Fatal Crash of DA42 Near Cyprus

[Keith M]

Saw this reported in another forum: DA42 fatal accident near Cyprus.

"The twin-engine Diamond DA42 went missing on Wednesday evening en route from Paphos to Beirut.
While flying at 9000 feet, around 50 nautical miles from Larnaca, the plane unexpectedly turned back. When Avgousti was asked by the Cyprus control tower to clarify why, he said they were facing a small problem. A few minutes later - at 7.04 pm - and as the plane was at 6500 feet it disappeared from the radar."

Sadly, two people died.

Edited to add: the authorities suspect a hostile act!

[Antoine]

The source below says the plane actually departed Beirut / Lebanon and the story is such a piece of bs that I also fear this plane has been shot down. It will be relatively easy to find out but not sure we will ever know the truth.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebano ... z3H6r5Y8nm

[Keith M]

Antoine, from that article you linked to:

"the most likely scenario for a small multi-engine plane like the DIAMOND DA42 was that the critical motor had malfunctioned, sending the plane into a flat spin, which is nearly impossible to recover from, even for experienced pilots."

Is that even slightly likely, with a DA42 at 9000ft?

[Tommy]

Antoine, from that article you linked to:

"the most likely scenario for a small multi-engine plane like the DIAMOND DA42 was that the critical motor had malfunctioned, sending the plane into a flat spin, which is nearly impossible to recover from, even for experienced pilots."

Is that even slightly likely, with a DA42 at 9000ft?

I doubt it considering how nose heavy it its.

[Antoine]

Call me crazy but here is my analysis

Facts:
The pilot reported having problems but did not describe them precisely.
The controller then heard "some noises" from the aircraft
It was night time.

How about this:

Some form of anti-aircraft EMI (electromagnetic interference) weapon was used to jam the aircraft's systems including G1000 /engine ECUs.
The crew were flying night/IFR. The G1000 was displaying confusing or possibly viciously incorrect information
The crew did not revert to the analog instruments because they did not understand they were being EMI-attacked. This is why they reported having problems but did not describe them.
I cannot believe there are any "conventional" problems that could occur in a DA42 that would make a 9000 hour CFI scratch their head and wonder what is going on. One would expect him to declare an emergency and describe the problem and his intentions and ask for adequate support.

They lost control of the plane and still had no clue what was happening to them.

This is by no means a judgement on pilot skill. I am just hinting that these people may have been mistaken for a potential aggressor and got shot down.

The israeli Dominator is a military drone that uses the DA42 airframe. see here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeronautic ... _Dominator

Interestingly, the Turks have such drones in service.
There WAS a turkish battleship in the area.

Code: Select all

 one remark deleted /admin

[Kai]

Hey guys, let's not heat up speculations. It doesn't make things easier for the family and friends who were close to the pilots and who for sure read this. Just recently we had the "Armchair quarterback" discussed. Spend a thought before posting.

One post was edited. My apologies for censoring but funny remarks are inappropriate in this thread.

[Antoine]

Fair enough Kai - I agree that this was not the most tasteful comment I made and I am fine with withdrawing it.

Let's see what official story will comes out - there will be enough time to question and debate later...

[Steve D]

My condolences to the families who lost loved ones.

Anybody know what engines were on the aircraft? Photo looks like either Centurion 1.7s or 2.0s.

Tommy - While Austro powered 42NGs and -VIs are nose heavy, the 42TDi is not. Actually it is quite well balanced. Loading it up tends to ultimately send the CoG out of aft limits as there is a lot more space for passengers and baggage behind the CoG. The main tanks are balance neutral but the Aux tanks also contribute an aft momentum arm.

It would require a large amount of baggage behind the pilots to create an extreme aft CoG.

Could an engine failure with an extreme aft COG produce a "flat spin" and would that be unrecoverable?