N10EZ down in California

[Bryan Dover]

Kathryn's Report

Anyone know who the pilot was? Recent purchase?

Edited September 6, 2022 by Bryan Dover

[Marc Zeitlin]

11 hours ago, Bryan Dover said:

Kathryn's Report

Anyone know who the pilot was? Recent purchase?

Yes and a bit more than a year ago. I did the last two CIs on the plane.

[slk23]

ADS-B track log:
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N10EZ/history/20220905/1605Z/O22/O22/tracklog

Some very high ground speeds (198 knots) toward the end of the flight.  However, it took around 15 minutes to descend from 15k' to 2.3k' (ground elevation) which suggests it wasn't major structural failure (e.g. wing attach fitting).  Also, there was a climb beginning at 9:41 AM after the long descent (approx. 6 minutes before last ADS-B position) where the groundspeed went down to 106 MPH.  Then another high speed descent (219 MPH) followed by a low ground speed descent into the ground (assuming the ADS-B data is reasonably complete).  Loss of engine power? Deep stall?  Pilot incapacitation? I have no clue.  

Edited September 6, 2022 by slk23

[slk23]

Turns out I didn't look closely enough at the flight track; I thought it ended away from the airport but it actually he went down while apparently trying to land on Columbia's runway 17.  It doesn't look like he flew a conventional landing pattern, then did a go-around.  Pure conjecture on my part: loss of engine power after the go-around followed by an attempt to glide to the runway and impact into some fairly rough terrain. 

[bmckinney10]

If you watch the FlightAware trace replay, it shows the plane holding altitude on base to final, with a slight decent on final approach speed around 80mph ground-speed on short final until about about 3/4 mile from runway when the ADSB stopped.  News report indicates it came down in a backyard.  It appears it was stable just before the ADSB stops recoding