Ferry Pilot Down

Just got off the phone with NWPilot, calling me from a wake (at Hooters) for a fellow ferry pilot who went down today in the North Atlantic, 50 miles short of Keflavik, Iceland.

Here's the story, from Airliners.net:
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At 15:50 local time, contact was made with RKV ICG centre from a Cessna 310, arriving from Narsarsuaq, which had lost power in one of its engines, 60 miles off Keflavik. In an effort to pump fuel between tanks its feared both engines failed and the pilot had to rely on gliding the aircraft. At the time he was descending through 7000 ft heading towards Reykjavik.

RKV ATC Centre initiated emergency status in KEF and the ICG Centre sent its Super Pumas, TF-GNA and TF-LIF out to the incident site.

At 16:10 the Cessna 310 disappeared from radar, around 50 miles from Keflavik.

A Challenger 604 from the Danish Air Force was sent straight to the scene of the incident and a full search was carried out from that point.

TF-LIF arrived at the scene around 17:00. No sighting of the Cessna 310 had been made and no signal from the emergency transmitter was noticed.

Three trawlers which were near the scene of the incident where called immediately into action and a full scale search was underway. A Cessna 172 aircraft was also involved in the search operation as well as various rescue boats from Slysavarnarfelagid Landsbjorg.

ICGs own F27 TF-SYN was sent out as a surveillance aircraft to replace the efforts of the DAF CL604. A patrol vessel from the ICG was also sent out to help the search efforts.
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Pretty much a worst-case scenario. High seas, ice cold water, gliding a dead stick C-310 into 40-foot swells. NWPilot says he didn't start drinking until 3 hours after the crash -- survival time in the water is estimated at 2 hours, maximum, in a survival suit. The pilot's name was Jeff Hall, and he helped NW get into the biz.

Raise a toast to a brave man, gents....
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

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