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Piper Mirage Crash at Mammoth Lakes KMMH

gman5250

gman5250

Charter Member
A couple of days ago we had an incident with a Piper Mirage that crashed on take off at Mammoth Yosemite Airport (KMMH). On the day of the crash we had Lenticular clouds which are a sure sign that you are going to get wind...big wind...at any moment.

Mammoth is well know for it's infamous cross wind landings and if you are not familiar with wind and 7K altitude it is not a good idea attempt to fly in or out of here in 35 knot winds. Thing is, we get katabatic wind conditions when it does blow...and it blows like this often in early winter. If the wind is 35 steady you can get gusts to 50 that will whip around in all directions at once. The wind comes up the western face of the Sierra Nevada and crashes down the vertical east face like a wave breaking on a reef. KMMH is snuggled at the base of that "reef". The shear can be pretty nasty.

A few years ago we had a blow that picked up a neighbors 16' aluminum boat and flew it a half mile into someone's backyard, of course that wind was 100 MPH sustained and 140 up on the ridges.

The day of the incident with the Mirage, the Lenticulars were massive and the wind was already up when the pilot risked the takeoff during a short lull. Unfortunately, that was a bad call. From the location of the crash site it looks like he had barely lifted off from RWY 27 and got slammed into the pucker brush.

Glad to see no one was hurt...pity about the airplane.

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2015/dec/04/stringers-san-diegans-crash-plane-mammoth-lakes/
 
Yeah, one of the most dangerous things a pilot can do is suffer from "get-home-itus." You just shouldn't mess with weather like that.
 
expat said:
Sounds like not a good place to locate an airport, period.
Click to expand...

On a good day it's a great location, but the saying here is "If you don't like the weather, give it ten minutes". We have the weirdest weather, it either perfect and beautiful or raging and gnarly. There is really no in between. lol

The main thing is density altitude in summer, wind in the spring and visibility/wind/ice during winter. Otherwise...it's a teddy bear.
 
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gman5250 said:
On a good day it's a great location, but the saying here is "If you don't like the weather, give it ten minutes". We have the weirdest weather, it either perfect and beautiful or raging and gnarly. There is really no in between. lol

The main thing is density altitude in summer, wind in the spring and visibility/wind/ice during winter. Otherwise...it's a teddy bear.
Click to expand...


Yeah, the pilot was probably aware to avoid the density altitude problems in the summer, the wind in the spring, and the visibility/wind/ice problems in the winter. That's why he carefully planned this flight to occur during the fall season...oops!
 
gman5250 said:
The main thing is density altitude in summer, wind in the spring and visibility/wind/ice during winter. Otherwise...it's a teddy bear.
Click to expand...

I must admit I drive past it two or three times a year (on the 395) en route to Mammoth, I cannot help but marvel at the geography around that airport, that's before you consider the weather affects... So thanks for P3D to fly in there and not risk it in real life!
 
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