Coast Guard searching for missing plane

a reply to: Zaphod58
They are finding debris that is washing ashore, including a bag containing the pilot's identification.

a reply to: JIMC5499

The CG suspended the search yesterday.

a reply to: Zaphod58

They are getting a intermittent faint signal from the ELT. The water conditions are too rough for boats to go out.

Just a data point here...

Records indicate the pilot upgraded to the 525 in mid-October 2016, so he had less than 3 months in the airframe.

Prior to that he was rated for the 510 Mustang. No info on PIC time in the 510.

Does anyone know what variant of the 525 it was? If it was a type 'B' or 'C' that's quite a bit more airplane than the 510.

(Note: Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to upgrade from a 510 to an older M2, hence the 'B' or 'C' question)

ETA...Well DUH!...(dumb question on my part) I could have just looked it up. It was a Citation CJ4 (Model 525-'C') ...quite a bit more airplane than the 510.

Ice was my first thought as to cause when I first read this story, but the more I read about it the more I'm looking somewhere else. However, given he was in the air for just over 60 seconds, if it was ice then the ice was present on the ground before takeoff.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I'm betting that he didn't unlock his flight controls.

a reply to: JIMC5499

With that study recently that found how many pilots weren't running checklists, I wouldn't be shocked.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Degrading weather, driving wind / snow and darkness. Family on board. Probably in a hurry to boot (maybe trying to beat a perceived closure).

Sounds like the right ingredients for some to cut some corners on the pre-flight.

I worked as a Lineman at a small airport in the early 90's. Some of the things that I saw would blow your mind. The guy who tried to load 600 lbs. of quarters into a Mooney. The Cessna that landed and told me to fill him up completely with Avgas. I put 87 gallons in to his tanks. His fuel capacity was 90.

I can see this guy pre-flighting before he left for the basketball game, coming back and taking off without even looking to see if he had any ice build-up.

I can also see this being his first plane with control locks and his forgetting to unlock his controls before taking off. Citations are sweet aircraft, one of my favorites to work on or around.

They have recovered over 170 pieces of wreckage, including the cockpit voice recorder and some remains that have been identified as human.

a reply to: JIMC5499

Sadly, probably not going to be much on that CVR recording, not that short of a flight...

"Right turn to zero nine zero, climb and maintain zero six thousand, contact departure on (xxx.xx), Cessna 614 sierra bravo.......Huh...what the..???...dammit...C'mon, c'mon!!...DAMMIT...S#!..." (bang!)".