Light airplane crashlands in eastern Thailand, pilot killed

 

 

A private, light airplane crashlanded in eastern Thailand on Sunday, killing the pilot, police said, Xinhua reports.

 

The turboprop airplane, which was descending to land on the ground in the premises of Rajamangala University of Technology East in Si Racha district of Chon Buri province, crashlanded and caught fire, according to police superintendent Pol. Col. Ruangsak Buadaeng.

 

The pilot, identified as Mike Romberg, a 60-year-old South African national, was immediately killed in his aircraft. He had flown from Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand and planned to visit Phuket on Monday.

 

Full story: https://en.trend.az/world/other/3000422.html

 

-- Trend News Agency 2018-12-31

Last moments of "round the world handicapped pilot" who crashed in Thailand

 

video screenshot

 

A video on the Pattaya News site showed the last moments of a light aircraft that crashed in Sri Racha, Chonburi on Sunday. 

 

Footage also showed the aftermath of the crash.

 

The aircraft was piloted by Mike Lomberg, a South African who was on the Thai portion of a round the world flying adventure. 

 

Mr Lomberg, 60, used a wheel chair because he was handicapped in both legs. 

 

He had flown from Chiang Rai earlier in the day flanked by two friends in other light aircraft. 

 

He came down by a road near the airstrip at the Rajamangala University of Technology East. Several power lives were down in the area in Bang Phra sub-district. 

 

An official said that Mr Lomberg had planned to be in Chonburi until January 2nd and would then fly onto Phuket. He then planned to go to Malaysia, Singapore and Australia on a round the world trip. 

 

The video indicated that Mr Lomberg was a former test pilot. 

 

Weather conditions or an engine malfunction are being considered as causes as an investigation takes place. 

 

Source: Pattaya News

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-12-31

 

It's strange at how many people doing "round the world" tours of one type or another, seem to die in Thailand.

He hit the power lines and crashed Einstein!
Pilot error,purely. Who will compensate the Thai government for the results of this hate-brained scheme? American Air Force pilots hot dogging around Italy comes to mind, minus the deep pockets.

With the amount of mobile phones shown in the video, Tukhom must be out-of-stock!

 

RiP to the pilot.

Edited December 31, 20187 yr by Moti24

1 hour ago, ChiangMaiLightning2143 said:

He hit the power lines and crashed Einstein!

From watching the video  , seemed to me he suddenly veered left  then crashed into some roadside power lines...not crashed into the High Tension lines/pylons  IMHO

Turboprop??? Hardly but had it been the fire that consumed pilot and aircraft might not have been so rapid and severe.

Not a pleasant site especially for the local people but one I witnessed far too regularly during my time in aviation.????

1 hour ago, ChiangMaiLightning2143 said:

He hit the power lines and crashed Einstein!
Pilot error,purely. Who will compensate the Thai government for the results of this hate-brained scheme? American Air Force pilots hot dogging around Italy comes to mind, minus the deep pockets.

Next time maybe watch the video first brainiac. You wouldn't have come off like such a fool if you had. 

 

Would such a small plane have had a black box? With how badly the plane burnt up that may give the reason why he hooked severely on landing approach. He also could have radioed what happened.

Chiang Rai - Chonburi - Phuket a.k.a. the Bermuda Triangle for round-the-world trippers.

His approach was probably too slow and the left wing stalled, unable to recover at that height.  THEN he went into the power lines.

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Last moments of "round the world handicapped pilot"

 

Edited December 31, 20187 yr by NCC1701A

Interesting to know if he rudder control, as he was handicapped and limited or no use of his legs.

 

15 minutes ago, pegman said:

Would such a small plane have had a black box? 

No black box in an aircraft of this type.

24 minutes ago, Rimmer said:

His approach was probably too slow and the left wing stalled, unable to recover at that height.  THEN he went into the power lines.

Did I miss seeing that in the report? Guessing that's left engine stalled, rather than wing?

heart attack or stroke.

9 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

Did I miss seeing that in the report? Guessing that's left engine stalled, rather than wing?

No he meant wing.  Wings stall due to exceeding the critical angle of attack.  

Just now, texanaust said:

No he meant wing.  Wings stall due to exceeding the critical angle of attack.  

OK. Thanks for the explanation.

Hard to say from the video whether he stalled or not.  If he was not using the rudder pedals, then an uncoordinated stall is very possible.  However, in a stall/spin accident, the aircraft will often turn and then nose dive into the ground.  It happens very quickly.  It could be he tried to recover, but there was just not enough altitude.  

38 minutes ago, ozfarang said:

Interesting to know if he rudder control, as he was handicapped and limited or no use of his legs.

 

No black box in an aircraft of this type.

Possibly the aircraft had been modified professionally for him to fly, much as cars used by disabled persons are modified.

36 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

Did I miss seeing that in the report? Guessing that's left engine stalled, rather than wing?

That would be a bit tricky for the left engine to stall, especially as it was a single engined aircraft.

On 12/31/2018 at 9:49 AM, ChiangMaiLightning2143 said:

He hit the power lines and crashed Einstein!
Pilot error,purely. Who will compensate the Thai government for the results of this hate-brained scheme? American Air Force pilots hot dogging around Italy comes to mind, minus the deep pockets.

Thank you clouseau.

2 hours ago, ChiangMaiLightning2143 said:

He hit the power lines and crashed Einstein!
Pilot error,purely. Who will compensate the Thai government for the results of this hate-brained scheme? American Air Force pilots hot dogging around Italy comes to mind, minus the deep pockets.

 

1 hour ago, johng said:

From watching the video  , seemed to me he suddenly veered left  then crashed into some roadside power lines...not crashed into the High Tension lines/pylons  IMHO

Amazing how the Thaivisa aircrash investigators are able to see power lines that are not even visible in the video at the time the plane heads towards the ground.  Brilliant.

 

The only indication that power lines are there are the pylons in the haze of the distance.

1 minute ago, billd766 said:

That would be a bit tricky for the left engine to stall, especially as it was a single engined aircraft.

Never let the facts get in the way of a Thaigeezer! ????

18 minutes ago, texanaust said:

Hard to say from the video whether he stalled or not.  If he was not using the rudder pedals, then an uncoordinated stall is very possible.  However, in a stall/spin accident, the aircraft will often turn and then nose dive into the ground.  It happens very quickly.  It could be he tried to recover, but there was just not enough altitude.  

 

No sign of stall/spin.

 

Looked like a controlled, if rather sudden, turn, with no excessive wing drop.

 

Engine failure and left looked better than straight ahead?

 

Did he see (think he saw) something ahead that required such a turn?

 

Control failure and actually fighting against uncommanded turn during those last moments?

 

Strong sidewind gust?

 

Pilot blackout?

 

But not stall/spin.

 

 

 

RIP to the pilot.

 

There's a few inaccuracies in the report... The plane obviously isn't a turboprop - the aircraft is a tiny microlight/ultralight and has 80hp Rotax engine hiding under the hood.

 

These small aircraft are made almost entirely of composites - which is not a good combination when combined with the 91/95 octane petrol the engine uses - leaving just a few blackenned fibers and burnt grass at the post fire crash site

 

So what happenned? The video is a but blurred, but seams to show that he wasn't quiet aligned with the center line of the runway during his landing leg. Perhaps there was a slight cross wind - but this is not clear since there's no movement in the trees or grass visible to indicaate this.

 

Normaly, this is not a problem. Any experienced pilot might easily correct for a runway misalignment/slight cross wind by 'slipping it in' with a bit of rubber - however, the partially disabled pilot could not do this effectively since he did not have the use of his legs to control the rudder pedals.

 

Instead, the video clearly show him initially commanding a 'dog-leg' manoever to correct the runway misalignment. The initial dog-leg turn appears quite agressive, the turn gets out of hand and he spins in due to turn load-factor issues.

 

Reviewer comments point to this sensitivity:-

 

One reviewer of the CT2K writing COPA Flight in October 2004 described the aircraft as "fast, comfortable, roomy and very capable of long cross country flights for little money" and faulted the aircraft only for its difficulty slowing down from its cruise speed of 130 knots to its final approach speed of 50 knots, requiring careful planning to lose 80 knots between entering the circuit and stabilizing the aircraft on final approach.

 

More aircraft details here:-  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_Design_CT

 

Explanation on the cause of why the agressive turn caused him to stall:- 

 

2 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Did I miss seeing that in the report? Guessing that's left engine stalled, rather than wing?

 

Guess you missed the photo too. Single engine.

1 minute ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Guess you missed the photo too. Single engine.

You're right about that! I still haven't seen anything about the left wing stalled though?

5 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

It's strange at how many people doing "round the world" tours of one type or another, seem to die in Thailand.

Indeed, I remember at least two fatal endings of round the world cyclists.

Very tragic.

 

He obviously didn't have a Buddha figurine on the instrument panel. 

3 hours ago, Rimmer said:

His approach was probably too slow and the left wing stalled, unable to recover at that height.  THEN he went into the power lines.

 

Don't remind me, recall the day as a student pilot on a solo flight, on final approach, feeling elated after a great flight I kind of took my eye off the needle, suddenly hearing a sound that that I never heard before, it was the Stall Warning Indicator, I was down to 40Kts (should have been 60Kts), remembering  "Nose Down, Power On" fortunately common sense kicked in as I was only a few hundred yards off the runway threshold  and less than a hundred feet, I omitted the nose down...

 

So yes, easily done. 

6 hours ago, ChiangMaiLightning2143 said:

He hit the power lines and crashed Einstein!
Pilot error,purely. Who will compensate the Thai government for the results of this hate-brained scheme? American Air Force pilots hot dogging around Italy comes to mind, minus the deep pockets.

Where have you read that? Power lines could have been hit while falling, American airforce pilots hit the cables of a cable car at hundreds of metres , power lines in Chonburi are 3 yards over the road level, you think he was flying 3 metres over the road level?