Plane crash in Kent

[BBKing]

Not nice. Google Maps afficionados can find the spot here - just beyond some empty ground

51.364559,0.067051

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7321589.stm

[WHISTLED]

Uww my boss lives there

[BBKing]

Will the BBC kindly stop trying to peddle the usual hero-pilot-tried-to-miss-houses line. It's frankly insulting. He came in from the north, over open ground and came down right at the edge of the built up area, it's the way to get to the airport and an eyewitness has said he came 'over the tennis courts', which are north-east of the crash site.

Taking off for France, which is a bit of a worry as an Arsenal fan - not many people can afford private planes, but footballers are among them.

[TheNorm]

Coincidentally, the same type of aircraft was involved in an incident a couple of weeks ago:

...a Cessna Citation, was heading for Portland, Maine, when it lost power in one of its two engines just after noon. The pilot radioed the air traffic control tower at Beverly Airport and said he was coming in for an emergency landing...

http://www.cessnacitationforum.com/f...x.php?act=home

[WHISTLED]

Woudlnt every pilot try to avoid a build up area - The landings can be pretty rough in back gardens and roof tops

[BBKing]

Certainly they would, but in this case there was no choice, since there are houses between the aircraft and the runway (barring a few smallish areas of open ground and a large wood). In any case, it seems it was near the end of a left turn onto finals (check the position of the tennis courts, crash site and runway) when the plane probably ran out of airspeed - check the map; the angle it came in at was slightly right of the runway heading. In that circumstance there's not a lot you can do, it presumably stalled and came down fast. 50 feet further back you're in open ground, 100ft back you're in the trees. next 1500ft is all built up. Not a lot of room to maneouvre a stalled jet, really.

[Osem]

This tragedy happened very close to us and co-incidentally, we drove past the area at about 5pm. A close relative saw the commotion from her house in Farnborough Village a few hundred metres from where the plane came down.

The flight path goes right over PRUH Farnborough and Sainsburys Locksbottom - God only knows how many people would be killed if a plane hit either of those!

As it stands I think it's very fortunate that more weren't killed today and no doubt there'll now be a new round of objections to the expansion plans of Biggin Hill Airport.

[Hom3r]

Every pilot will try to avoid any buildings, its human nature.

[Kevin T]

Amongst the victims are speculated to be motor racing drivers David Leslie and Richard Lloyd...

Link

RIP

[Arthurgray50@blu]

This plane crash, is sad in two parts, my condolences to the families of the people who lost there lifes, and the second one is to the family of the house that has been demolished, by this crash, The annoying point is that, we have eye witness's that have stated that, the pilots have tried to avoid many areas, where there are people, and as many people have said, this is human nature to the pilots, l live very near Heathrow, and on the flight path, we have already had one near miss, this month, BUT what if the plane in Kent, was a larger plane, it would have been devastation.

[Osem]

It wasn't that many years ago that it was nearly all small/light aircraft using Biggin Hill. Now it's a different story with some quite large cargo and passenger aircraft using the facility on a regular basis.

http://www.bigginhillairport.com/pag...craft_size.htm

[BBKing]

The annoying point is that, we have eye witness's that have stated that

Eye witnesses in air crashes are as near-useless as makes no difference. Most (and this is found out in various psychological studies) see the results of the crash rather than the actual moment of impact, and their mind makes up the rest backwards based on prior knowledge (including, in a media-connected world, eyewitness reports of previous crashes). Hence you usually get one of two things - 'the plane was on fire in the air' or 'the pilot was desperately trying to avoid a school/church/houses', even if it's later proved that the wings fell off and there was nothing anyone could do. There are also, given that this is the lairy geezer bit of Kent, wind-up merchants.

Much more useful to the amateur speculator are analysing the local terrain, weather, position of the airport, wreckage etc. The professionals have a lot more information to go on, so for best results, wait for them.

One last point, 9/11 conspiracy nuts may be interested to note that with an aircraft full of fuel hitting a fairly flimsy building at an angle at relatively slow speed, all that's recognisable are the engines.

[Osem]

There was a fatal road accident near us a few days ago - the so called eye-witness accounts of what happened published in the local newspaper varied substantially.

[tweetypie/8]

Originally Posted by BBKing

Not nice. Google Maps afficionados can find the spot here - just beyond some empty ground

51.364559,0.067051

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7321589.stm

here in belfast we have umpteen flights every day flying directly over a helluva lot of houses to land at george best airport,as far as i am aware the planes are supposed to follow the route along the river lagan and they arent doing this they seem to be short cutting and its only a matter of time god forbid that something similar will happen here only on a much bigger scale as the aircraft involved are full blown passenger planes,the city fathers dont seem to want to know about it as they have been pressed on the matter and dont seem to show any interest,its an accident waiting to happen UNFORTUNATLEY.

[mouqeet]

That was sly how did it crash ?