MID-AIR COLLISION! State Rep Pilot’s Lie Got 7 Killed…

MID-AIR COLLISION! State Rep Pilot’s Lie Got 7 Killed… === #fligdebrief #plaincrash #planecrash === MID-AIR COLLISION! State Rep Pilot’s Lie Got 7 Killed… Only 1% of aviation accidents are midair collisions. But on that morning in Alaska, two airplanes crashed into each other in clear skies, killing seven people. One of them was a state lawmaker. And as investigators slowly uncovered layer after layer of the accident, they discovered a secret that this man had hidden for many years.cc So what happened? And what caused this crash? Let’s break this down. 2 PILOTS. First thing first, you need to understand the pilots involved in this accident. If you wanted a picture of a true Alaska bush pilot, Gregory Bell was that person. Fifty-seven years old. Director of Operations at High Adventure Air Charter in Soldotna. A check airman, the person trusted to test and approve other pilots’ flying skills. By that morning, he had logged a total of 19,530 flight hours, including 13,480 hours in the exact same Beaver he was flying that day. Extremely impressive. FAA inspector Mathew Dahl, who had worked with Bell for years, described him very directly: “it appeared, from my perspective, that he always appeared to try to do things the correct way. Certainly the legal way, but also the correct way, and safety was always something he was concerned about.” MID-AIR COLLISION! State Rep Pilot’s Lie Got 7 Killed… That morning, Bell was flying N4982U, a 1956 de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, the legendary Alaska bush plane with floats attached under the fuselage. His job was to fly five passengers to a fishing lodge on a charter flight, operating under Part 135 rules with full certification and oversight. He departed Longmere Lake at 8:24 a.m., climbing northwest. At the same time, a Piper PA-12 with registration N2587M had just taken off from Soldotna Airport, heading northeast toward Fairbanks. The pilot was Gary Knopp, sixty-three years old, and also an Alaska state lawmaker. He reported having 1,600 flight hours. That day, neither aircraft was talking to ATC, and in fact, there was no rule requiring them to do so. The crash happened in Class E and Class G airspace near Soldotna. In these airspaces, pilots are responsible for separating themselves using the “see and avoid” principle instead of relying on instructions from ATC. Two airplanes. Two flight paths. The exact same altitude: 1,175 feet. And neither pilot knew the other was there. MID-AIR COLLISION! State Rep Pilot’s Lie Got 7 Killed… HOW IT HAPPENED. At 8:27 a.m., the Piper struck the left rear side of the Beaver. It was not a head-on collision. Knopp came from behind and to the right, hitting Bell’s aircraft at an angle. A witness near the crash site saw the Beaver’s left wing break completely away from the fuselage. The airplane rolled into a counterclockwise spin, totally out of control, then disappeared behind trees. The wreckage was scattered across 300 feet. The wing in one place, the engine somewhere else, the floats somewhere else. None of the six people on the Beaver had any chance of survival. The Piper crashed straight down into the ground, about 600 feet to the east. In its wreckage, investigators found the Beaver’s horizontal stabilizer and elevator, parts that had been torn off the other airplane during the collision and became trapped inside the Piper’s structure. Gary Knopp was also killed.