The pilot of the cessna 182 was descending in a right turn after dropping parachute jumpers at 4500 ft msl. As he descended below 1500 ft msl, his aircraft collided with a beech a36. The a36 had departed from the queen city airport and was in the traffic pattern to land at the airport when the collision occurred. The cessna crashed in a paved parking lot of a shopping center and the beech crashed into a new car dealership’s parking lot. Both aircraft were destroyed along with several cars in the dealership’s lot.
Category: 1989
The pilot reported that he detected a loss of power during the desent to land that carburetor heat seemed to correct. He discontinued the carburetor heat after a short period of time and the engine failed on final approach at approximately 500 feet agl. The icing probability chart indicates that existing conditions were conducive for carburetor icing and the spark plugs showed evidence of an over rich condition. The engine ran without problem when installed on another aircraft.
The plt was returning to land after hauling skydivers. He rprtd that while on a short final apch to land on rwy 31 with 20 to 30 deg of flaps extended, the acft entered a high sink rate in gusty wind conditions. He said that he lowered the nose to increase speed & that he planned to arrest the sink rate in the flare, but then ‘the bottom fell out’ & the acftcollided with the ground in a nose low attitude. The flt manual recommended that if the rwy length permitted, crosswind landings should be performed with the flaps retract. The manufacturer estimated that 560 ft would have been required to land the acft on a hard surface with no wind & 40 deg of flaps. The rwy length was 2800 ft. The plt rprtd the wind was variable from 240 to 270 deg with gusts to 20 kts. Aprx 20 mi southeast at shaw afb, the 1655 edt wind was rprtd to be from 260 deg at 20 gusting 28 kts.
As the acft was climbing thru 9,000 ft for 13,000 ft with skydivers aboard, the eng lost power from fuel exhaustion. The skydivers bailed out over the drop zone, then the plt attempted to return to the arpt from about 7000 ft. An emergency landing was made before reaching the rwy. The plt saw a fence ahead & applied heavy braking to avoid hitting the fence. However, the acft encountered a ditch as the plt was applying brakes & the acft nosed over.
Accident airplane was being used for sport parachute activity when engine failed during the initial climb of a jump sortie. The pic instructed his four skydiver passengers to assume a crash position and accomplished an off airport landing in a soft field. During the landing roll the nose landing gear collapsed. Post accident examination of the engine revealed a piece of duct tape obstructing the carburetor venturi restricting airflow to the engine.
The plt rprtd his apch speed was slightly fast & that he had landed long on the 2500′ grass strip. Subsequently, he was unable to stop the acft before it struck a snowbank at the end of the strip & it nosed over. The selected runway was aligned to the south. The wind was rprtd to be from the west at about 15 kts. Also, the grass strip was described as ‘slippery’ with patches of snow/ice.