Jamaica: Crash of Socata TBM-700 N900KN

It amazes me, the news report I read says the escorting jet pilot could see the pilot slumped with the windows starting to frost over and his chest moving so he was breathing, they hoped as the aircraft descended that he might come round and get it down.

He asked 2 times at least for permission to descend because of problems, but was told to wait, why the heck didn’t he simply declare an emergency and do an emergency descent?

see

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29082666

Great story.
I’ll mention it to my friend who has a TBM-700.

In the military I did hypoxia training in an altitude chamber prior to my flight in a B-52G and I can attest from personal knowledge how easily it creeps up on you.

I will share this in view of these two accidents…potato chips (crisps) could save your life!

I was flying a C90 on a mercy flight into Botswana sometime in the early 90s. I had a packet of chips/crisps on the pedestal between the front seats. There was a thunderstorm right over the field and I couldn’t land, so I decided to circle and wait for it to dissipate, expecting this to happen fairly quickly. I turned off the flow packages(pressurization) to save some fuel as I wanted to pick up the victim and head directly for home, fuel for the return was critical. After about 20 minutes it became clear that the thunderstorm was not going to dissipate nor move, so I turned back for Maun and started to climb to FL 210. Going through FL 160 the packet of chips/crisps exploded due to the altitude and immediately reminded me that the flow packages were still off. Of course, turning the flow package back on made our ear drums feel like condoms, and I was somewhat embarrassed.

There was no audible cabin altitude warning for whatever reason, maybe there wasn’t one, and the airplane did not have drop-down masks.

Anyway we got fuel at Maun, went back to the bush strip and successfully completed the mercy flight, although by the time I landed back in Johannesburg, I had been on the go for over 17 hours… 10pm until 3pm the next day.

The other one was a Cirrus SR22.

R.I.P. 🙁

I doubt if they were connected since the Cirrus is unpressurized….or else the pilot was on oxygen and it ran out. More likely a medical issue?

There have been several high profile cases of incapacitation over the yaers…the golfer Payne Stewarts Lear 35, and a college football coach in a twin Cessna.
Having never flown a GA pressurized type, I’m certainly no expert, but I know that there are supposed to be warnings if the system is failing.

Two incapacitation events within a week. The other one was a Cirrus SR22.

R.I.P. 🙁