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Tahoe plane crash
At an elevation of 5900 feet, this can be a tricky airport to use. A local pilot indicated this is an airport where you must make a visual landing. There were clouds with moderate fire smoke at the time of the crash. Specific safety warnings are posted at the airport. https://truckeetahoeairport.com/aviation/safety (sacramento.cbslocal.com) More...
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From my perspective, looks like an unstable approach from the get go. Too fast, too high, hence the need for the 360. Overshot the center line and instead of executing a missed, banked it too steep for the speed and stalled it. This guy should have taken it to Reno instead.
To understand now that he was on an RNAV approach to Runway 20 (4,654 feet) and then went VFR to a circling for Runway 11 (7,001 feet) for length, makes his approach even more dangerous, especially at that elevation and over that terrain.
Spot on! His ref + 10 maneuvering speed, fully configured, (absolute min. for a corporate jet) would be around 130 to 140 Knts. and to contain the impact area in that small a space says the vertical velocity greatly exceeded the horizontal, trees or no trees. Not your average GA fail.
agree. All the earmarks of a stall and steep dive.
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Don't think it was hotdogging. I believe factors such as density altitude, reduced vis, and what bentwing60 has identified.
For the love of all that is holy please stop drinking and posting.
That wasn’t a 360, it was a holding pattern while waiting for an approach clearance. The rest is probably accurate, given the high density altitude groundspeed was higher than normal which probably led to an overshoot on final and the dreaded stall/spin while trying to tighten the turn. But if you look at the track the impact is on base as they were starting the turn to final, they never even made it onto final. Most traditional base to final accidents occur after the aircraft crosses the extended centerline and is attempting to correct back. So it’s possible they mismanaged airspeed and stalled early in the turn, or became disoriented with the poor visibility. And you can never rule out mechanical failure or some other factor(s) until the investigators do their thing.
