Plane crashes on Beltway 8, all lanes closed (Gulfstream down near Houston highway)

local 2 broadcasting ^ | 11/21/05 | n/a

[Mamzelle]

Gulfstream clips pole at toll booth--hits down close to major freeway

[Slicksadick]

Beltway 8 Plane Crash Kills 3 Passengers

All Lanes Of Traffic Remain Closed On Toll Road Near Crash Site

POSTED: 6:57 am CST November 22, 2004

UPDATED: 8:08 am CST November 22, 2004

HOUSTON -- Three people have been confirmed dead after a private jet crashed 1½ miles south of Houston's Hobby Airport Monday, Local 2 reports.

Officials said the Gulfstream jet, carrying three passengers, crashed at about 6:30 a.m. between South Wayside and Cullen, just south of Highway 288.

Houston Fire Department District Chief Jack Williams said the twin-engine Gulfstream jet, arriving from Dallas Love Field, apparently clipped a tall light tower at a Beltway 8 toll plaza, shearing off a wing. He said the severed wing rests near the base of the tower.

Williams said firefighters found a trail of debris stretching about a thousand feet from the light tower into a field north of the toll road.

No other injuries have been reported.

Houston Airport System spokesman Roger Smith said the jet, which can carry up to 12 passengers, was approaching runway 4 at Hobby Airport when it went down.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig said Jet Place Incorporated of Tulsa, Okla., is the registered owner of the Gulfstream G-1159-A.

Tollway traffic has been diverted onto feeder roads and side streets. Westbound traffic has been shut down at Wayside while eastbound traffic has been closed at Cullen.

Drivers are being encouraged to find an alternative route around the area.

Officials with the Houston police and fire departments, and Harris County Precinct 7 emergency crews have been called to the scene.

For more information on this breaking story, stay tuned to Local 2 and Click2Houston.com.

[theDentist]

I wonder if the toll booth at least got their quarter.

[pabianice]

Let me guess... the crash site is on the localizer of the approach but way below the glide slope...

[biggiepaul]

Quarter? Ha! That toll is like $2.00. i lived
in houston for a short while...

[ProudVet77]

Question for the pilots out there.
Do these kinds of jets use a radar altimeter or an air pressure sensitive type?

[Mamzelle]

Oops. got the date wrong...but it's Monday. I'd think this'd be on TV by now, but I've been watching for it, and it's not on Fox. That's why I posted it... Gulfstreams don't go down every day, though single-engines and twins go down every day (and are increasingly landing on houses and travelled roads).

This is an Okie outfit, like the one that blew up the house in Lakeway, Austin.

[Mamzelle]

I'd like to know how much this model Gulfstream would put you back...though jets are getting cheaper. You can get a Raytheon Premier for around $5M, and there are little jets in development for $1M. As many twin engine planes are between $500K and $1M--a small jet will become more attractive.

[TexasCajun]

I don't believe it hit a pole! Everyone is saying that.

But to hit any pole, it would have had to hit the taller eclectic transmission lines that run parallel to the Beltway on the south side.

It was pea-soup fog, no way the pilot had any visual on the runway.

[TexasCajun]

...electric transmission lines.

[Mamzelle]

Since it shaved off a wing, which then caused the crash...looks like it hit the pole.

[Mamzelle]

Looks like you can get a used one of these for under $10M.

[Mamzelle]

a little more info

[TexasCajun]

Since it shaved off a wing, which then caused the crash...looks like it hit the pole

Could not one of those taller towers have shaved off a wing?

If it hit a telephone pole without hitting those transmission lines, then it would have had to have flown under the wires, missing the towers? Those towers run adjacent to the beltway on the south side, how could it not have hit them prior to hitting something else? Debris hit cars on the beltway.

[Velveeta]

Plane crash ping

[Truth'sfriend]

Both.

Yes the location pretty much lines up with RWY 4 localizer.
4 is the preferred runway in low vis/low cigs condtions.

[TomGuy]

I can see the FoxNews Alert:

Yehawwwww, airplane chase on Beltway 8!!!

[reagandemo]

I would guess that this bird had a radar altimeter so the pilot knew exactly where he was. Just speculation at this point but this could be another incident like the Thurmond Munson crash and one here in Lexington Ky which the pilots misjudged the thrust and unspooled the engines too much and could not recover. If you pull back thrust there is a lag time for them to power back up. Just a thought.

[deport]

Plane crashes en route to Hobby Airport

08:26 AM CST on Monday, November 22, 2004

From 11 News Staff Reports

A jet passenger plane with three people aboard crashed near the Beltway Monday morning between Mykawa and Cullen. Three fatalities has been confirmed. The crash debris has closed the Beltway in both directions in that area as well as the feeder roads between Cullen and Wayside.

KHOU-TV

Shown is the lightpole that the pilot apparently clipped prior to the crash in the 5400 block of the Sam Houston Tollway Monday morning.

Witnesses reported hearing a large boom around 6:15 a.m.

According to 11 News helicopter pilot Greg Walsh who is in the area, a Gulfstream jet plane crashed while on approach to runway 4 at Hobby Airport. The plane crashed in a field off the 5400 block of the Sam Houston Tollway. Roger Smith from the City of Houston Aviation Department said the plane was inbound from Dallas Love Field and had three people aboard when it crashed around 6:19 a.m.

"He took out the top half of a light pole into Hobby," said Walsh. "He should not have been that low. All I can see that's left is just the tail section. It's absolutely catastrophic."

Walsh said the pilot just missed a large set of powerlines in the area.

The crash site is in the 5400 block of the Sam Houston Tollway.

Jack Williams of the Houston Fire Department said, "we've got stuff strewn everywhere." The plane wreckage was still burning as of 7 a.m. and fire crews were out in the field to douse the blaze and search for victims.

[Mamzelle]

I'm curious--assuming that this is a charter flight, with few passengers in a craft often used for charters...why so early in the AM?