E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSMELBOURNE, Fla. -- Officials said three people have died following a single-engine plane crash at Melbourne International Airport.
Federal Aviation Administration reports said the Cirrus SR22 was attempting to land Wednesday evening when it crashed off the end of a runway.
Airport spokeswoman Lori Booker said witnesses who saw the plane nosedive called in the crash.
"We got an eyewitness call that was specific enough that we were able to hone down a specific area in our search," Booker said.
Click here for WESH's video report on the crash
Rescue crews searched the wooded area at the end of the runway for about an hour before they found the wreckage at the southwest part of the airport.
Airport officials said the tail number couldn't immediately be identified.
"We have no identification confirmed at his time. The dissemination of the aircraft upon impact has made it very difficult," Booker said.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating.
NBC station WESH and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Leave a Comment:
Nosedive at the end of the runway? Lots of questions and little answers in the article. Condolences to the families and friends involved.
How could it take an hour to find the wreckage at the end of the runway??? They ever think maybe about using a plane to do a flyover???
It was probably ATP Flight School. Planes crash all the time at that place.
Over a year ago a plane crashed in Arkansas. Pilot and aircraft missing four days - found 500 yards off end of runway.
How many single engine planes were landing at Melbourne International at that time? It should be pretty easy to narrow down which one is missing for identification purposes.
Sounds like they tried to do a go-around and stalled the plane, which is not an unusual scenario. Or they had an engine problem. Too low and too slow.
The Cirrus is a great plane - with a built-in ballistic parachute. But they seem to be getting involved in a lot of accidents. Perhaps this is just a reflection of the popularity of the aircraft.
Kudos to MSNBC for mentioning airplane type. Usually they leave out any information like that on the grounds that "readers don't understand" or "It confuses readers".
If it WAS a 'touch and go' training flight then perhaps the pilot forgot to turn on carburater heat before starting the approach.
hey chuck yeager, i bet he couldn't find the carburater heat. neither could you idiot, it is fuel injected. love these DOT accident investigators. oh and "robert" how much good is the chute below 2,000' about as much good as carb heat in a io-550. he was landing not departing. so no departure stall either.. how about maybe he got rushed on a tight base to final and? poor guy..
Sorry 'aerialboy,' I didn't know that it was fuel injected. I guess at age seventy five a lot has changed without my noticing it... Please accept my sincerest apologies --- and I hope that your day improves.
They're still not able to identify the victims. Seems no aircraft have been reported missing. There are 32 of them registered at the airport (assuming it's a local aircraft). The area just west of the runway is a heavily wooded forest with massive undergrowth....they're lucky they could find the aircraft at all.
Strange situation and sad. Condolences
So sad.
When the Laws of Physics are the Judge and the verdict is pilot
error, There no reprieve.
It took to long to find the plane on airport property.
Private flying is beautiful and about the last way you can have freedom in the air - so sorry for those who lost their lives. Beautiful but unforgiving - a basic law of the sport/industry.
My friends are not alive
Awful. Our condolences....
No fire=No fuel. Wouldn't have been tough to find with smoke and flames. While it does sound like it could have been a departure stall/spin (Robert's point), for what reason would a go-around been called for? Weather was nominal at that time, occasional gusts to 16kts out of the south. MAYBE enough to necessitate a go-around if the pilot was on one of the E-W parallels. The only semi-heavily wooded area in the vicinity of the airport is at the NW corner, or departure end of 27R. A departure from that runway would have generally called for a right turn out and placed them over that area. Again, the likelihood of a fuel starvation problem is high if there was no fire....and generally a "witnesses said they saw smoke" is something that would be included in news copy.
The article didn't say there was a go-around. I say it was a classic skidded pattern turn, stall-spin.
I've seen plane crashes that didn't cause a fire even though there was lots of gas in the tanks. I usually got the job of draining the tanks....being good with a syphon hose was a necessary skill.
Low and slow is a situation where you need to paying attention. These modern day slick aircraft aren't anywhere near as forgiving as a 65 hp J-3.
It looks like Melbourne has scheduled air service and runways long enough for large aircraft....I wonder if this plane was landing behind a heavy?
no because he was in for 9 right. 9 left is long
Our local paper, Florida Today, has posted that Robert Kurrus, the owner of the local Oaks 10 cinema in Melbourne, and a former VP of Regal Cinemas was on-board the aircraft. They were apparently flying in from South Florida. Mr. Kurrus is a Cirrus pilot and might have been the pilot in command.
Common practice in all accidents/incidents is no issue of names involved until all families have been notified. And you can bet the FAA/NTSB is investigating, therefore, no dissemination of cause for some time. Responsible media will not post names, until formerly released by the authorities.
All that can be said at this time is, let the people do their jobs, for everyone's sake. Rumors and gossip don't help anyone.
Here is a link to the story on Florida Today posted yesterday at 11:41p.m. ..... The article states that due to the damage to the aircraft,they are having trouble even determining how many people were on board..'''well the link disappeared after posting so I guess U.S.News doesn't want you to know the facts...
I did Search and Rescue for 5 years in Alaska. An airplane crash is extremely difficult to locate, especially in wooded areas. Its like finding a needle in a haystack (and yes .. ELT's are mostly useless and unreliable). Most crashes burn and blend perfectly with trees, ground etc. I've flown back to crash sites that I had previously visited and still had a difficult time locating the wreckage. Thats why you can have 20 aircraft conducting searches for weeks and never located wreckage. Furthermore, we never release the identities of victims until "proper medical authority" has legeally pronounced them deceased (even if they are obviously deceased).
Anyhow, my condolences to the families.
well the air force academy uses these aircraft, maybe they should check them all out,even the small aircraft are to my opinion are too complex anymore to many computers for a small airplane,my cessna 210 is less complex than these new ones,i have a garmin 580 and thats all i need , no conputers control my airplane, never have been to fond of those all glass cockpits, very distracting, sad they lost thier lives,
Accidents and incidents
Between 2001 and April 2009 62 Cirrus SR22 aircraft crashed, resulting in 48 fatalities.[21]
In 2011 the accident record of the SR20 and 22 was the subject of a detailed examination by Aviation Consumer magazine. The review concluded that the series has an overall accident record that is better than average for light aircraft, exceeded only by the Diamond DA40 and DA42. However its fatal accident rate is much worse at 1.6 per 100,000 flight hours, placing it higher than the United States general aviation rate of 1.2 and higher than the Diamond DA40 (0.35), Cessna 172 (0.45), Diamond DA42 (0.54), Cessna 182 (0.69) and the Cessna 400 (1.0), despite the SR22's full aircraft parachute system
I've thought about getting single engine plane license several times but stuff like this always scares me away. I wanted to start with an ultra lite but seems something holds me back. maybe charma
Start with a Cessna 152 or 172. Much more forgiving.
Ultra lite You must have a death WISH
I used to be a private pilot. A round through the side of my noggin during Desert Storm put the screws to that! Most crashes happen on take off or landing. Your speed is lower and you are closer the the ground. If you encounter a stall at that time you can definitely be up a creek without a paddle. Part of stall recovery is DECENT. If you haven't the room to descend.... IF you stall and don't recover, it becomes a spin and it sounds like that's what happened to these poor folks. Of course there are other possibilities but that is the most common.
Thanks for the explanation of what could have happened, SSG. Sounds very possible.
Very sad.
Very, very sad. My condolences to the families.
How can you have an eyewitness and not be able to find the aircraft?
Article said heavily wooded area at the end of the runway AND the plane and all aboard were disseminated! Not easy to locate.
Just a guess. Low time pilot, too much airplane.
sounds like a great place for a homeless camp see ya all there
bundgaard-1210892; WTH are you babbling about? Your lack of aviation knowledge, and common sense in general, doesn't support your claim to have "investigated many accidents". Please shut down your computer and adjust your tinfoil helmet....your flight to IdiotWorld is preparing for departure on Runway OMG L.
Airport spokesman Lori Booker said "the plane is DECIMATED", not disseminated. "Decimated" means destroyed. The AP, US News, and MSNBC all got it wrong. In their rush to get the story out quickly, they make mistakes. So far, Frosty is the only one here who has used "disseminate" properly.
The same is true when folks speculate too quickly as to the cause of the crash. The get it wrong. That's why the FAA, NTSB, and the airport didn't release the tail number or names too quickly. That's why the NTSB investigation typically takes many months or years to release the cause. I wouldn't believe anything you read in these comments as to the cause, since no one is a party to the investigation. I am a pilot. I've investigated crashes. I've been in aviation a long time. I won't speculate on how this plane crashed.