Unresponsive plane flying south

Double"O"

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It's in the link I posted above, but...
http://www.tbm.aero/

Tks...for some reason the link wouldnt work on my damn phone

Wow thats a nice acft!
Auto pressure system...i would think i high performance plane like that would give a warning. Even rapid depress it shoild have been capable of decending below 10k in a hurry.

Who knows what happened though?
 
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Iamchris

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I wonder where they scrambled the jets from. We stand alert for the northeast out of Massachusetts, I didn't hear anything. Must have been Jersey.

I wonder if they'd shoot it down if it was heading towards a populated area and they new it was about to run out of fuel.
What do you think they would do?
 

Double"O"

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I wonder where they scrambled the jets from. We stand alert for the northeast out of Massachusetts, I didn't hear anything. Must have been Jersey.


What do you think they would do?

I got my money on semour johnson afb
 

JetmechF16

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Larry Glazer and his wife were the only two onboard, according to their son. Glazer is/was a real estate developer in NY.
 
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VirtualSVT

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this is like the second time in a week that a plane went unresponsive and crashed from this.

Weird.
 

Devious_Snake

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zak88lx

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This has happened a few times, but it's still relatively rare.
If traffic control had seen the warning signs of hypoxia due to cabin pressure loss, they may have been able to save them.
The pilot asked for a lower altitude, as something was wrong but he was denied (1st sign).
Air traffic mentioned that he was acting strangely (2nd sign), and giving his call sign when being asked what his altitude was (3rd sign).

If they could have instructed the pilot to immediately drop to 10,000 feet earlier on, they may have survived, as 10,000 and below would have enough oxygen.

These modern planes should have a sensor or the technology to drop to 10,000 feet via autopilot, when cabin pressure is lost.

I watched an episode of that show "Dangerous Flights" where they removed cabin pressure at high altitude, and only 1 of the 2 pilots was given an oxygen mask.
It didn't take long for the non oxygenated pilot to start making stupid decisions.
 

musclefan21

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This has happened a few times, but it's still relatively rare.
If traffic control had seen the warning signs of hypoxia due to cabin pressure loss, they may have been able to save them.
The pilot asked for a lower altitude, as something was wrong but he was denied (1st sign).
Air traffic mentioned that he was acting strangely (2nd sign), and giving his call sign when being asked what his altitude was (3rd sign).

If they could have instructed the pilot to immediately drop to 10,000 feet earlier on, they may have survived, as 10,000 and below would have enough oxygen.

These modern planes should have a sensor or the technology to drop to 10,000 feet via autopilot, when cabin pressure is lost.

I watched an episode of that show "Dangerous Flights" where they removed cabin pressure at high altitude, and only 1 of the 2 pilots was given an oxygen mask.
It didn't take long for the non oxygenated pilot to start making stupid decisions.

I agree with you, but you can't just drop altitude without permission and or knowing it is clear. Air has to be confirmed clear before you drop your altitude.
 

flyby763

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I agree with you, but you can't just drop altitude without permission and or knowing it is clear. Air has to be confirmed clear before you drop your altitude.
Not in an emergency, which this most certainly would have qualified as.

As an air traffic controller I would rather this pilot have descended on his own than have to live with knowing I was the last person he spoke to.
 

musclefan21

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Not in an emergency, which this most certainly would have qualified as.

As an air traffic controller I would rather this pilot have descended on his own than have to live with knowing I was the last person he spoke to.

Or pilot descent on his own, collide with another airplane / mountain and you are still the last person he spoke to...along with other mess if collision was another airplane.
 

flyby763

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Or pilot descent on his own, collide with another airplane / mountain and you are still the last person he spoke to...along with other mess if collision was another airplane.
Ugh...In the moder world of TCAS, TAWS, etc...This is not likely to happen. VFR airplanes fly around all the time without getting a clearance from ATC to climb, descend, turn, land, takeoff...
 

DSG2NV03

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Yea crappy situation. In Naval aviation, we went through the "pressure chamber" to see the effects of hypoxia and at 25k feet, which is what we were tested at, it doesn't take long to go nutty. Some people, it was less than a minute. Would be a good way to die because you are happy and clueless.

Due to ATC workload, the controller probably didn't have time to analyze the voice and such. We ask for different altitudes all the time for various reasons. Chances are, if he was answering with weird answers, there is not recovering from that. I doubt he could fight through the euphoric stage and make a split decision to head to the ground. The key word of "emergency" has to be said to get some real action in the air. You can say my wing fell off and the next question they will ask is, "are you declaring an emergency"? After that point, all calls are advisory in nature and you do what you need to do to not die.

Crappy situation and I hope the family finds some peace.
 

redfiresvtsnake

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No reason they shouldn't have been able to descend to below 10k. Flying that high he was on an IFR flight plan, and even if he was not on an airway/official route, and flying on the east coast, he would have had substantial terrain clearance. An OROCA on an off route flight plan gives you what, 2000 ft of terrain clearance in a mountainous area? No mountains on the east coast come close to 8k feet so he had the terrain clearance. Sadly when you become hypoxic you lose the judgement that would make you declare an emergency and descend without clearance to a safe altitude. I've sen a few videos of hypoxia training and heard ATC recordings of hypoxic pilots when I was in flight school. Scary stuff.
 
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