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

[NonValueAdded]

Nah, maybe you had it right the first time. Eclectic transmission lines carry power from many sources: nuke, wind, solar, oil, gas, coal, biomass. They don't discriminate but rather carry it all. At least that's what the press release from the Green Utopia Power and Light Co. said.

[reagandemo]

"Too far short of runway for a slow engine response accident. Those are usually 50-400 feet from threshold." I disagree. That's not what happened here in Lexington. As mentioned by a previous poster Traffic Control has a pilot make a steep decent on final approach after turn to base. Might have over reacted and not paid attention. Too early to speculate. Prayers for the families.

[stevie_d_64]

"Green Utopia Power and Light Co."

I thought it was (HL&P) Houston Looting and Plundering???

Which is now Reliant, which is now CenterPoint Energy...

I could never keep up...

[Starrgaizr]

"He should not have been that low."

NTSB should hire this guy.

[TexasCajun]

I didn't hear any power outage and they are lots of folks on the ground surveying the site.

The freeper pilots will have to give us some insight on an instrument landing since there is not way the pilot had a visual on the runway. The report said the airport was about 1.5 miles from the crash site. Seems a bit further to me, maybe 3-5 miles.

[Mamzelle]

I did make the assumption that passengers could have been VIPs. Ain't cheap to rent a Gulfstream, with a staff of three.

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

No kidding. :)

[tm22721]

Holy Sh!t. There will probably be heavy repercussions. Those Gulfstreams only carry bigwigs.

BUMP

[MindBender26]

Thanks for insight.

I get very little "hard" IFR these days. I turned 60 this year, only get about 100 yrs a year and here in Orlando, it's usually CAVU or towering cumulobumpus, so you either get great WX or stay on ground.

Now, as an old f-rt, won't fly anything less an 400 and 1/2 and I want a nice long approach, at least OM inbound to get set up on final, get everything hanging, etc. None of the old getting turned in at the MM!

Never flew into Hobby (except on SWA), but used to love the River Approach to DCA in a 310. Wind your way down the Potomac, then a hard right when you could see the rabbit lights for 15 or 18, full flaps and flare NOW! Did it in the right seat in an Electra once, at 200 kts.... Loads of pucker fun.......

Ah, when we were young.....

[Starrgaizr]

An instrument approach localizer will give left-right and usually glide-slope (altitude) guidance. But if the pilot dialed in the wrong ambient atmospheric pressure the altimeter might have given a conflicting reading. So if the plan and focus was to cross a designated marker point x miles from the runway threshold at altitude y to join that localizer beam, the pilot might have thought he/she was at y when actually at y-200, etc.

[MindBender26]

If it was 3-5 miles, on the extended centerline of the runway, then very probably a 1000 foot misread of the altimeter (all too easy to do)

Does anyone have the N number of the A/C? I can get owners from that.

[stevie_d_64]

Yeah, I've lived here pretty much my whole life...

The approaches to Hobby in this area seem to be fairly spaced out east to west...

I have a lot of heavy Southwest, Delta flights coming in right over our heads on certain days...

This approach was a little more to the west into Hobby, which I agree (in this case) is a little more north of the Beltway than 1.5 miles...

A quick check on Mapquest may resolve some of the distance issues...

All in all, I thought it sure was curious to be that low in these visual conditions...This guy clipped that light tower at the toll plaze pretty low, about 1/3 the way down from the top...I keep hearing those things are 75 feet...

But like all accidents like this...You just gotta sit back and see what the official investigation comes up with...

Later,
Steve

[stevie_d_64]

You guys are funny!!!

I got a few friends who laugh at these conditions...Try catching a 3 wire in the same kinda soup...

I used to get away with telling them to take a lump of coal with them on their hops...That way we might be able to benefit from the pucker factor landings they had to perform...hehehe

[Textide]

PDF of Hobby ILS Rwy 4 IAP.

http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/0411/00198I4.PDF

After looking VFR Houston Sectional and comparing with the IAP, EISEN appears to be near the crash site. Since EISEN's approx 1500ft AGL, it's not a minor deviation. Something went wrong before the clip.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Does anyone have the N number of the A/C? I can get owners from that.

Well, there are articles in the thread that already list the owners... ;0)

[Truth'sfriend]

You got freepmail

[sam_paine]

God I hate froggy landings as a commercial spam passenger. I wish there were that little martian cartoon cop that would whiz up and escort you in on your wingtip.....

[Bon mots]

The light poles are veeerrry tall. Maybe 150 ft.

That's a good idea to put such tall poles on an airport approach. Bureaucracy bearing its bitter fruit.

[Smarti Pants]

adding insult to injury - Tornadic activity is heading in for the final blow....

[El Gran Salseron]

electic?

Is that Ebonics or Coon-A$$?

ROFL