Here's an Odd one - Pilatus PC-12/47E crash

Not a lot of activity on this forum anymore, but I thought I'd throw this incident out for those who still read here. Strange and chilling incident.

Pilatus PC-12/47E (N357HE) en-route from Gulf Shores, AL to AK crashes killing (3) members of popular family Gospel Quartet along with (4) other persons onboard including the pilot. Aircraft makes a refueling stop in Nebraska City, NE (AFK), scheduled to continue on to Billings, MT (BIL), but runs into reported "autopilot" trouble over WY at FL260 about 2/3rds of the way to BIL. Just after 1900L the pilot reports he's having trouble with the autopilot and difficulty maintaining control of the aircraft. Pilot declares an emergency to ATC. At about 1903L aircraft begins to lose altitude and eventually seemingly breaks up 3 minutes later just below FL200 after entering a steep descent at a rate of in excess of 10,000fpm. Aircraft impacted terrain north of Gillette,WY a couple minutes later. 3rd to last ground speed report has the aircraft traveling at 316 kts (364 mph). Max airspeed for the PC-12/47E is 240kias. So, while not conclusive, this would seem to indicate the aircraft was well above its max airspeed. And, the loss of data at 20,000+/- feet would seem to support an in-flight breakup at approximately this point.

All aboard including pilot were killed. RIP to pilot and PAX.

Initial analysis by the youtuber Juan Brown shows the aircraft encountering weather at about the time the pilot reported autopilot and control problems. NTSB investigation is still very preliminary. Possible causes could be icing, possible fuel imbalance, trim and/or mechanical problems.

Here are some links to the incident...

Flight Safety

FlightAware

Blancolirio YT analysis

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Either they got into the jetstream on purpose or a bit of a tail wind from it caught them I would guess.
ETA
It could have been at altitude of the storm cell catching a bad wind too.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

So, while not conclusive, this would seem to indicate the aircraft was well above its max airspeed. And, the loss of data at 20,000+/- feet would seem to support an in-flight breakup at approximately this point.

Not sure I'm reading this correctly .

Is it saying the Aircraft Broke apart in mid-flight or that the aircraft was at max speed when it impacted the ground ?

nvm just saw this

Unconfirmed reports suggest the aircraft was flying at FL260 when the pilot reported "they were losing control". The airplane was seen in a dive with an average rate of about -30000 fpm towards the end of the recorded data. The crash sparked a huge forest wildfire.

a reply to: asabuvsobelow

In-flight breakup before impact would seem to be the indication. The loss of reported data just under FL200 seems to support this.

a reply to: Justoneman

Well, if you look at the flight WX reports, there wasn't anything too severe which they couldn't have picked their way through. I don't know anything more than reported about the pilot's experience level, but if they got into something heavy the autopilot would have disengaged and the pilot would have been flying the plane. If he wasn't prepared do do this, or the aircraft was configured improperly (or both), this could possibly explain the loss of control. The PC-12/47E is well equipped with excellent WX radar, so unless he intentionally flew into a solid wall of red and pink he should have, in theory, been able to fly around it, or turn around. There doesn't seem to be any indication of the pilot attempting to turn prior to the reported difficulties. Nor is there any indication of a request to deviate from ATC.

edit - There was WX present in the area, but there is no indication that WX was the cause of this. WX may have been a complete non-issue here. I don't think we know anything more at this point.

Probably a frozen or defective AOA probe. Seen it before. Doesn't explain the extremely high speed though...

a reply to: strayman

They dove more or less straight down.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: strayman

They dove more or less straight down.

Or some one sat at a PC took over with the autopilot.
and Made it dive.
and it sounds like the pilot put up a fight!

I thought it would be inposible for the autopilot to TAKE control?

a reply to: Scratchpost

It didn’t “take control”. They were flying on autopilot and there was some kind of failure. It wasn’t taken over, and it didn’t take over. They do occasionally fail, although it’s rare. Sometimes it won’t fully disconnect when it fails, resulting in the pilot fighting it. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they don’t.

a reply to: strayman

The PC-12/47E doesn't have an MCAS if this is where you were headed. A sharp deviation in flight would disengage the AP; there is no MCAS to take over when getting erroneous AoA readings (unlike the 737-MAX).

The aircraft did not break up in flight. All the wreckage was found within 0.82 miles of the main wreckage. There was an initial impact site that was 10 feet long, 41 feet wide, and 6 feet deep.