“YORBA LINDA, Calif. (AP) — Dave Elfver was getting ready to go to a friend’s house to watch the Super Bowl when he heard a whining sound in his Southern California neighborhood “like a motorcycle going a hundred miles per hour.”

Then, he said, came the explosion from a twin-engine plane that broke apart in flight and crashed, setting a home on fire in the Los Angeles suburb of Yorba Linda, killing five people and injuring two.

“The whole house shook. I thought it was an earthquake, but the whining sound didn’t make any sense.” …”

https://apnews.com/1e11670bfd2f46ac8c8d789a913a2b49

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...y-crashes-house.html

Video on Dailymail does appear to show it breaking-up in midair. Nothing else really round to strike...

From the looks of it, it did have an inflight breakup. One wing into the house, the other in the street, and the fuselage about 250 feet away. There is a dashcam of it. Wonder what the investigation will find. From what I can gather happened at 700 feet or so, and 10 miles east of the Fullerton Airport. Mid-air with a drone?

In this new video you can actually see the plane impacting the ground and the fuselage bouncing down the hill into the yard-
https://video.nest.com/clip/64...babf56d7b337d5ab.mp4

Wow, that is horrific. The sound on the ring door bell vid is very eerry. No expert here but sounded to me like it broke apart as it reached terminal velocity and then impacted.

People on the ground killed makes it even worse. What a horrible event. Prayers for every one involved and affected.

It will be interesting to find out what caused it. Sooner than later a drone will be involved in something like this. It is just a matter of time.

Sounds like it broke apart during the overspeed dive.

quote:

Originally posted by ScreamingCockatoo:
Sounds like it broke apart during the overspeed dive.

And how did it end up a dive six minutes after take-off from the Fullerton Airport??

maybe physiological.

The 400 series Cessna aircraft have an outstandind AD for wing spar inspection and correction if required. Link to AOPA article

quote:

Originally posted by mjlennon:
The 400 series Cessna aircraft have an outstandind AD for wing spar inspection and correction if required. Link to AOPA article

That article was from 2018, here's a much older AD.

DATE: March 2, 2005
AD #: 2005-05-52

Send to all owners and operators of The Cessna Aircraft Company (Cessna) Models 402C and
414A airplanes. This AD applies to all Models 402C and 414A airplanes that do not have a spar strap
modification incorporated on each wing spar following the original release of (or a later FAAapproved revision to) Cessna Service Bulletin MEB02-5 and Cessna Service Kit SK402-47 (currently at MEB02-5 Revision 2 and SK402-47B).

Discussion
What events caused previous FAA AD action? The FAA has received reports of (and is analyzing
data from) cracks found in the wings of two Cessna Model 402C airplanes.
On the first airplane, early information indicates the airplane had severe cracking on its left wing in
the vicinity of the forward spar and outboard engine beam. The main lower spar cap had completely
failed at about Wing Station (WS) 114. The airplane also had cracks in the lower wing skin and the
web splice doubler. Also found were two popped rivets: one between the heat shield and the wing
skin and another between the factory installed web splice doublers and web...

Complete AD:

http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_...52%20(Emergency).pdf

I am confused by the discussion thus far.
The plane was clearly on fire as it fell to the ground. Would an overspeed breakup or a wing’s falling off set the aircraft on fire to that extent?

In the "Ring" video, it sounds as if aircraft went nose down, then while accelerating an engine departed, wings were shed. The engine left the aircraft before the flames erupted in air. Weather or not the wing(s) had already sheared is not clear. Possible "runaway" turbocharger.

There is another video of the aircraft flying by the audio pickup and you hear what sounds like a normal "doppler effect" (coming and going), then you hear the the engine RPM change as in the "Ring" video.

NTSB will likely figure this one out with a lot of useful audio, video and eyewitness accounts as well as finding most of the aircraft components.

I would be surprised, shocked, if this aircraft was brought down by a low-speed plastic toy that weighs less than some birds

I doubt it was a drone. That might have scratched the paint, maybe left a small dent, but no way does it bring down a Cessna

Weather looks crappy in the ring video so I'd guess either spacial disorientation or maybe a vacuum failure if it didn't have upgraded avionics.

I heard 3 distinct explosions after the dive started, one shortly after followed by 2 in quick succession shortly before impact. As any pilot who has done instrument training knows when you end up in a spiral dive your first instinct is to pull back to try and stop the descent. But in a steep bank that will only cause the dive to increase and more back pressure will overstress the wings and boom.

My guess is the first explosion is the wing spar failing from the overload, and the next 2 are fuel igniting from the broken wing tanks which is why it's on fire before ground impact. The loud whining is the props overspeeding because the power was never pulled back in the confusion.

Or it hit a drone!

I owned a 401, the unpressurized version of the 414, and there was an AD for the exhaust behind the engine causing the front spar to fail as well as the corrosion AD. These airworthiness directives are serious and need to be addressed forthwith.

Another thought is the pilot may have left the gust locks on the elevators but that is reach based on the reports so far. Tragic accident.

quote:

Another thought is the pilot may have left the gust locks on the elevators but that is reach based on the reports so far. Tragic accident.

I lived less than 2 miles from the crash site in Yorba Linda, and kept my plane at KFUL. It's at least 12nm East from the arrival end of 24 to the crash site; not possible to get that far with the gust locks in place.

“Here is what we know so far about the NTSB investigation:

Maja Smith, the NTSB investigator in charge, said the 1981 twin-engine Cessna 414A, with the registration number N414RC, took off at 1:35 p.m. Sunday from Fullerton Municipal Airport. The preliminary data shows that the aircraft climbed about 7,800 feet before making a sudden decline down with one person aboard.

Witnesses have reported that they saw the plane come out of a cloud at high speeds before it broke apart midair. Smith said that so far, that sounds consistent with the large debris field that is now in place in the Yorba Linda neighborhood where the wreck landed.

No explosions were reported and no distress calls were made to the NTSB at the time.
…
The debris field extends across four blocks, which covers about 15 or 16 homes, Smith said.

The wreckage is expected to be taken to a secure location in Phoenix Monday night, where NTSB officials will examine the airframe and engine…”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/a...vestigation/5120749/

From the Nest video it sounds like the engine was way high in the RPM range and detonated before impact. Almost like a runaway diesel burning up all of its crankcase oil.

Any thoughts that this may have been a suicide?

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Collins:
Any thoughts that this may have been a suicide?

Anything’s possible, but when I read came “the aircraft climbed about 7,800 feet before making a sudden decline down with one person aboard.” the first explanation that leaps to mind is loss of control due to spatial disorientation in IMC followed by over-stressing the airplane and breaking it after coming out of the clouds and realizing one is pointed at the ground. The graveyard spiral has killed an awful lot of people over the years.

It takes training to overcome one’s natural reactions and instead roll wings level and hold strong forward pressure to prevent the airplane from breaking itself trying to return to trimmed airspeed, and only slowly allowing the yoke to move aft. Of course the throttle has to be immediately chopped to stop adding energy and accelerating at the ground, and even if one does everything right, there might not be enough room to pull out. “Congratulations, you avoided breaking the airplane. However, you still created one big smoking hole.”

Disorientation in IMC is no joke.

ETA: IMC: Instrument Meteorological Conditions. ie when you feel like you are on the inside of a milk bottle and can’t see anything outside the airplane to tell which way is up. Depending on your instruments and cross checking to make sure the are all working correctly is key.