MEC&F Expert Engineers : 04/14/15

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Debris from Carson Air Flight 66 plane crash found north of Mount Seymour. 2 Pilots were on board.



Deployment notice

TSB deploys team to aircraft accident in British Columbia's North Shore Mountains near Vancouver

Richmond, British Columbia, 14 April 2015

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is deploying a team to an accident involving a Carson Air aircraft that occurred in British Columbia's North Shore Mountains near Vancouver.

The TSB will gather information and assess the occurrence.


April 14, 2015

Mount Elsay and Runner Peak lie north of Mount Seymour. Stephen Hui 


A search is underway in a "steep and treacherous" area north of Mount Seymour after Carson Air Flight 66 went missing on Monday (April 13).

The twin-engine Cessna airplane had left Vancouver International Airport bound for Prince George, and had two pilots on board.

"As of last evening, searchers located debris belonging to the missing plane. The area being searched, approximately 5 km north of Mount Seymour, has fresh snow and is steep and treacherous. The main fuselage, cockpit or pilots have not been located," North Vancouver RCMP said in a news release this morning (April 14).

"As of Tuesday morning, April 14, 2015, the RCMP Emergency Response Team (ERT) along with North Shore Search and Rescue (NSSR) are jointly searching the known crash area. Current weather conditions are enabling the search efforts."

Police also said the cause of the crash remains undetermined.

Carson Air Flight 66: Plane believed found in B.C.'s North Shore mountains
RCMP inserts 6-person extraction team to hold scene overnight, declares 'this is a rescue operation'

An extensive air and ground search will resume Tuesday on Vancouver's North Shore for survivors of Carson Air Flight 66 after rescue crews located enough of a debris field to conclude it's likely the missing flight.

The small cargo plane with two pilots aboard went missing around 7:08 a.m. PT Monday.

Bill Yearwood with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada says searchers have found what they believe is the plane along with part of a wing, and some papers and other debris, in a remote area of the North Shore mountains.



An RCMP extraction team compares notes prior to joining the search area overnight. Police say this is still very much a rescue operation.


"Ground crews and air crews have found debris and sufficient pieces of the aircraft to suggest they have found the main wreckage site and they were trying to get into it just before sunset and were hoping it would be accessible tomorrow [Tuesday]," he said in a phone interview. 

"It [the wreckage] is below where the aircraft went missing on radar."
Yearwood said determining the cause of the crash won't be easy.

"There was no distress call. I don't believe there was any recording device on the aircraft, so it will be a challenge for us to determine the cause."
"It's snowy in that area so it will be some time before we get the wreckage to examine it clearly," he added.

At an evening news conference, RCMP said it would be putting a six-person extraction team into the area overnight to begin work at first light.



The missing aircraft is a twin-engine SA-226 Metro II, like this one. (Carson Air)


"At this time we are doing everything that is humanly possible to successfully compete a rescue operation here," said North Vancouver RCMP Insp. Davis Wendell. 

Mike Danks with North Shore Rescue says about 25 ground crew are focused on an area north of the North Needle in Lynn Headwaters Regional Park.

Steep terrain a factor in search
Danks said some of the teams are searching in fresh, deep snow and weather conditions are deteriorating.

"We have heavy snowfall in the area, and we're talking about steep, technical terrain. So our crews are taking no unnecessary risks, but we are doing our best to try and locate this aircraft as soon as possible."

The search is focused on an area in the North Shore Mountains, about 10 kilometres north of Vancouver, where the twin-engine SA-266 Metro II was last seen by air traffic control radar, said an official with Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre.

The flight from Vancouver to Prince George went missing on Monday morning with two pilots aboard.

North Shore Rescue is assisting the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Victoria with the ground search and has set up a staging area near Bone Creek in North Vancouver.

Two Cormorant helicopters, a CC-115 Buffalo and a CP-140 Aurora were employed in the search for the missing plane.

Officials said the missing plane took off from Vancouver International Airport at 6:43 a.m. PT and was supposed to land at Prince George Airport at 8 a.m.

Air traffic control lost radar contact with the cargo flight at 7:08 a.m., when the plane was northeast of Vancouver, said Robertson.



Status:
Preliminary
Date:
Monday 13 April 2015
Time:
ca 07:00
Type:
Operator:
Carson Air
Registration:
registration unknown
C/n / msn:

First flight:

Crew:
Fatalities: / Occupants: 2
Passengers:
Fatalities: / Occupants: 0
Total:
Fatalities: / Occupants: 2
Airplane damage:
Destroyed
Airplane fate:
Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:
near Vancouver, BC (http://aviation-safety.net/database/country/flags_15/C.gif   Canada)
Phase:
En route (ENR)
Nature:
Cargo
Departure airport:
Destination airport:
Flightnumber:
CA66

Narrative:

A Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II cargo plane, operated by Carson Air, crashed in the North Shore Mountains near Vancouver, Canada with two crew on board.
The airplane departed Vancouver International Airport, BC (YVR) at 06:43 on a cargo flight to Prince George Airport, BC (YXS).

NavCanada's Kamloops Flight Information Centre lost radar contact with the cargo flight at around 7 a.m, according to local media.

A search party found parts of the wreckage on a snowy wooded hillside but are still searching for both pilots.

Flightaware flight tracking information suggests the aircraft was airborne at 07:02 hours local time. The last recorded data point by Flightaware is at 07:08:25 hours at 49°19'59.9"N 123°01'59.9"W.

WORKER DIES AFTER 36-FOOT FALL FROM FORKLIFT AT NEW BRAUNFELS CONSTRUCTION SITE IN TEXAS




MARCH 31, 2015

NEW BRAUNFELS, TEXAS (KXAN)

A 41-year-old man died Tuesday after falling about 36 feet from a forklift at a construction site for the Creekside Way Apartments.

Police say Victor Echartea-Medina, of San Antonio, was unloading several five-gallon buckets of paint onto the fourth floor of the building about 11:30 a.m. while standing on a platform at the end of a large forklift. The platform became unstable and Echartea-Medina fell from the forklift.

Echartea-Medina was responsive when New Braunfels Fire and EMS workers arrived, but died from his injuries about 20 minutes later after being taken to Resolute Health Hospital.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was notified and officials are currently investigating the incident.

ANOTHER OLD ICAROS’ WINGS CUT: PILOT CRITICALLY INJURED IN A CESSNA 162 SMALL PLANE CRASH ON LONG ISLAND WHEN HE COULD NOT GET IT UP








April 13, 2015

Police say a pilot was injured when he crashed his single-engine plane while trying to take off from an airfield on the eastern end of Long Island.

It happened just before 6:30 p.m. Monday at Klenawicus Airfield on Shelter Island.

Det. Sgt. Jack Thilberg said witnesses reported seeing the Cessna 162 Skycatcher go about 30 feet in the air before it veered right and crashed. He identified the pilot as 80-year-old Michael Russo of Shelter Island.

Russo was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital in critical but stable condition.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating. 

Date:
13-APR-2016
Time:
18:00
Type:
Owner/operator:
SMC Aviation Inc
Registration:
N30283
C/n / msn:
16200094
Fatalities:
Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:
0
Airplane damage:
Substantial
Location:
Klenawicus Airfield, Shelter Island, Long Island, NY - http://aviation-safety.net/database/country/flags_15/N.gif  United States of America
Phase:
Take off
Nature:
Unknown
Departure airport:
Klenawicus Airfield
Destination airport:

Narrative:

The aircraft impacted level timber and brush terrain shortly after takeoff from the Klenawicus Airfield on Shelter Island in Long Island, New York. The airplane sustained substantial damage and the sole pilot onboard received serious injuries.

Sources: 
http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=175382

MORE INCOMPETENT CONTRACTORS IN WASHINGTON STATE TAKE 3 MORE LIVES: CONCRETE SLAB FALLS FROM WASHINGTON STATE HIGHWAY OVERPASS, KILLS YOUNG COUPLE, INFANT BOY






APRIL 13, 2015

BONNEY LAKE, WASHINGTON

This is the latest deadly incident of construction failures in Washington State.  Several construction workers and public have either died or injured the last year alone.  All these incidents were caused by negligent or incompetent construction contractors and incompetent oversight from the State of Washington or local entities.

A concrete slab fell from a construction site on a Washington state highway overpass on Monday, crushing a vehicle driving underneath the span and killing a young couple and a baby boy, police said.

When workers were finally able to reach the damaged pickup, they found the victims — a man and a woman in their mid-20s and an infant, Bonney Lake police said Monday night.

Fire officials initially said at least one person had been killed.

The couple was the parents of the infant, who was 6 to 8 months old, reported The News Tribune, a Tacoma newspaper (http://is.gd/J2qOgQ). The victims were not immediately identified, but police said they were local residents.

Construction crews were installing a sidewalk on the state Route 410 overpass in Bonney Lake, when a chunk of concrete fell to the roadway below around 10:30 a.m.

It was not immediately known what caused the "very heavy" concrete structure to fall. Bonney Lake police, the state Department of Transportation and representatives from contractor WHH Nisqually were investigating.

City spokesman Woody Edvalson said the material that fell was part of the original span, which was built in 1992 and has a sufficiency rating of 95.3 out of 100.

Bonney Lake is about 30 miles southeast of Seattle.

Construction for a $1.8 million city sidewalk project to improve pedestrian access along the highway started about a month ago. WHH Nisqually had crews on scene Monday.

"The project was to add a pedestrian walkway along that overpass on SR 410," Edvalson said. "This accident occurred as a result of that effort."

The project included rebuilding the north side of the bridge, adding a sewer line, widening SR 410 between the bridge and 192nd Avenue, and adding bases for future street lights, according to city documents.

//----------------------------------//

MOTHER, FATHER, AND INFANT CRUSHED TO DEATH AFTER CONCRETE WALL FALLS FROM OVERPASS IN BONNEY LAKE.  INCOMPETENT CONTRACTORS TO BLAME FOR THE DISASTER

APRIL 13, 2015

A mother, father and their infant son were killed Monday when a concrete wall fell from a state Route 410 overpass under renovation in Bonney Lake and crushed the truck’s cab.

The names of the couple in their 20s and the roughly 6-month-old baby were not released Monday, but police spokesman Todd Green said the family lived in the Bonney Lake area. Police traced the registration of the vehicle, but they didn’t expect the three victims to be officially identified before Tuesday.

It was not immediately known what caused the “very heavy” concrete structure to fall onto Angeline Road East, city spokesman Woody Edvalson said.

A construction crew had been working on a project to replace and extend a sidewalk on the overpass. The material that fell was part of the original overpass, which was built in 1992, Edvalson said. 

East Pierce Fire & Rescue officials said the accident happened before 11 a.m. when the concrete structure and other materials fell off the overpass and landed on the pickup as it emerged from under the span.

Crews initially thought one person may have been in the vehicle, and worked to stabilize the construction site and clear the debris to determine if any other passengers were in the truck. It was shortly after 8 p.m. when police said they’d found a family of three had died.

Bonney Lake Public Works Director Dan Grigsby said crews were preparing to remove the outside wall of the overpass in order to replace it with an updated structure. The contractor’s demolition plan was reviewed and approved by the state, he said.

“The type of work that was going on shouldn’t have resulted in anything falling,” he said.

Work started about a month ago and is being completed by the contractor WHH Nisqually, which had crews on scene when the accident occurred. The small business is owned by the Nisqually Indian Tribe.

A WHH Nisqually employee said the company was directing questions to Bonney Lake officials. 

Bonney Lake police, the state Department of Transportation and representatives of the contractor were investigating the accident. Angeline Road was closed for the investigation.

Lane closures were planned for Angeline Road during later phases of construction, said Edvalson, the city spokesman.

“It was not anticipated that closing the lanes would be advisable or necessary at this point,” he said.

State Transportation Department spokeswoman Claudia Bingham Baker said she asked around Monday and was unable to find an industry standard for closing lanes under bridge work.

Traffic control plans usually are outlined in contracts for construction work, she said. 

The project is part of a larger effort by the city to improve pedestrian access along the highway. It will complete the missing link of sidewalks along state Route 410, Edvalson said.

A city newsletter in January said constructing that section of the sidewalk would be difficult, given its location on the overpass.

The city awarded the nearly $1.8 million contract to WHH Nisqually in December, according to documents. . City funds and state grant money are covering the cost, Grigsby said.

Project plans include rebuilding the northern side of the bridge, adding a sewer line, widening state Route 410 between the bridge and 192nd Avenue East and adding bases for future street lights along a “rather dark corridor,” the newsletter states.

Grigsby said it was not known Monday when project construction will continue. It originally was scheduled to end in May.

“There’s still a lot of work to do,” he said.
Source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/