Plane with unresponsive pilot crashes off Jamaica

[techbeck]

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) ? Trailed much of the way by two U.S. fighter jets, a small plane with an unresponsive pilot flew a ghostly 1,700-mile journey down the East Coast and through Cuban airspace on Friday before finally crashing off the coast of Jamaica. The fate of the pilot and anyone else aboard was not immediately known.

 

Maj. Basil Jarrett of the Jamaican Defense Force said the plane went down about 14 miles (22 kilometers) northeast of the northern coastal town of Port Antonio and the military sent two aircraft and a dive team to investigate.

 

The plane took off at 8:45 a.m. EDT from the Greater Rochester International Airport in New York, according to local officials. Air traffic controllers were last able to contact the pilot of the Socata TBM700, a high performance single-engine turboprop, at 10 a.m. EDT, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

 

The agency said it had not confirmed the number of people aboard and Jarrett said he had no information on passengers.

 

The pilot, who was not identified, had filed a flight plan with the FAA to fly from Rochester to Naples, Florida. Fighter jets were scrambled at 11:30 a.m. EDT and followed the plane until it reached Cuban airspace, when they peeled off, said Preston Schlachter, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command & US Northern Command. FlightAware, an aviation tracking website, showed the plane over the Caribbean south of Cuba at about 2 p.m. EDT.

 

more...

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

[Mr. Gibs]

Hypoxia is a real killer :no:

The pilot should have declared an emergency instead of just requesting an altitude change, and he could have just immediately began his descent. But it is very possible that by the time he realized that something was wrong he was already hypoxic and didn't have the metal capacity to fully react to the situation.

Sad day, rest in peace fellow aviator and my condolences to your family.

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For those wondering the plane was the third TBM 900 built. So pretty much a brand new aircraft since that model came out not too long ago and the pilot had over 5000 hours in that type.

[Hum]

I fly with the windows open.