'Ma'am, ma'am, straighten up, straighten up': Air traffic
controller's tragic last words to woman piloting a plane with her
husband and his brother before she crashed and killed all three

• Pilot Dana Gray, 46, died along with her husband Tony, 52, and his brother Jerry, 27, in a plane crash near Houston




• Violent crash Thursday was caught on a hardware store security camera, showing the plane nosediving into a car




• Audio recording of pilot's communication with air traffic controller shows she made three attempts to land the plane




• Eerie audio has a traffic controller telling Gray just before the crash: 'Ma'am, ma'am, straighten up, straighten up'

The pilot of
a plane that crashed near a Houston airport halted a third attempt to
land just before it plummeted to the ground, killing the female pilot,
her husband, and his brother.





































































































































































































































































































































































 

Damn, that looked like a pretty sharp descent.

You crashed my Honda?!

Damn

looked like it was falling and turning or flat spin,  and it looks like a parachute equipped Cirrus.

G

Small planes scare the shit out of me.

I knew three people who died in two separate plane crashes and one more who survived a crash.

The article says the fuel tanks were ruptured.

I see no fuel on the pavement, and obviously no fire

I think it's safe to say the plane wasn't flying.  I'd bet a pmag she stalled it and didn't have altitude to recover it.

I don't see any fuel spillage at all, I wonder if she ran out of fuel.

It says she had just refueled, just find that interesting

I guess they died from something like blunt force trauma

Looks like a stall in the way it came down on that car. Pretty violent crash. That plane even had a second chute on it which she didn't even deploy in time.





 

Stall/spin, fatal nearly 100% of the time.  I would rather crash straight ahead flying vs stalled any day of the week.

Cirruses aren't known for docile spin characteristics, either.  

Can't tell if the BRS was deployed before the crash with not enough altitude, or if it popped out upon impact.

It looked like it dropped or flat-spinned and the thing hit belly first or something.  I couldn't really tell.

The Grays were the parents of four kids at my daughters school

Glad no one was in or by the car.

It was, it's a SR-20 I believe. Was on her third landing attempt I heard

Here's the recovery system.

I put an arrow to where it's located in the plane and circled the bridles in red. Looks to me like it partially deployed on impact. You cash see the deployment bag is still in the plane and it looks the pilot chute and bridal on the ground. The line that goes to the nose is one of the attachment bridles.

finally saw the video. you can see rotation in the shadow.

looks like a spin

another article says she got her pilot's license in May 2014

Cirrus is to this era what the Bonanza was 50 years ago.

Sounds like it may be an LLC formed for the sole purpose of owning the plane.  Not rare in general aviation.  Kinda like forming a trust to own your NFA stuff.

+1 it helps protect you/your heirs if you do something stupid like flat spin into a parking lot and hit an innocent car.

Cirrus SR20 cockpit.

Keeps the fuel, maintenance, and insurance expenses on a completely separate set of books for the owners.  Can be used to own a plane in a partnership (the LLC can bill the owners for the time they use the plane, then spend the money on expenses).  Etc.

Very sad.

Hard to watch

Absent mechanical failure, how do you fuck up that badly?

Sad deal.

Too many tasks, not enough experience, low situation awareness (tunnel vision) or all three.

From what I read in the other thread she had gone around three times already, twice for coming in too high.

two people were 6 or 7 parking spots away at impact in video

wow that shit quit flying.... I wonder what attitude she was in when tower said straighten up.

Owner of two planes (a Tri-Pacer and a single engine retractable gear plane), with years (and plenty of hours) of experience, flies the Tri-Pacer for six months then decides he needs to take the other plane out and put some time on it.  First landing is near perfect, except for one thing.  He hadn't flown a retractable gear plane in so long, that selecting "gear down" was no longer on his mental checklist for landing.  After the plane came to a stop, he moved the gear selector to the down position and claimed it was a mechanical failure.  When the plane was hoisted to remove it from the runway, somebody climbed in, checked the position of the gear handle, then turned the master switch on.  The gear extended exactly as it was supposed to.

Student in a C-152 messed up his approach and decided to go around.  He pushed the throttle full forward, moved the flap selector to full up, and rode his power on stall into the tops of the trees at the edge of the airport property.  He told the feds he was a victim of wind shear.  It was a dead calm day.  There were plenty of other students (some with instructors, some solo) taking off and landing around the same time, and none of them noticed any wind or turbulence.  The feds didn't think it was a wind shear incident.

Happens with low time pilots.  Happens with high time pilots.  Happens with other pilots, too.  Complacency.  Distractions.  Not keeping skills current.  Sooner or later, there's an oops.  Sometimes it's a bad oops.

Little experience + fast plane+ too much $$$= stall/spin.  It used to be the Bonanza now it is the cirrus.  Very sad for her and her family.

... damn

Sadly I think this is the case. Having to do two go arounds in a light plane on a clear day says to me the pilot didn't know what they were doing.

But to go from 2x go arounds to what looks like just falling out of the sky. Wow.

ETA: Was nobody else on board a pilot? You would think after waving off twice someone else would have taken the controls.

he was married to a cougar! was he a father at 10 years old? tl;dr

Holy crap!

Amazing what you can see on video these days.

I wonder how the aircraft was loaded, 2 go-rounds to land , hmmm.

Maybe she had a hard time getting the nose down and lost control with severe aft CG and stalled into a flat spin.

Just a SWAG.

after reading the ATC transcript which is in the link below, she was not sent around for being too high, she was sent around because tower was trying to sequence that little airplane between 737s and a 747 and changed the runway on her many times to get her out of the way of big jets on final going much faster being sequenced by approach control.

It sounds like tower was jacking her around and was a factor in causing a very confusing situation.

While she may have hit wake turbulence the fact that the fire department said there was no fire and no fuel spill at the crash scene appears to confirm she ran out of gas. It could have been a guage malfunction but it also could very well have been task saturation with the way tower was jacking her around and she ran out of gas.

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2016/06/cirrus-sr20-n4252g-safe-aviation-llc.html?m=1

HOUSTON - For nearly 20 minutes, air traffic controllers at Hobby Airport tried to guide a single-engine plane down safely. Instead, it crashed in the parking lot of an Ace Hardware store.  All three people on board were killed.

Below is a timeline of selected radio traffic transmissions, according to the website liveatc.net:

12:50 p.m.

Air Traffic Control: “Cirrus 5-2 Golf, maintain maximum forward speed. If able, proceed directly to numbers. 737 is on a nine mile final following you with an 80 knot overtake.”

12:52 p.m.

Air Traffic Control: “Cirrus 5-2 Golf, tower.”

Pilot: “42-52 Golf.”

Air Traffic Control: “Yeah, I got traffic behind you. Just go around and fly runway heading now. Maintain VFR to put you back in a downwind for runway 3-5. The winds are zero niner zero at 1-3. Gusts 1-8. Can you accept runway 3-5?”

Pilot: “We’ll go around and line-up for runway 3-5. Downwind.”

Air Traffic Control: “Fly runway heading for four for right now.”

Pilot: “We’ll fly runway heading for four. 42-52 Golf.”

12:53 p.m.

Air Traffic Control: “A 737 on five mile final, runway four. You’re going to be in front of him.

Pilot: “42-52 Golf, turning around for runway 3-5.”

Air Traffic Control: “Okay 52 Golf, let’s just, just enter the right downwind for runway 3-5.

Pilot: “Right downwind for 3-5 42-52 Golf.”

Air Traffic Control: “52-Golf, I’ll call your right base now.”

12:54 p.m.

Air Traffic Control: “Cirrus 52-Golf. 737 at your two o’clock and three miles at niner hundred feet inbound for runway four. Advise when you have traffic in sight.”

Pilot: “I have traffic in sight. 42-52 Golf.”

Air Traffic Control: “42-52 Golf, make a right base behind that traffic for me, 3-5. Clear to land. You’re going to be following them. They’re going to be landing crossing runway prior to your arrival.”

Pilot: “We’ll make a right base following them. 42-52 Golf for 3-5.”

Air Traffic Control: “Southwest 35-64. Cirrus traffic ahead and to your right. Has you in sight. Going to make a right base behind you. Landing crossing runway behind you.”

Southwest Pilot: “Southwest 35-64.”

Air Traffic Control: “Cirrus 5-2 Golf. Make a, turn left 30 degrees.

Pilot: “Left heading 30 degrees. 42-52 Golf.”

Air Traffic Control: “November 5-2 Golf, did you want to follow the 737 runway four?

Pilot: “Yes, that would be great. 42-52 Golf.”

Air Traffic Control: “November 5-2 Golf, roger.  Follow the 737 and it’s runway four, clear to land.  

Pilot: “So am I turning a right base now 42-52 Golf?”

Air Traffic Control: “November 5-2 Golf, roger. Just maneuver back for the straight in. I don’t know which way you’re going now. Just turn back around to runway 3-5.

Pilot: “Turning to 3-5. I’m so sorry for the confusion. 42-52 Golf.”

Air Traffic Control: “That’s okay. We’ll get it.”

12:56 p.m.

Air Traffic Control: “November 5-2 Golf, I need to you, okay, there you go. Straight into runway 3-5. Clear to land.”

Pilot: “Straight into 3-5. Cleared to land. And I don’t believe I’m lined up for that. 42-52 Golf.”

Air Traffic Control: “Okay 5-2 Golf. Roger. Turn to the right. And climb, maintain 1,600. Right turn.”

Pilot: “1,600 right turn. 42-52 Golf.”

Air Traffic Control: “5-2 Gulf, yes ma’am. Heading about 0-4-0.”

Pilot: “0-4-0. 42-52 Golf.”

12:57 p.m.

Air Traffic Control: “Okay 5-2 Golf. Let’s do this. Can you do a right turn back to join the straight in to 3-5? Could you do it like that?”

Pilot: “Yes, right turn back to 3-5. 42-52 Golf.”

Air Traffic Control: “November 5-2 Golf, okay so you’re just going to make a right turn all the way around to runway 3-5. And now you’re clear to land.”

Pilot: “3-5 clear to land. 42-52 Golf.”

1:05 p.m.

Air Traffic Control: “5-2 Golf, there’s a 747 on short final. Runway four touching down right in front of you. Just caution wake turbulence right at that intersection. “

Pilot: “Okay. I’ve got that in sight. Thank you. 42-52 Golf.”

1:07 p.m.

Pilot: “Runway 3-5 in sight. 42-52 Golf.”

Air Traffic Control: “5-2 Golf, winds zero niner zero at 13. Gusts at 1-8. Runway 3-5, again cleared to land.”

Pilot: “3-5, cleared to land. Trying to get down again (laughs). 42-45 Golf.”

Air Traffic Control: “No problem.”

1:08 p.m.

Air Traffic Control: “Cirrus 42-52 Golf just go ahead and make the left turn now to enter the downwind, midfield downwind for only four, if you can just give me a nice tight pattern, I’m going to have traffic four miles behind you so I need you to just kind of keep it in tight if you could. And actually I might end up sequencing behind that traffic it’s going four miles a minute, it is going to be a little bit tight with the one behind it, so when you get on that downwind, stay on the downwind and advise me when you have that 737 in site, will either do four or we might swing you around to 3-5.  Uh ma’am, ma’am straighten up straighten up.”

The plane then appeared to flat spin to the ground, landing on a car parked outside the store. Relatives confirm that Tony Gray, his wife Dana and brother Jerry were on the plane.

This screams pilot error.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

As usual, there is more to the story.

Hopefully ATC didn't direct her right into wake turbulence.

Thanks for posting Mach.

No bueno.

That's bad ass.

Thanks for that info, Mach.
Prayers going out to their loved ones...

http://abc13.com/news/deadly-plane-crash-near-hobby-caught-on-camera/1380393/
Hobby Airport











https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_P._Hobby_Airport

either way, the aircraft was out of gas, and since it was climbing and in a turn, losing the engine due to fuel starvation in a climbing turn has very little room for not recovering correctly.

sad. that's tough to watch

I would hate to be that  controller in more ways than one.

So sad about the family.

I was working as a controller several years ago when a family of 4 died in Bonanza that crashed on Christmas eve.

I was not working them but was listening in as it happened.

As hard as it was on all of us, I can't imagine what it was like for the rest of their family.

Noob question, do small planes like that land at large airports all the time?  Hobby seems like odd place for that sized plane.