Aircraft Crashes Into Kent Homes

A small plane has crashed into homes in Kent, leading to grave fears for residents and six people believed to be on board the aircraft.

SKY NEWS


Looks like there could be some serious casualties involved going by the images on the sky website one story i have read stated that it was a cessna citation involved, not sure what their track record is like for safety?

The Citation is a good airplane. But they do crash just like any other airplane. The chances for survivors on board are probably slim, hopefully no one was home though when it hit.

reply to post by solidshot


Kent? Where in the hell is that. I know of Kent, Washington. Photo shows water the Kent I know is inland. Is kent trying to put themselves on the map and dimissing all the other kents?

Btw- OP I love you your hat and you cats hat! Mine and my dogs are similar but have more of a brim. It is fashionably acceptable to work a little harder- other wise you may end up as a featured player in a Mel Gibson movie (Signs)

[edit on 30-3-2008 by dk3000]

Originally posted by dk3000

Kent? Where in the hell is that. I know of Kent, Washington. Photo shows water the Kent I know is inland. Is kent trying to put themselves on the map and dimissing all the other kents?

Kent is located in the UK.

Originally posted by dk3000


Kent? Where in the hell is that.

small map on the BBC version of the story showing where it is in the UK and roughly where the accident has happened in comparison

BBC

BBC: One house was empty as the occupants were on holiday while those in the second house got out ok.

And the latest figure for inside the aircraft is 5.

Apparently there were no survivors on the plane, and the pilot issued a mayday call shortly after takeoff.

Crashed in Broadwater Gardens, a residential area in Farnborough. The pilot reportedly issued a mayday call just after takeoff from Biggin Hill.
Sky News reported the plane to be a Cessna Citation. The registration of the plane has NOT been confirmed.

ASN

The airport said the plane was a commercial flight en-route to France. It had just taken off when the pilot made an emergency call and asked for permission to land again.

"Unfortunately it crashed before reaching the airport," said airport chairman Andrew Walters.

A pilot named as John, who was landing another plane at Biggin Hill, heard the mayday call. The Cessna pilot reported "severe engine vibrations", he said.

He told the BBC: "You could hear the alarms in the cockpit.

"The pilot came back over the radio a second or two later and said 'We're going down, we're going down'.

"The radio stayed live, and as I turned off the runway I looked back and I saw the plane basically drop out of the sky.

"And then the radio went dead and black smoke came up from over the hill."

BBC news

Without anymore information it's hard to say what happened except maybe it lost power and stalled, but thats a guess.

And Kent is in England, near London. If you've heard of Brands Hatch racing circuit, that is in Kent. It's also probably the original Kent, too.

Sounds like a turbine blade failed. That would cause the engine to vibrate badly because it would be unbalanced, and losing power. Be interesting to see what the maintenance records look like for the engines.

Latest reports say that David Leslie (former British touring car champion) and David Lloyd (racing team owner?) were on the aircraft. Also is this aircraft not supposed to be able to fly on one engine? this is what at least one media source stated last night iirc?

Investigators have been looking into the crash but have found that the plane, including its engines and circuits, had no faults.

After disassembling the engines, experts also ruled out a bird strike or anything else hitting the aircraft.

SKY


If they have ruled out engine problems then what is left? engine management probs? no matter what caused the accident it looks like it will be difficult to prove given that there was no black box fitted and a lot of the wreckage was incinerated.

reply to post by solidshot


It depends on what portion of flight you're talking about. If they've burned off fuel, and are in the cruising or decent portion of the flight, then they can probably get away with flying on one engine. Just after take off they're the heaviest, and it's harder to keep her airborne on one engine. If anything happens to cause them to lose speed, they can easily go into a stall.