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Plane Crashes In Gulf
April 19, 2012
A twin engine planned that flew in aimless loops over the Gulf of Mexico for three hours Thursday crashed about 150 miles southeast of Pensacola.
NORAD notified the Coast Guard 8th District watchstanders at 8:30 a.m. CST of an airplane flying erratically over the Gulf of Mexico. Two F-15 fighter jets were able to intercept the plane, reporting that the windows were iced over and the pilot was unresponsive to repeated hails. The plane was flying between 25,000 and 35,000 feet.
The airplane crashed at approximately 11:15 a.m. and has been identified as a Cessna 421. The plane was reported to float for a period of time before sinking. There were no signs the pilot survived.
The pilot has been identified as Dr. Peter Hertzak, an OB-GYN from near the New Orleans area.
Coast Guard dispatched an HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircrew from Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile in Mobile, Ala., an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and crew from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Fla., and the crew aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Coho, an 87-foot patrol boat homeported in Panama City, Fla.
The Ocean Sentry crew is on scene and monitoring the situation, the Jayhawk crew is en route with an estimated arrival time of 1 p.m., and the Coho is estimated to arrive on scene at approximately 3 p.m.
“This is a joint response with the Coast Guard and Air Force,” said Kevin Robb, the command duty officer for the 8th District command center. “We’re saturating the scene, responding with multiple air and surface assests.”
The plane took off from Slidell, Louisana, en route to Sarasota, Florida. The plane, according to FAA records, is registered to Lee H. Aviation in Wilmington, Delaware.
Comments
7 Responses to “Plane Crashes In Gulf”
A general practitioner in this small town for 40 years, disappeared Jan. 8.
Stewart, 67, apparently drove his old truck to the airport in nearby Atmore, Ala., early in the morning before anyone else had gotten there, climbed into his Cessna and took off.
No one saw him or knew where he was going.
The Air Force, Civil Air Patrol and one of Stewart’s sons searched from the air but found no wreckage. No signals were picked up from an emergency beacon that was supposed to activate if the plane crashed.
Gembeaux is exactly correct on all counts. That particular aircraft was at max altitude and could have been higher for a time, causing the pilot to black out from lack of cabin pressure or there may be other factors involved. But you can’t guess what happened and make a judgement without more facts. The FAA will investigate and until they do and get some answers all this is pure speculation.
The same thing happened to golfer Payne Stewart in 1999.
Fishy you need to do some research on what happens when an aircraft loses cabin pressure. First of all the pilot and all aboard black out and have no control of the craft die to the lack of oxygen.
There is nothing fishy about loss of cabin pressure, at those altitudes air is very thin. Its happened before. Remember the famous golfer, his plane did the same thing.
That plane has a max service altitude of about 30,000 feet, and an optimal operating ceiling of about 20,000-25,000. If the windows were iced over, there’s a good chance that the pilot was above safe altitude without auxiliary oxygen; probably passed out from anoxia (and may have been dead before the plane landed), the plane spiraled until fuel was depleted. My father, a 50+ year pilot, civilian and miltary, told stories of this happening, but also had a friend who, as it turned out, had a heart attack at the stick, and apparently put the plane into a gradual climb as he slumped back into the seat, until the plane eventually stalled and fell into the Atlantic.
Hopefully, the family will eventually have some answers – or maybe the pilot will be discovered dog-paddling nearby!
Something smells fishy…….No distress signal……just circling for three hours. Sounds like it circled until it ran out of gas. More to the story. Keep us posted William.