Originally Posted By SideCarGT:
I imagine we'll know today if it was a musical celebrity. RIP

Originally Posted By SkyFive:
We've had broken clouds almost all day, some light rain drizzle, some build ups (CB's)

Originally Posted By Curmudgeon762:
We were having a staff meeting a few weeks ago and one of our surgeons had never heard the term”Doctor Killer”. All the other physicians had. Even my wife says “NO!!!” When I mention getting a Bonanza. It’s down right uncanny how many Bonanza crashes have an MD involved.

Originally Posted By Curmudgeon762:
Damn I’m good

Originally Posted By SkyFive:
It was N47WT - Dr. Lucius Doucet III, a plastic surgeon in Baton Rouge. Enroute from Gonzales, La. to Louisville, Ky.

https://photos.flightaware.com/photos/retriever/c79c4d68cd928359e101d20a8ce30a9b099e0d5f
https://photos.flightaware.com/photos/retriever/978dc95154e52a81f4e2e6bfe3e98bcfbeef40fa



https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/179151/Capture_JPG-3215257.JPG
This occurred about 15 miles northwest of my location. We've had broken clouds almost all day, some light rain drizzle, some build ups (CB's)
Everything looks normal with this flight right up til the last three minutes. It appears he/she was on autopilot and possibly lost control. Looks like a inflight breakup.
Local news  reports three people on board.

Originally Posted By Ender875:

every freaking time...its crazy

During the climb to 9,000 ft msl, the pilot was instructed to fly a heading of 360° and to expect
“On course in about fifteen miles.” The pilot was subsequently cleared direct to the EWO (New
Hope, Kentucky) VORTAC, and the pilot acknowledged clearance. The airplane climbed to
9,500 ft msl, before the pilot was instructed to maintain 9,000 ft msl.  The controller again
asked the pilot to descend to 9,000 ft msl and provided the current altimeter setting; this was
acknowledged by the pilot and was the last transmission received from the flight.

Preliminary weather data showed that while established on the 360° track, the airplane entered
an area with depicted moderate to heavy precipitation (figure 1).  The airplane momentarily
descended to 8,900 feet, and then made a right turn to the northeast for several miles before
initiating a right descending turn to  a track of 213°. The groundspeed increased from 180 kts
to 214 kts and the vertical speed decreased to a 4,000 fpm descent. The controller made
several attempts to contact the pilot, which went unanswered and radar contact was lost
shortly thereafter. ADS-B data for the final moments of the flight showed that as the airplane
entered a 5,000 fpm rate of descent, the groundspeed rapidly decreased to 43 kts and the
vertical speed then reached a descent rate of more than 15,000 fpm.

The wreckage was scattered along a fan like pattern that was oriented on a 262° magnetic
heading and spread over a radius of more than ½-mile. The first pieces of wreckage recovered
at the beginning of the path consisted of the separated elevator-rudders (ruddervators) that
were found at an elevation of 909 ft. Both wings separated from the fuselage and were found
about 2,000 ft further west, followed by the main fuselage fragments, seats, and instrument
panel. The engine and propeller assembly were the final pieces discovered at the end of the
wreckage path where it impacted a lake and was submerged in 8 ft of water. About 90% of the
airplane was recovered.

The left wing separated from the fuselage at the root and was largely intact. Fuel with the blue
color and smell of aviation gasoline spilled out from the main fuel tank at the wing root. The
left wingtip fuel tank was intact and contained no fuel. The top, forward wing mounting bolt
fractured and pulled through the wing spar attach fitting. The aft two mounting bolts pulled
through both wing spar attach fittings. The left wing main spar displayed signatures consistent
with bending overload separation in the downward (negative) direction.

The right wing was also from the fuselage. The right wingtip fuel tank separated from the wing
and was split open. The wing forward spar attach point was intact and remained connected to
the center section that was separated from the fuselage. The right wing rear spar was
separated at the attach point. The rear center section was separated from the fuselage. The
right rear upper attach bolt was intact and retained in the intact center section bathtub fitting.  
The right rear upper wing fitting was fractured and pulled from the wing structure. The rear
lower attach bolt was intact and retained in the rear lower wing fitting. The right wing
contained a weather radar pod and hardware that was separated during the impact. The
radar’s cockpit display was not installed and the system’s the circuit breakers were in a
tripped/deactivated position.

The stabilator spars exhibited symmetrical deformation where the spars were bent aft and
twisted leading edge down. The fracture surfaces had slant angles. The right stabilizer was
separated and had more than half of the right ruddervator attached. The ruddervator trailing
edge was separated and the skins were splayed open. Only a portion of the left inboard
ruddervator was recovered. The deformation of the stabilizer spars on both sides exhibited
features consistent with downward failure.

The pilot had purchased the airplane in December 2023. A review of his pilot log revealed that
he had accumulated 366 total hours of flight experience and had accumulated 14 hours in the
accident airplane make model.

Originally Posted By jmt1991:
He only had 14 hours in the Bonanza?!
How much of it was in instrument conditions?
This was a low-time pilot who most likely had spatial disorientation.
I would never had flown into those conditions with such little time in that aircraft, unless all 14 hours were with a CFII in instrument conditions.
It's all a big game until things get serious, and then it's too late.

Originally Posted By JPN:


One of the youtube videos on this incident had a statement that the majority of the flights he had made in the Bonanza since buying it seemed to be local flights.

Originally Posted By aa777888-2:
The pilot was almost 63 years old. Not terribly old, but not terribly young, either. Just playing devil's advocate, but is it not within the realm of possibility that this was due to a medical event? Perhaps the stress of dealing with the weather may have caused some sort of cardiovascular event or perhaps it was just coincidental. The chart in the prelim. demonstrates some pretty good navigation/deviation around heavier precip. before everything went sideways.