Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
#1576811
There is a WW2 fable popularised by the Stanford Tuck biography of a BoB Spitfire lost in action and only found a month or more later lodged in some treetops with its pilot still strapped-in.

There is little evidence to support the story though.

Rob P
Last edited by Rob P on Mon Dec 11, 2017 3:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
#1576824
I seem to recall that when satellite images were being combed for Steve Fossett they found 5 other missing aircraft before him. It was a topic I thought about in some depth before embarking on a flying tour around the high desert of Arizona and Nevada.
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By Dave W
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1576827
That's right - 6, says this Air & Space article which doesn't include Fossett's crash site.

Air & Space wrote:While searching for Fossett the Nevada CAP air crews spotted six other wrecks they weren’t looking for. “We checked them all out,” Derk says. “There were no skeletal remains. We got tail numbers and serial numbers and determined that at some point they had all been identified.”


I too thought about this when flying in AZ, but decided I'd be fine as the aircraft all had an ELT on board. That's before I realised how unreliable fixed ELTs had turned out to be, in the US experience. :(
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By Dave W
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#1576839
I now have a fairly comprehensive 4kg 2 person survival kit in a kid's red rucksack that has its origins in something I took at the time, along with the 4 litres of water pp.

At the time I was flying there, 406 MHz PLBs did not exist but obviously I'd take mine now!
By patowalker
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#1576852
Dominie wrote:I would bet that drug runners are NOT in that list, as they don't file flight plans, do they? :roll:


You would be surprised.
Assuming the takeoff is successful, the pilot will fly low to avoid radar detection once he approaches Florida, or will file a flight plan for a major airport, then cancel his plan after he is picked up on radar and tell air traffic control he is going somewhere else. Pilots of small planes do that all the time, so there is no particular reason for the controller to be suspicious.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/04/18/smugglers-in-stolen-planes-plague-faa-drug-agency/a6a6d118-463b-4efc-823f-636bf73a63fe/?utm_term=.4389a5167355
#1576858
Dominie wrote:
pullup wrote:I’ll bet a large percentage of these are illegal/drug runners.
Wouldn’t lift a finger to look for them.

I would bet that drug runners are NOT in that list, as they don't file flight plans, do they? :roll:


If you look at the Project Pegasus leaflets you’ll see that Drug Runners in the UK do file flight plans. Be an own goal if they didn’t. However, they are usually very “misleading” flight plans.

In the USA they use a LOT of stolen aircraft hence I said a large percentage of missing aircraft would be on the list.

I did hear that unrecoverable wrecked aircraft in the Alps were all painted bright Yellow. Any truth in that ?
By patowalker
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1576862
SD,
I lived in Colombia for 7 years in the 70s and learnt a thing or two about how drug smugglers operated. :)

That article does not mention the practice of an aircraft on a FPL meeting another over the sea to fly back to Florida in such close formation that there was only one radar return. Nor does it mention that in many cases the cargo was dropped, the pilot baled out and the aircraft trimmed to crash in the Everglades.

On visits to the Guajira desert I saw more than the flamingos. :)
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By Dave W
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#1576863
The 255 that @Rob P quotes are those missing over land only.

If you include those missing over water the figure is quoted in the article to be 658.

I doubt those other 400+ are all drug smugglers.