts infrastructure consisting of devoted maintenance facilities and parted out derelicts.
They are good machines, but parts and service are a challenge. One can buy them very cheap, (less than 7 figures) that makes their “on paper” acquisition price to performance ratio appealing. But to get one…means a certain lifetime of parts and maintenance hassles and nightmares.
This accident happened in good weather…based on video….and the crash itself was so bad…so outside the “operational envelope” of an airplane on “final approach.” That I have to deduce that either the pilot died at the helm, or something very important broke very badly in the last moments.
I have a personal fascination with this accident because I do this for a living, but given the obvious total destruction of this, and the fact that it happened where it did…we’ll probably never know what happened. And since it’s an “orphaned airplane.” Even the manufacturer will be un-interested in figuring it out.
Interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing fren.