Fatal Test Flight Troutdale OR 31 Aug 2024

a twin cesna 421c golden eagle has gone down during a maintenance test flight out of the Troutdale airport near Portland Oregon impacting these three town homes in Fair viiew Oregon just 2 miles away from the Troutdale airport here's what we know so far starting first with the aviation safety Network preliminary information is this accident happened just earlier today Saturday the 31st of August at 10:20 local time assess of 421c golden eagle register to Circle Capital Industries iacc out of Delaware this is often done for tax purposes November 421 GF Papa powered by the GTS 520 engines these are geared engines more on that later two fatalities there were two people on board the aircraft and one person on the ground fatally injured assess of 421c golden eagle November 421 GF Papa was destroyed when it crashed into residential houses near the Troutdale airport Fair viiew Oregon a huge post crash fire ensued after some initial radio transmission difficulties the flight was cleared for takeoff R Runway 25 and upon request by the pilot a flight around the pattern was approved after takeoff the tower controller asked for the Pilot's intentions as he was flying at 1700 ft which is well above the VFR altitude restrictions for the Troutdale area we'll take take a look at the sectional chart in a minute and we have the ATC audio to review as well the pilot subsequently radioed to the tower controller that he was experiencing handling problems and the controller later cleared the aircraft to land on any Runway at no time on the audio was an emergency declared by the pilot prior to impacting the town homes the aircraft impacted power line starting a small brush fire just outside of the town homes and this appears to be the right Wing upside down with Landing light here in the wing tip in the retracted position probably severed by either the power lines power poles or trees prior to impacting the town homes the aircraft took off from trout Dale's Airport runway 25 with a full runway length of 5,399 Ft the departure was from intersection Alpha 7 on his return to the airport the pilot was going to attempt to land back on Runway 7 and was cleared the land on any either of the runways at Troutdale the pilot told the tower he was going to take off and do one lap around the pattern and the adsb data doesn't pick up until he's on the downwind for Runway 25 but he's up at 1700 ft he's getting up into the Portland Class C airspace and the tower controller asks him to descend back down to the Troutdale airspace limits and then the pilot does not make the run the runway 25 Landing he continues around the airport where the controller asks him his intentions and then he begins to explain how he's having troubles handling the aircraft and it looks to me like the adsb data continues on at a pretty good rate of ground speed here 190 knots 193 knots 191 knots but with a continuously descending altitude so it's hard to tell if this was an engine failure event it's certainly not a vmca or a stall event at all as he had plenty of air speed in fact the air speed was ever increasing all the way into the point of impact now I couldn't find the current adsb data on 4 to1 Gulf Papa only that Freeze Frame off of Facebook but the last time this aircraft flew appears to be way back in February of 2024 okay let's check out this ATC data from uh real ATC here's the Troutdale Portland Airport runway 25 Runway 7 located below the Portland Class C airspace so the Portland airspace go only goes up to 2500 feet underneath the shelf of the Class C airspace which begins at 1,700 ft that's why the controller needs him to stay below Runway ta alha 1,700 ft if the Pilot's just going to do a pattern local flight so the recording starts off with big troubles with the radio sir your your transmission is still broken and unreadable I can hear you clear but you're just you're cutting out say again please November 421 golf poer Roger and are you below the tower here November 421 golf Papa where's that in the correlation to the tower November 421 golf Papa Roger is that twin C the way you taxing out that's a different twin cesna Runway taxi VI Alpha Runway 25 taxi via Alpha real simple soon we're going to hear the pilots intentions of doing one lap around the p PN Del Tower this November 421 G Papa at A7 he's cutting out again November 41 golf po the advisor frequency still cutting out sir say direction of flight uh 42 is this clear now 421 golf B it's it's coming in clear sir but it's like I don't know if you're holding down the button long enough or is it something with your R uh your radio or what but say directional flight we'd like to do one lap around the pattern first 421 golf Papa November 421 golf Papa Roger only 25 clear for takeoff left Clos traffic approved thank you clear for 25 421 golf Clos traffic approved clear for takeoff rway 25 left closed pattern which means he intends to stay in the pattern do it do Landing but he's still having problems with the basic operation of the microphone on the Yoke of the aircraft keeping that thing keyed up long enough to make his Transmissions heard Tower good afternoon helicopter 603 hotel hotel flight of two R 22s we are 8.4 miles to the east 1,300 ft with Tango requesting the ha South arrival onway 25 Alpha 7 ready for Northbound departure that's uh 346 Bravo jul Char Runway 25 clear for takeoff right turn out approve Northbound 2 clear for take off right turn approved so two helicopter 63 hotel hotel M flight trout ha South arrival is approved landing at the South Beach own risk helicopter 3 hotel hotel and flight is sou arrival approved our own risk thanks so two R22 helicopters inbound from the east in formation and another departure off of Runway 25 departing to the north November 421 golf POA say intentions we're going to take off to the South if we can 421 golf Roger I thought you said you're going to do one lap at a pattern um yeah we'll go around one more time go around sir you haven't gone around anytime say say intentions your altitude indicates 1,700 you're well well above the uh VFR altitude restrictions for the trell area I need you to descend maintain ad 1,200 now going down to 1,200 for 21 go we'll the pattern so that's where we pick up the adsb data here at 1700 ft he's on the downwind for 25 he hasn't gone around yet he's just on the downwind and he needs to descend to stay within the out of the Portland Class C airspace by the way this recording will not be in real time I'm going to edit out the Dead airspaces our helicopter 3 hotel hotel requesting to speak directly VI helicopter 1 hotel that's approved that's requested Hotel we're going to slow down to 70 and start our nice shallow descent we will follow behind all right is call on charar Roger stand by November 421 golf Ravel stay intention sir are you remaining a pattern or not2 golf is having some handing problems this is a test flight I can't get this thing he's hand having some handling problems this is a test flight so he's somewhere up here all right November 421 golf Bravo traffic ahead and tier left CES Northbound 1,100 that was that previous departure off of Runway 25 coming around to the north is the 421s coming around this way right over the Columbia River Cat aircraft on ground standby do not call Char Tower November 421 Golf R can you land Runway 7 we're going to try not sure we're going to try Runway seven clear to land November 421 Golf R Runway 7even clear to land all runways clear land we're going to try not sure that's a second voice a female's voice presumably from the right seat we're going to try not sure and that's the last we hear of 421 Papa 3 hotel hotel that aircraft went down about 2 miles uh South the southwest of the field uh attention all aircraft is standby the all aircraft calling trell Crown just this is going to be a minute I've just got an airplane crash I got a lot to handle I'm here by myself suggest you go into the FBO and take about about a half an hour break or so he's got a lot of phone calls to run a lot of checklists run he's the only guy in the tower so a loss of control of the aircraft after or during a maintenance test flight light after the aircraft has been sitting for many many months presumably getting worked on the cesna 421c golden eagle is the kind of entrylevel cabin class pressurized twin engine Cessna powered by these geared turbocharged IO GTS i520 engines with trailing link landing gear in other words they're a large complicated aircraft and like most light twins they're relatively easy to buy or relatively inexpensive to buy but extremely expensive to own and operate you need to plan on spending about $5 to $20,000 every year on an annual inspection and these are the type of aircraft that need to go to Aviation Specialists that specialize in these twin engine Cessna Aircraft this is not the kind of aircraft you can expect to repair on your own or on a shoestring budget so investigators will have their hands full trying to figure out exactly what went wrong with this maintenance test flight why was the pilot having such trouble controlling this aircraft what was the recent work that was done on the aircraft because of the intensity of the post crash fire it's going to be hard to determine control continuity of the aircraft and it looks like uh the wing was separated from the aircraft when it hit the power lines coming on in so this will be an interesting and exhaustive investigation by the NTSB to try to figure out what happened to November 421 golf Papa on this flight it'll also be an interesting look into who was the pilot of this aircraft and what was his recency of experience in this aircraft thank you so much for your support of this channel especially the folks over on patreon that make this content possible if we get more information on the NTSB preliminary report we'll post it here for