337 accident near Orlando, FL

[Eustacio-Chachi]

The Orlando FAA office is reporting today a fatal accident of a C-337 on the city of Bernadino Beach Fl. in which 3 people are missing and one was found death.

[Eustacio-Chachi]

Try <http://www1.faa.gov/avr/aai/iirform.htm>

[Ed Coffman]

MAYPORT, Fla. -- The U.S. Coast Guard has found one body and a debris field about 8 miles off the coast of Fernandina Beach, in the area they believe a twin-engine plane went down more Sunday evening.
The Federal Aviation Administration told Channel 4 that the Cessna Super Skymaster (similar to plane pictured, left) took off from St. Simons Island, Ga., Sunday for an aerial survey of right whales, and was due back late Sunday afternoon. The plane refueled at Fernandina Beach airport about 2 p.m., reported sighting three whales just off the coast shortly after taking off again. The plane was reported overdue at 6:30 p.m.

The Coast Guard located an emergency beacon from the plane about 9:20 p.m. and spotted some debris -- a backpack, some life jackets and some papers. Early Monday morning, rescuers reported finding one body.

Officials said the Cessna, owned by Environmental Services Corp. of Fernandina, had four people aboard -- two men and two women. The pilot -- described by the company president as an experience flyer in his mid-30s -- and three marine biologists under contract to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources were aboard the plane.

Names have not been released.

"Most airplane accidents happen because something's wrong with the airplane, somethings wrong with the pilot or something's wrong with the weather,"Bob Murphy, president of Environmental Aviation Services, said. "(It's a) good plane, good pilot, and we had unbelievably good weather yesterday."

The Coast Guard began rescue efforts with boats from Mayport and helicopters from Savannah, Ga. This morning a C-130 reconnaissance aircraft from Clearwater joined the search this morning.

"There's always hope," Dana Warr of the Coast Guard said early Monday. "We don't if they had any type of survival gear with them; if they had time to put that on. It's all speculation at this point."

Channel 4 has a crew at search headquarters at the Mayport Coast Guard station and another at the Fernandina Beach airport, where the plane is based. We will update this information as details become available and have live report on Eyewitness News at 5 p.m.
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HONDA INTEGRA

[Ernie Martin]

This is worth following closely. Anyone with new info please post it. I'm anxiuos to know what the typical altitude for whale counting is. We do SAR at 500 ft altitude and it's easy to get excited and forget about your altitude. I believe that Don Niesser supplies parts to Environmental Services Corp. of Fernandina, so he may be closer to the operation and have more info.

Ernie

[Mitch Taylor]

Low level over the water, it's easy to get too low without realizing it. I make it a practice to let the passengers look at the whales or boats or whatever, and just take quick looks to keep them in sight.

Incidentally, I think that outfit was flying O-2s. I think I read about them somewhere.

Mitch
67-21309

[Bob Cook]

I remember reading about a 337 that "bounced" off the water and survived to tell about it. It was one of the Cuban (American) search and rescue aircraft. The props were bent up but made it safely back to Miami.

I will see if I can find the report. It is posted on the NTSB site and happened about four years ago.

fyi

Bob

[rick bell]

everyone is correct, you can really loose the horizon very quickly. i was doing a favor for someone taking photographs along the coast line and the islands @200' during the many turns and banks i lost my reference point and the horizon disapreaed.
mentally i said oops then went instantly ifr to cure my errors;however there is not much time to make a decesion

[Ed Coffman]

FERNANDINA BEACH
Searchers Find Plane in Atlantic

Searchers using sonar have located the plane that crashed Sunday in the Atlantic, killing a pilot and three whale researchers. Two bodies were found inside the plane.

Divers from the Nassau County Sheriff's Office recovered the two bodies Wednesday and hoped to find the remaining body when they attempt to raise the plane from the ocean floor today.

On board the 1969 Cessna 337-02A were pilot Tom Hinds, 40, of Fernandina Beach; Emily Argo, 25, of North Bend, Ohio; Michael Newcomer, 49, of Los Altos, Calif.; and Jacqueline Ciano, 47, of Massachusetts.

The four had been flying about eight miles off the coast looking for whales about 3:15 p.m. Sunday when they radioed to shore that they had spotted whales. They also had contact with two other aircraft, then said they were beginning a descent to 500 feet. That was the last anyone heard from them.
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Toyota F3R Specifications

[jimmuse]

The following was fowarded to me today:

MIA03FA046

accident occurred Sunday, January 26, 2003 at Fernandina Bch, FL
Aircraft:Cessna 337-O2A, registration: N52513
Injuries: 4 Fatal.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

On January 26, 2003, about 1520 eastern standard time, a Cessna 337-O2A, N52513, operated by Environmental Aviation Services Inc., as a Title 14 CFR Part 91 other work use flight impacted with the waters of the Atlantic Ocean about 7 miles east of Fernandina Beach, Florida. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. A company flight plan was filed. The airplane was destroyed. The commercial rated-pilot and three passengers received fatal injuries. The flight had originated from the Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport, at 1430.

The flight had departed the airport en route to perform a whale survey with a pilot and three employees of the survey company on board. The pilot radioed the survey company at 1447 and 1515, that they had spotted some whales. According to the owner of the airplane, the flight customarily would circle at 1000 feet until a whale was spotted, and then would descend to 750 to 500 feet for closer observations. While tracking a whale the pilot would bank the airplane to 45 degrees, and right turns only. While circling the whale the procedure that was followed was to use approach flaps of 10 to 20 degrees and fly at a speed of 100 knots. After tracking the whale the pilot would climb the airplane to 1,000 feet and continue the pre-planned search area. The last radar hit on the flight was at 1520, and showed the airplane at an altitude of 600 feet, at a ground speed of 0 knots. The location was at latitude 030:36:52 N, and a longitude of 081:17:07 W. At 0045, January 27, 2003, the U.S. Coast Guard reported a female body had washed up on Fernandina Beach. The airplane wreckage was located on January 29, 2003, about 7 miles east of Fernandina Beach, in 65 feet of water. The airplane was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean on February 1, 2003.


Zero knots ground speed?