airtraffic

Author Topic: Media inquiry: Madras, Ore. plane crash Aug. 19  (Read 3995 times)

Offline mgafni

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Media inquiry: Madras, Ore. plane crash Aug. 19
« on: August 25, 2017, 07:25:37 PM »
Hi,

I'm a newspaper reporter with the San Jose Mercury News. I've been reporting on the Aug. 19 crash of a plane in Madras, Oregon near the small airport there. A man from our area flew by himself to Oregon, reportedly to catch the total eclipse.

Apparently, this airport there near where he crashed was so small they had to bring in a mobile air traffic control tower for the days around the eclipse because there were some 400 flights in one day at this tiny strip.

So, I wanted to see if anyone has pulled radio traffic from this incident? I'm by no means an aviation expert, so have struggled to find out how to pull the radio traffic from this incident which happened about 2 p.m. Oregon time that day. The press release said 911 dispatchers were notified of the crash at 1:54 p.m. local time that day, so crash would've happened shortly before that.

I would of course be curious of the radio traffic of this crash, but I'm also curious if there was other traffic around that time from this small air strip. Basically, I'm curious if the increased traffic at this small airport over short amount of time might have played a role in this tragedy. There was another report saying that it was so busy, the airport gave each plane a 3-4 minute window to land.

Here's an article about the crash:

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/19/plane-from-bay-area-crashes-near-popular-oregon-solar-eclipse-viewing-spot/

Thanks for any help you can provide. I can be reached at mgafni@bayareanewsgroup.com

Best,

Matthias



Offline abelenky

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Re: Media inquiry: Madras, Ore. plane crash Aug. 19
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2017, 04:29:10 PM »
The radio recordings here are collected by volunteers at airports of interest.
As a low-volume, relatively boring airport, Madras (airport code S33) does not seem to be covered.

I don't know if the temporary tower would have made recordings, but tower recordings are generally not released to the public.

You asked if "if the increased traffic at this small airport over short amount of time might have played a role in this tragedy."

From the media articles and the NTSB Preliminary report (https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20170819X04607&AKey=1&RType=Prelim&IType=FA),
I see absolutely nothing to suggest that traffic was a factor.

We'll have to wait for the full investigation to be complete before we know for sure.