14 dead in PC-12 crash in Butte, Montana (2009)

[Sulako]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29828359

BUTTE, Mont. - A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman says 17 people are dead after a plane crashed while approaching the airport in Butte.

Spokesman Mike Fergus says the single engine turboprop plane departed from Orville, Calif., at about 11 a.m. Pacific time. The pilot had filed a flight plan showing a final destination of Bozeman.

Fergus says the pilot canceled his flight plan at some point and headed for Butte. The plane crashed about 500 feet from the airport while attempting to land and caught fire.

Fergus says there are no known fatalities on the ground. He says preliminary reports indicate the dead include numerous children.

Fergus says the plane was registered to Eagle Cap Leasing Inc. in Enterprise, Oregon, but he doesn't know who was operating the plane.

Calls to local authorities were not immediately returned.

The Montana Standard reported on its Web site that the plane crashed in the Holy Cross Cemetery, just south of the airport. An eyewitness told the Standard that the plane was doing steep angle turns and then went into a nose dive.

"All of a sudden the pilot lost control and went into a nosedive," Kenny Gulick, 14, told the news organization. "He couldn't pull out in time and crashed into the trees of the cemetery," Gulick said.

Fergus said the Pilatus PC-12 aircraft was manufactured in 2001. He said the National Transportation Safety Board has an investigator located in Butte who was thought to be on scene. The FAA's flight standards investigator was en route.

[Flybaby]

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N128CM

[teacher]

How do 17 people fit in a plane that seats 9 fully loaded and 2 crew? Including bags that would pretty much double the the useful load? They don't mention anything about anyone on the ground being hurt.

[Doc]

No problem. Take the pesky seats out, and you can probably stuff in 20.

[Eleveniron]

Here comes the experts...

"The twin-engine plane went down in the Holy Cross Cemetery near Bert Mooney Airport and officials tell us that there are fatalities, but it's too early to tell how many people died in the crash"

[Doc]

Here comes the experts...

"The twin-engine plane went down in the Holy Cross Cemetery near Bert Mooney Airport and officials tell us that there are fatalities, but it's too early to tell how many people died in the crash"

It was an Aztec. They recovered 178 bodies.....

[Widow]

Reports are saying kids going on a ski trip ...

RIP.

[Flybaby]

[Just another canuck]

How do 17 people fit in a plane that seats 9 fully loaded and 2 crew? Including bags that would pretty much double the the useful load? They don't mention anything about anyone on the ground being hurt.

Can't speak for the Pilatus, but I've had more in the Caravan... didn't think you were allowed to do that here though.

Either way, my condolences to all the families.

[Flybaby]

My guess so far is they meant to said 7 on board.

I really hope it isn't 17 kids.
RIP

[Just another canuck]

My guess so far is they meant to said 7 on board.

I really hope it isn't 17 kids.
RIP

Possible, but that would be quite the error. I've honestly flown two crew plus 18 pax. in the Van... not in this country though.

[Eleveniron]

There's news reports already saying the casualties are not what was originally reported.

[2milefinal]

CNN is claiming a Pilatus PC12 has crashed in Butte Montana with 17 dead...do they have that many seats?

Well typical configuration would have 9 pax seats but you could easily fit another in there no problem to make ten, however I don't think they are certified for that anywhere. So I guess with a Child on each passengers lap in Commuter layout would make a maximum of 18 plus the two Pilot seats so theoretically you could have 20 in a PC-12.

From the other pc12 thread

I too am hoping this is not the right number. That would be a pretty crowded cabin

[Just another canuck]

Aren't only half the number of seats allowed to contain a child or infant on someone's lap?

That would mean you would need 12 seats plus half (-1) containing a child or infant as well. Apparently the 17 casualties is not accurate anyway.

[Iflyplanes]

Not enough O2 masks for 17 people. (flight aware states FL250) I'm sure the aircraft type is wrong, or the number of fatalties is wrong. If not... That company is going to be knee deep in shit.

[GForce]

More info about the passengers... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... -trip.html

[Widow]

At Least 14 Are Killed in Plane Crash in Montana
Martha Guidoni/The Montana Standard, via Reuters

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Published: March 22, 2009

A private plane carrying children and adults from California to a skiing vacation in Montana diverted from its planned destination and crashed on Sunday as it attempted to land at an airport in Butte, and a Federal Aviation Administration official said that all on board — 14 to 17 people — were killed.

A mechanic at a California airport where the plane had stopped in the morning said that there were about a dozen children on board.

Witnesses at the scene of the crash said the aircraft was turning at a steep angle as it approached Bert Mooney Airport on the outskirts of Butte at midafternoon when it abruptly went into a nosedive, plunged into a wooded area in Holy Cross Cemetery and burst into flames upon impact.

“All of a sudden the pilot lost control and went into a nosedive,” Kenny Gulick, 14, a member of the Civil Air Patrol in Butte who lives near the airport, told The Montana Standard in Butte. “He couldn’t pull out in time and crashed into the trees of the cemetery.”

According to flightaware.com, an airplane tracking service, the flight originated on Sunday in Redlands, Calif., near San Bernardino in the Los Angeles area, and had flown to Vacaville, 50 miles southwest of Sacramento. It stayed at Vacaville for 50 minutes before taking off on a short hop to the municipal airport at Oroville, 70 miles north of Sacramento. The plane was on the ground at Oroville for about 30 minutes.

It was unclear at what point the children boarded the flight. Tom Hagler, a mechanic at Oroville airport, said he let about a dozen children who were on the plane use the airport bathroom. They were about 6 to 10 years old, Mr. Hagler said, “a lot of really cute kids.”

He said the plane did not refuel at Oroville. He said he spoke briefly with the pilot, but did not recognize him or any of the children and did not know if any members of the group were local. He also said he would be surprised if as many as 17 people could have been on the single-engine plane.

Mike Fergus, an F.A.A. spokesman, told The Associated Press that the plane, a turboprop, had taken off about 11 a.m. Pacific time from Oroville on what was to be a 700-mile flight to Gallatin Field at Bozeman, Mont. The Bozeman airfield is 10 miles south of the Bridger Bowl Ski Area in the Gallatin Mountains, the apparent destination of the vacationers.

“We think it was probably a ski trip for the kids,” Mr. Fergus said.

But at some point, Mr. Fergus said, the pilot canceled the flight plan and headed for Butte, 75 miles west of Bozeman. Bert Mooney Airport, three miles southeast of the Butte’s central business district, has crossed paved runways of 9,000 and 5,100 feet . The plane crashed about 500 feet west of the airport at 3:26 p.m., Mountain time, more than three hours after taking off from Oroville.

Gerry O’Brien, a journalist with The Montana Standard, a daily published in Butte, quoted a firefighter at the scene that the plane was “loaded with children on their way to a ski vacation.”

It was not clear what went wrong. The change of destination by the pilot during the flight — to an airport that was much closer — suggested that the plane may have experienced some problem en route and needed to land promptly. The National Transportation Safety Board sent an investigator from Butte to the scene.

Five hours after the crash, Butte-Silver Bow County officials held a press briefing but offered few details. They said the aircraft had no black box because it was not a commercial flight, and they said no one on the ground was injured. The fire had burned for 5 to 10 minutes, they said.

A tarpaulin was used to cover the wreckage and the cemetery was closed for the night. Investigators were to resume their inquiry on Monday.

The aircraft was described by F.A.A. officials as a Pilatus PC12 that was registered, and apparently rented from, Eagle Cap Leasing of Enterprise, Ore. A Web site for the Pilatus PC12 describes it as an airplane manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland and introduced for civil aviation in the United States in 1994. Its specifications cite seating in some commercial configurations for 9 or 10 people, but the aircraft that crashed was said to have seating for 12.

Les Dorr, an F.A.A. spokesman, said, however, that 14 to 17 people were on board. It was unclear if that many people, including children, could be safely accommodated on the plane, which is powered by a Pratt & Whitney turboprop engine.

Butte-Silver Bow County sheriff’s deputies, Montana highway patrol officers and fire and safety personnel were at the scene with a tangle of emergency vehicles. Pictures taken by Martha and Steve Guidoni, who were visiting the cemetery when the crash occurred, showed flames and heavy smoke rising from a tree line on a hill crest in the distance, with grave markers in the foreground.

The National Transportation Safety Board said there had been 15 Pilatus accidents since 2001, 6 of them involving fatalities. A safety board database indicated that the aircraft that crashed had not been involved in any previous accidents.

Federal officials called it the nation’s third major plane crash this year. In January, all 155 people on board a US Airways jetliner survived a crash landing in the Hudson River after a flock of geese struck both engines, and a commuter plane crashed into a house in a Buffalo suburb in February, killing all 49 on board and a man on the ground.

Reporting was contributed by Jim Robbins, Matthew L. Wald, Jack Begg and Kevin Quealy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/us/23 ... r=1&ref=us

[mcconnell14]

this is a very sad day, terrible tragedy. Atleast 12 children aboard the small plane.

[Axial Flow]

Terrible news,

Maybe there was some toddlers under two on the laps of the parents to give the higher number ?

Crappy deal.

[officejet]

Just said the same thing on a thread above...

Thoughts and prayers with the family and friends...

What a day.

[Flybaby]

7 kids, 7 adults die in Montana plane crash, FAA says
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/23/montan ... index.html

[xsbank]

Unbelievable. They must have been strap-hanging.... wonder what the w&b was...

what a waste.

[rigpiggy]

Unbelievable. They must have been strap-hanging.... wonder what the w&b was...

what a waste.

Just extrapolating the #'s
oew 5900
4 m/3F/2C/5I 1438
Bags 300
Fuel 3+30(700nm) 2100?
GTOW 9738

It may legally work, but the oxygen requirements wouldn't be met, not a problem 250 or below. Those of you who drive the 12 may have more accurate#. I don't know any restriction on infants, but you only have to include over 10% in the W+B

[raven54]

"Some of the victims were found in wooden boxes and appeared to be dead for quite some time, later revealed to be unrelated to the crash." Wouldn't surprise me to read that on CBC. Condolences to all the victims and families.

[linecrew]

"Some of the victims were found in wooden boxes and appeared to be dead for quite some time, later revealed to be unrelated to the crash." Wouldn't surprise me to read that on CBC. Condolences to all the victims and families.

...not sure if this is the best time to crack funny dude.