Private jet crashes in Jamaica! Not known how many were on board.

[MoonRiver]

Hypoxia thought to be cause.

Update

Larry Glazier (sp) and wife Jane were the only passengers on board.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/fighters-scrambled-pilot-fails-respond-172057761.html

[Cali_Democrat]

1. Was this the same jet followed by F-15's earlier?

[MoonRiver]

2. I believe so.

[MADem]

3. My thoughts go back to Payne Stewart....

It sounds like a decompression issue. Was the passenger (Glazer) also the pilot (he apparently knew how to fly) or was there a pilot AND pax, I wonder?

I'm sure we'll know more soon. Very sad, indeed.

[MoonRiver]

4. Apparently he was the pilot.

His wife was with him. Don't know if she was trained to co-pilot the plane. Spotters saw him slumped over at some point. Spotters also saw frosted windows. Then they crashed.

[Brother Buzz]

5. Off Jamaica, not in Jamaica

It crashed into the ocean

[Jenoch]

7. It wasn't a jet either.

[Brother Buzz]

9. I'm not a pilot, nor do I play one on television, but....

Turboprops are powered by jet engines

[Jenoch]

15. That doesn't make it a jet.

I saw a jet engine on a car once. That wasn't a jet either.

[Sassysdad]

6. It's actually a TBM700

turbo prop

[ladjf]

8. I recommend that avionics specialists create a program that

recognizes the loss of consciousness due to hypoxia and directs to autopilot to (1) guide the plane to a relatively safe and nearby location, (2) reduces the altitude to about 7,000 feet (if terrain allows),(3) automatically communicates to traffic control the probability of an unconscious pilot, possibly from the lack of oxygen,(4) directs the plane to circle near an airport appropriate to the airplanes needs, (5) makes loud announcements to the pilot to try to wake him up and lastly, (5) turns the planes autopilot over to a flight controller who is qualified to land the airplane type. Assuming that the plane is equipped with an autopilot capable of fully automated landed, the plane could be brought in to a public or private airport. Short of that, the plane could be directed to circle over a safe piece of land until the fuel is exhausted, then lined up to make an emergency descent over level, clear and unpopulated land.

If this sounds like fantasy to you, I suggest that you aren't familiar with the sophisticated capabilities of the flight directors on high valued, pressurized aircraft.

How could the on board autopilot be taken over by a flight controller on the ground? Voice recognition software. The controller verbally directs the autopilot to change heading, altitude, power settings, as well as flap and landing gear configurations.

In case you are wondering, I'm an instrument rated pilot, with over 5,000 hrs. in twin business type aircraft as well as 20 years experience in computer programming. Some variations of my ideas should and will be worked out in the next five years. We can't simply allow these crashes when there are feasible solutions to prevent them from happening. Also, these ideas would work in cases of anything that might have incapacitated the pilot, rendering him unable to fly the plane.

For aircraft with simple or no autopilots it would be next to impossible to direct a landing remotely.

[Orrex]

11. Those are pretty cool ideas (nt)

[ladjf]

12. They are doable. I could develope the system myself.

Just heard on the news that the pilot requested lower altitude twice but the controller said "I'll get back to you".

However, if the situation was an emergency , he should have declared it and the controller would have turned the airspace over to him.

That fact that the pilot wanted a lower altitude suggested an air problem. But, he only asked to go down to 18,000. If he need oxygen quickly, he should have hurried down to about 4,000 and opened the outside air ventilation.

It could have been that he was already impaired some, a condition that will deteriorate you cognitive skills. He might not have realized that he was only moments from fainting. The controller had no way of knowing that the pilot was about to pass out.


This was a tragedy that shouldn't have happened.

If the plane had been equipped with the avionics I described, the controller could have directed to autopilot to turn over the controls to him and the plane could have either been landed automatically or sent into a holding pattern and a lower altitude in hopes that the pilot or passenger would have regained consciousness.

Think about the John Kennedy , Jr. crash off of cape cod several years ago. He could have called the controller and turned his autopilot over him. The controller would have brought him back to Boston where Kennedy should have been able to take over and land.
By the way, if Kennedy had just thought about it, he could have set up his autopilot to take him back to Boston where he could landed, saving his and his wife's lives. That flight was a case of terrible airman ship on Kennedy's part. He should hot have been allowed to solo, let alone carry passengers.

[Blue_Tires]

14. Questions (I'm not a pilot):

1. What kind of criteria or mechanism would you use for a computer to detect incapacitation due to hypoxia??

2. How do you ensure it comes on every time when needed, while at the same time NOT tripping a lot of false alarms?

3. I've studied almost every major crash in aviation history that an English-language report exists for (weird hobby of mine), and apart from the Helios disaster or Payne Stewart, is it that frequent a crash cause to necessitate this system??

4. Are you talking just about small private aircraft, or are you suggesting this should be an industry-wide thing?? In my untrained eye I'm seeing some major logistical/compatibility/certification issues...

[littlemissmartypants]

10. My heart goes out to the family. nt

[malaise]

13. It crashed 16 miles off Port Antonio which is North Eastern Jamaican

It's huge news here

[malaise]

16. Good report here

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/05/unresponsive-us-plane-crashes-jamaica
<snip>
A private jet on a flight from New York state to Florida crashed off Jamaica on Friday after the two people on board apparently lost consciousness.

Two F15 fighter jets were launched from a US base to investigate the aircraft, after it veered from its flight path and was detected over the Caribbean. By the time it crashed, off the coast of Jamaica, it had travelled more than 1,700 miles and had crossed the airspace of Cuba, setting off diplomatic jitters.

Officials suspect the occupants, believed to be a pilot and his wife, succumbed to hypoxia – a lack of oxygen, probably caused by a sudden drop in cabin pressure. “We suspect hypoxia,” said a Norad spokeswoman, Jennifer Stabnyck, a Canadian army captain.

Stabnyck said that at one point, the two F15 jets tailing the unresponsive plane held back north and east of Cuba – not wanting to traverse its airspace.

Major Basil Jarrett of the Jamaican Defence Force said the plane went down about 14 miles north-east of Port Antonio and the military sent aircraft to investigate. “We can confirm that the plane has gone down,” he said. There was no immediate information about the people on board.