**What we know about the Michael Connell crash itself (Research Thread - feel free to contribute)**

[Dennis Donovan]

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNumSQL.asp?NNumbertxt=9299N&cmndfind.x=15&cmndfind.y=8

N9299N

Aircraft Description

Serial Number 3257018
Type Registration Corporation
Manufacturer Name PIPER
Certificate Issue Date 08/21/2007
Model PA-32R-301T
Status Valid
Type Aircraft Fixed Wing Single-Engine
Type Engine Reciprocating
Pending Number Change None
Dealer No
Date Change Authorized None
Mode S Code 53161471
MFR Year 1997
Fractional Owner NO


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Registered Owner

Name SIERRA-NOVEMBER AVIATION INC
Street 3046 BRECKSVILLE RD
City RICHFIELD State OHIO Zip Code 44286-9399
County SUMMIT
Country UNITED STATES

http://www.thesuburbanite.com/communities/x1060481746/Pilot-dies-in-Lake-Township-airplane-crash

Pilot dies in Lake Township airplane crash

By Madelin Reinersmann
The Suburbanite
Sat Dec 20, 2008, 02:58 PM EST


(MY OBSERVATION - wreckage is charred, indicating there was fuel on board at the time of the crash)

Lake Township -
The sound of an engine cutting out, the buzz of an airplane, an explosion and a burst of flame startled a quiet Lake Township neighborhood Friday night.

A single engine Piper Saratoga crashed into the front yard of a home. It ripped up a flagpole, slid across a yard and came to rest near some pines.

Dead is the pilot, Michael Connell of Akron. He was the only passenger in the seven-passenger plane.

The house, located at 2017 Charolais St., is in foreclosure. No one was living in the home at the time of the crash.

Debris from the crash was scattered over 100 yards.

According to Kristie Van Auken, director of communications at the Akron Canton Airport, Connell was en route to runway 23.

Greentown Fire Department Capt. Lorin Geiser said they believed Connell had to make an emergency landing was attempting to avoid the homes along Charolais.

The crash occurred shortly before 6 p.m. Greentown Fire Department received an emergency call at 5:55 p.m. and arrived on the scene in four minutes, according to department officials. Within five minutes the department extinguished the flames of the wreckage and the fire that involved the garage area of the house. Uniontown, Hartville, Plain and North Canton fire departments also assisted in the call. The Stark County Sheriff also responded.

Stark County Coroner Investigator Harry Campbell said Connell, 45, was wearing a business suit. Apparently, according to Campbell, Connell had breakfast in Washington D.C. Investigators found receipts in Connell’s wallet.

(MY OBSERVATION - The aircraft was unnattended by Connell - during his DC visit - while at College Park Airport, MD. Also, the report of "an engine cutting out" means possible-to-likely mechanical error, not necessarily pilot error - unless, of course, the pilot failed to properly fuel the aircraft or check its oil quantity during pre-flight inspection) (On edit: Also, the pilot might not have applied carberator heat in an icing condition, or failed to switch from an empty fuel tank to one with fuel)

From http://www.fltplan.com/AwTrackSelectToHistoricalMap.exe?a=1 (with aircraft registration data entered)



(MY OBSERVATION - No precipitation shown on the radar returns at the accident site)

Weather data retrieved from http://data.nssl.noaa.gov/dataselect/index.html (with information of the crash day & time entered)


(I'm rusty on wx map interpretation - a call out for DUers who can interpret this map for us)

[Frustratedlady]

1. Woman asking dumb question here, but...

Why an explosion if he was out of fuel? Would the fumes be enough to explode that much?

[Dennis Donovan]

2. The photo shows charred wreckage, indicating there was fuel in the tanks.

:hi:

[formercia]

21. Fuel tank sumps

Even if you run out of gas, there will be a small amount remaining in the fuel tank sumps which is unavailable to the engine. The sumps provide a place for any sediment or moisture to settle and be drained away during pre-flight inspection.

During cold weather, it is especially important to drain the sumps, for any liquid water could freeze when at a higher altitude and clog the fuel system.

[Dennis Donovan]

25. True - improper preflight check would make it pilot error...

...and not checking the fuel for water & sediment before flight would cause engine ops issues.

[formercia]

26. He was wearing a business suit

and might have not wanted to stain his clothing. When the weather is foul, people tend to hurry up and get into the aircraft.

If he flew into icing conditions, that would be another hazardous situation. It doesn't take long before the aircraft becomes difficult to control. I ran into icing in a Cessna 150 and it took about 30 seconds to where the wings began to lose lift and I had to use full power just to stay airborne. It gets dicey very quickly. Pipers don't control well at low speed.

It would have been easy for someone to pour water into the fuel, especially on the Piper.


On the other hand, water contamination would have probably shown up earlier in the flight. He crashed near his destination.

The FAA/NTSB will probably check his fuel gauges to ensure they were in calibration.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Transportation_Safety_Board

[leftchick]

23. the neighbors across the street

said the fire was huge and lasted quite a while.

[madokie]

7. I'm not sure what the gas to air ratio for an open explosion would be

But a gasoline engine needs a 14 to 1 ratio of fuel to air to run so if thats the case here I would think the fumes in a 20 or so gallon tank mixed with the proper amount of air to combust would make a pretty good sized fireball. From looking at the picture it looks to me like that would have been possible for that to have happened. I wonder if maybe someone loosened a fitting on one of the fuel lines so as it would be leaking fuel out while the plane engine was running and the fuel was under pressure from the fuel pump that wouldn't necessarily leak as it was setting on the ground not running. The likelihood of a drip drip drip as the guy was flying along and being noticed by him would be slim and none. People in his position should not get into small airplanes under any circumstances

[localroger]

19. Fumes are more explosive than liquid fuel

It is also true of cars that a nearly empty gas tank is much more likely to explode than a full one. Liquid fuel tends to burn instead of explode, but vapor can mix thoroughly with air and "burn all at once," creating an explosion.

[EstimatedProphet]

3. Well that proves it - IT HAD TO BE ROVE!

[Dennis Donovan]

5. You'll notice I make no such claims...

This thread is for data sharing/interpretation of the accident itself. Octafish has a good thread for other theories not based on the data interpretation surrounding the crash:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4694564

[remedy1]

20. It is likely that this is pilot error.

The weather in the area was marginal with rain and fog reported. A surface temp at or near freezing. High liklihood of icing at most altitudes that this airplane would have ben operating at. In a light airplane equipped with deicing equipment, icing conditions can still exceed tha ability of the deicing equipment to clear the surfaces (wing and/or propeller).

There was fuel onboard as evidenced by post impact fire.

Most likely, the pilot flew into an area of icing that exceeded either the pilots or equipments abilities, which led to a stall, loss of control, and crash.

[Dennis Donovan]

24. Thank you for the info - that's why I started this thread...

:thumbsup:

[suzie]

48. Thanks to all of you who provided technical information on this thread.

[Name removed]

55. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[remedy1]

27. METARs from the time of the accident...

METAR KCAK 192251Z 30011KT 9SM BKN005 OVC010 01/M01 A2978 RMK AO2 SLP095 T00111006

SPECI KCAK 192309Z 30010KT 2 1/2SM BR OVC004 01/M01 A2980 RMK AO2

SPECI KCAK 192315Z 29011KT 1 1/2SM BR OVC004 01/M01 A2981 RMK AO2 PRESRR

Weather was deteriorating, freezing level at the surface, precipitation.

[Dennis Donovan]

28. Thank you for the info, remedy1.

That's what this thread is all about.:thumbsup:

[jljamison]

66. interesting...

he crashed at or around 2250 zulu (5:45 pm local time) - why are the published METARs from 1923 zulu, or 3 hours earlier? Obviously completely unrelated to any notion of a conspiracy, just curious is all

[EstimatedProphet]

41. Enough other people have made that claim, though.

[Dennis Donovan]

51. That's why I started this thread. There's enough threads on this...

...that are half-cocked.

[EstimatedProphet]

52. Right you are

Sorry that you thought my joke was directed at you. It wasn't.

[Dennis Donovan]

53. No problem - I just wanted to keep this thread to facts...

:hi:

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. What evidence do you have?

I don't see anything in the OP proving that claim.

[anigbrowl]

38. That's the point. The post you reply to was meant to mock tinfoilers

Some people (not the OP) would jump on the information provided without knowing anything much about planes or flying, and connect the dots to fit their theory.

[EstimatedProphet]

42. I'm glad you got it

There's a dearth of understanding sarcasm on this board.

[Celebration]

4. kick for any aviators here n/t

[Dennis Donovan]

6. I'm a licenced commercial pilot, but have been out of the game for 14 years...

[annabanana]

9. kickers . . . .n/t

[Dennis Donovan]

10. Thank you - I encourage everyone to kick and rec this...

:hi:

[Richard D]

11. Not relevant to the research . . .

. . . but if I had information like he had, I'd have it on disk in at least several places with several random people having access to it "just in case". Might make for good life insurance for anyone in his position in the future.

[no_hypocrisy]

12. Planes need to be put under surveillance. Cars at airports get better guardianship.

(MY OBSERVATION - The aircraft was unnattended by Connell - during his DC visit - while at College Park Airport, MD. Also, the report of "an engine cutting out" means possible-to-likely mechanical error, not necessarily pilot error - unless, of course, the pilot failed to properly fuel the aircraft or check its oil quantity during pre-flight inspection) (On edit: Also, the pilot might not have applied carberator heat in an icing condition, or failed to switch from an empty fuel tank to one with fuel)

I heard third-hand that the airport where JFK, Jr. kept his plane (Essex County Airport, Fairfield, New Jersey). It was completely unguarded and unsupervisd. Anyone could come on premises freely.

My point: It is feasible that something can be done while a plane is not being surveilled and/or guarded.

[Pachamama]

13. While small plane crashes occur, there is much about this that as someone who just logged on to the

DU for the first time in awhile and didn't know who Michael Connell was until I surfed around on DU in other threads, that I would say makes this crash highly suspicious. I can only say that if I were someone who knew I was taking on people like Karl Rove, I would never travel alone, and never go on small planes. My condolences to his family and I just pray everyday that this cabal of criminals that has destroyed our country the last 8 years, and particularly Karl Rove and his activities, will be punished.

[Dennis Donovan]

14. Like I said - I want to focus just on the facts surrounding the accident itself...

Of course, the facts surrounding him personally (for example: his enemies and their motives for wanting him silenced) can be applied ONLY if it's discovered the aircraft WAS tampered with. Unfortunately, only the NTSB can ascertain that.

[Cheap_Trick]

16. And who runs the NTSB?

The accident report will say whatever they want it to say, or whatever they're told it will say.

[Dennis Donovan]

17. I know - that's why I created this thread - to garner facts about the accident...

...in case the NTSB drops the ball in any way.:thumbsup:

[Cheap_Trick]

22. Thank you.

:thumbsup:

[Pachamama]

32. Dennis - I'm glad you are doing this. My husband is a pilot and is a member of the Civil Air Patrol

and while I don't have a pilots license, I have taken many classes and was even trained in a Piper similiar to this one that crashed. I am glad you started this thread because while our intuitions and feelings about this administration are negative (and most likely spot on) its important to look at facts. My husband is for example someone who is scientific and engineering based in his thought process (as opposed to emotional as I can be) and even when we discussed this accident this morning, his feeling is that you are safer flying one of these pipers than you are driving on a car on the highway. Most accidents that he knows of involving these planes are pilot error or weather related, not mechanical in nature. His first question is how experienced of a pilot was Michael Connell and what were the weather conditions/visibility etc. But when I mentioned what this person Michael Connell was involved in, he immediately reacted with a sense that this needs to be thoroughly investigated by the NTSB (and outside investigation too?. He also said this guy, no matter how good of a pilot, should never been near small planes given what he was going up against. Small planes, left unattended at small airports are way to convenient for being "suicided". :eyes:

thank you for having a thread that can be bookmarked and kept going with facts about the accident. :hi:

[Dennis Donovan]

35. I thought it would be productive - there are many "speculation" threads...

...that don't logically address the accident. I think we do the issue a disservice by not looking at the facts objectively.:thumbsup::hi:

[defendandprotect]

61. The last 8 years...? This goes back to at least '63 coup on JFK --

and election stealing going back at least that far ...

http://www.constitution.org/vote/votescam__.htm

Otherwise, agree completely with your comments --

[Peace Patriot]

15. Know anything about the de-icer equipment on this plane?

De-icers on the wings was a big issue in the Paul Wellstone plane crash, which occurred in similar conditions--good weather but quite cold. Wellstone's plane also veered off suddenly and crashed just as it was approaching the airport. It had state-of-the-art de-icing equipment as well as two highly experienced pilots in the cockpit. (See the book "An American Death," which makes a strong case for assassination.) Those pilots also--like Connell--were very careful about the weather they would take off in.

I'm certainly puzzled by this crash, especially considering the abundance of Bushwhack motive to silence Connell (as they had with Wellstone, from the other end of the political spectrum). Why would the engine just quit, if the plane had enough fuel for the crash to cause a considerable fire? If the plane was a good one, with good de-icers, etc., and had been kept up (and there is no indication that Connell was lax in any way), the three explanations I can think of are: 1) random mechanical failure (could happen to anybody); 2) the pilot cut off the engine (was committing suicide), or 3) someone "fixed" the plane before it took off (or did something to Connell or his plane by remote device while he was in the air?).

Because of Wellstone and Carnahan (and some think JFK Jr.--any others?), who all died in puzzling small plane crashes, and other enemies of the Bush Cartel who have died mysterious deaths, I don't give much credit to No. 1(random mechanical failure). No. 2 is a possibility. Connell was apparently a man with a conscience, caught up in helping the Bushwhacks steal elections due to his religious beliefs about abortion. He was being deposed in a serious election fraud lawsuit (re Ohio '04) and Larisa Alexandrovna (a well-known investigative reporter) said he was speaking to her confidentially about these matters. Did he kill himself--as some have suggested re David Kelly--to protect his family who had been threatened? I don't believe this of Kelly--I think he was 'suicided'--but it could be true of Connell--we don't know enough to guess, as yet--and it would be hard to prove unless he left a message somewhere, or a witness to the threat comes forward. According to Cliff Arnebeck, a lawyer in the election fraud lawsuit, Karl Rove threatened Connell's wife with a corruption prosecution if he didn't take the fall for Ohio '04. (I guess Rove just issues orders to the DoJ about who is on his hit list this week and who they should 'get' as punishment for crossing the Bushwhacks.) So, there is potential motive for suicide.

No.3: sabotage of the plane or its pilot, Connell--before or during his flight. There is motive for this as well. Connell was a potential whistleblower on Bushwhack election fraud. He was right in the middle of it, as their major computer expert. He is the likely party who erased 5,000 Rove emails.

Am I assessing this correctly? I don't know much about small planes, just what I've read (and I've been a passenger--also, my husband was an AF bomber pilot). I do know that landing is generally the greatest moment of danger for any plane. But if you were going to sabotage a plane or a pilot, you would aim for that moment, to try to get it written off as pilot error.

[Dennis Donovan]

18. This aircraft is somewhat different than the Beech King Air involved in the Wellstone crash...

It's a single-engine, complex (retractable gear, adjustable-pitch prop) aircraft. Unsure about de-ice boots on the wings. Most of the PA-32R-301T's I've seen pics of have the boots. I'm also unsure of Connell's experience and ratings.

[jljamison]

67. for sale ad does not indicate de-icing equipment

the for sale ad for this aircraft N9299N neither indicates de-icing equipment in the list of equipment, nor do the photos of the aircraft show propeller or leading edge icing equipment

http://www.pilotmarket.com/aircrafts/Aircraft_For_Sale/Single_Engine_Piston/Piper/Saratoga/listing-12862-98450036.html

[FraDon]

29. Why wack somebody with a plane ? • Because is works SO well.

Kills so thoroughly. Destroys so much evidence. Changes the script so definitively.

IF an independent investigation (I know, I know, what are the chances of THAT?) finds remains, objectively matched to Connell, than I must assume they found the backups (or think they did).

There may be no remains or no conclusive match (a whole plane supposedly vaporized at the pentagon on 9/11, with virtually nothing to scrape up). Convenient.

Then again, they may NOT have the backups, and might HAVE Connell AND, the best part, have him out of the script at the same time. Convenient.

• Spycraft, muthafukha. Hardball. You can't HANDLE the truth !

When it seems TOO convenient, ask "Who benefits?"

[creeksneakers2]

30. There is no evidence that the plane ran out of fuel

or that there was a source who said it did. Larisa Alexandrovna reported that the plane ran out of fuel but she since retracted that factoid. She says her unnamed sources were wrong.

[Dennis Donovan]

31. The pic of the charred wreckage and witnesses accounts of a fire...

...indicate the aircraft had fuel on board at the time of the accident.

[Frustratedlady]

33. That is where I read it last night

Sorry if I continued the incorrect info.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

34. Here's what my pilot husband says...

It could have been fuel starvation, meaning he didn't switch to the other tank when one went empty.

It was not likely water in the fuel tank, because the problems would have happened on takeoff, not near the end of the flight. On the other hand, a second tank could have been contaminated, and the engine died when he switched to that tank. Doesn't seem terribly likely, but possible.

Most of the scenarios for sabatoge would have caused fairly immediate problems; i.e., he would have encounted problems and crashed a lot earlier in the flight.

And still, his connection to Rove and the fac that he was traveling alone makes me mighty suspicious.

[anigbrowl]

39. That's the biggest reason I think it could be an accident

If he'd just fallen out of the sky somewhere or crashed shortly after takeoff it would be more suspicious. As it was, he went down while only about a minute or two away from the airport (~2.5 miles, assuming a maneuvering speed of about 100mph). So if there was any foul play, it would arguably be poor planning to arrange to have something go wrong at the last minute - how would you know the exact time of the landing in advance, say? that would sort of rule out time bombs or anything obvious. Or if there were tampering with the de-icing systems, how would you know the weather conditions along the route would be sufficiently cold to make that happen as planned?

Which is not to say it was nothing more sinister than an accident...just that it remains a distinct possibility.

[Dennis Donovan]

44. In regards to sabotage and immediate failure, not necessarily...

There are a number of things that could be done to the engine that would cause failure well into a flight.

Fuel contamination in the second tank is a possibility. Given the range of the Saratoga, it's likely he refuelled in MD. It would be interesting to know if anyone in MD witnessed him performing a standard preflight (i.e. checking the sumps for water/sediment).

[jljamison]

69. switching tanks

for a 2 1/2 hour flight, one would not switch tanks only once and only 2 minutes before landing

normally a pilot would switch tanks periodically to balance the weight distribution of fuel on board, such as following a regime of switching every 30 minutes or 60 minutes.

Assuming he took off with the tanks roughly equivalent, by flying 2 1/2 hours on one tank, that wing would have about 40 gallons less (@ 17 gal per hour) and weigh about 240 pounds less on that side than the other.

It is still possible that the engine experienced fuel exaustion due to some other factor, or the engine sputtered because the air induction system got clogged somehow. It would not be carb ice as it is a fuel injected engine.

[Pilotguy]

36. Picture of Plane

Here's a picture of the very plane involved in the crash. No deicing equipment (boots) on the plane. In fact no Piper Saratoga's are equipped with deice boots. Also, the engine in this aircraft is fuel injected so that eliminates carburetor icing as a possibility. I would suspect airframe or induction icing or pilot incapacitation.



Here's the flightaware page of the flight.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N9299N

[Dennis Donovan]

40. Ah - fuel injection! That eliminates carb ice...

No de-ice boots puts wing/af icing back into the picture. A witness heard the engine cut out (if that is a reliable report, of course), which could be fuel starvation (if he forgot to switch tanks). There was likely fuel on board, because the aircraft burst into flames upon impact and thre was a sustained fire.

Thanks for the info!:thumbsup:

[DemoTex]

46. Induction icing can be a problem in aircraft engines with fuel injection too.

A good friend of mine lost both engines to induction icing in a Beechcraft A-80 Queen Air back in the 1970s. The A-80 was powered by two Lycoming IGSO-540-A1A engines: fuel-injected, geared, and super-charged. He got them restarted when he broke out of the clouds over the Okefenokee Swamp and made an emergency landing at Jacksonville, FL (KJAX). Neither he nor his boss every flew in the Queen Air again. They sold it and bought a new King Air 200. Lucky Duckies!

:hi:

[Dennis Donovan]

47. Yea! Mac's here!

I hadn't heard of induction icing in a FI system before (probably because I've only flown carbed a/c;)).

Thanks!:hi:

On edit: Wouldn't induction icing be more likely in sub-freezing temps? It appears the temp at the time was borderline-freezing.:shrug:

[Pilotguy]

54. Induction Icing

Induction icing is responsible for a greater percentage of aircraft icing crashes than is structural icing. Combustion engines require a mixture of fuel and air to operate. Eliminate either the fuel or the air and the engine will stop. Induction icing occurs when the air intakes on the aircraft freeze, starving the engine of air. Many fuel injected planes, the Piper Saratoga included, have a switch on the control panel labeled "Alt Air". The "Alt Air" or "Alternate Air Switch" allows the pilot to manually change the source of the intake air flowing into the engine. The "Alt Air" switch causes the intake air to bypass the normal induction system intake air route and keeps intake air flowing into he engine when the induction system is blocked because of icing. While some aircraft switch to "Alt Air" automatically, many others, like the Piper Saratoga require the pilot to move a switch on the control panel. A pilot should suspect induction system icing when the aircraft encounters icing conditions and the engine begins to lose power. Failure to switch to "Alt Air" in a timely fashion MAY result in engine stoppage.

In this particular crash the aircraft was most likely in icing conditions with below freezing temperatures while flying in the clouds. The preliminary FAA report indicates the temperature on the surface at the time of the crash was 1 degree Celsius, suggesting that a freezing layer existed just a thousand feet above the surface. The report also indicates a broken cloud layer at 500 feet. One can reasonably conclude that the aircraft was in icing conditions while on approach to the airport. But, just because an aircraft is in icing conditions does not mean ice will form. It depends on the moisture content of the air.


Just speculation here but, if induction icing did occur, it would be more difficult for a pilot to notice while on an instrument approach than in cruise flight. When on an approach the engine is usually at a lower power setting just prior to landing, so any decrease in engine power would be difficult to diagnose. Again just speculation, but this scenario would explain an engine stoppage with enough fuel still on board to cause a large fire when the plane crashed.

In this picture of a Piper Saratoga control panel, the "Alt Air" switch is just to the right of the throttle quadrant.

[blogslut]

37. Here's what I find odd

Of all the homes he could have crashed into, he crashes into one that was unoccupied. I'm not saying that there was any way he could have chosen which home he was going to impact or that one could somehow force a plane to crash into a particular location. I'm just saying that the fact that his plane hit an empty home is one hell of a lucky coincidence for the people residing in that neighborhood.

[Dennis Donovan]

45. That was just dumb luck...

[Dennis Donovan]

43. Morning kick

[Pilotguy]

49. Preliminary FAA Report

Here's the preliminary FAA report posted on their web site this morning. The final NTSB report usually takes 6-12 months. Nothing really stands out in this report but it does give us the weather conditions the airport was reporting at the time of the crash: Wind was from the Northwest at 11 knots, visibility was 9 miles, there was a broken cloud layer at 500 feet, the temperature was 1 degree Celsius or just above freezing, suggesting that at 2000 feet and above the temperature was below freezing. A broken cloud layer at 500 feet would also suggest the aircraft was on an instrument approach when it crashed.

IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 9299N Make/Model: PA32 Description: PA-32 Cherokee Six, Six, Saratoga, Turbo
Date: 12/19/2008 Time: 2253

Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Fatal Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Destroyed

LOCATION
City: AKRON State: OH Country: US

DESCRIPTION
AIRCRAFT ON APPROACH, CRASHED INTO A HOUSE, THE ONE PERSON ON BOARD WAS
FATALLY INJURED, NEAR AKRON, OH

INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 1
# Crew: 1 Fat: 1 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

WEATHER: 192251Z 30011 9 BKN005 OVC 01/M01 A2978

OTHER DATA
Activity: Unknown Phase: Approach Operation: OTHER


FAA FSDO: CLEVELAND, OH (GL25) Entry date: 12/22/2008


http://www.faa.gov/data_statistics/accident_incident/preliminary_data/media/B_1222_N.txt

[Dennis Donovan]

50. Well, icing is a possibility...

...given the wx conditions. It's also safe to assume he was flying IFR in IFR conditions on approach.

Thanks for the prelim accident report. It's helpful.:thumbsup::hi:

[sarcasmo]

56. Kick and Bookmarked, Cheney is one evil Man.

[mn9driver]

57. Some Saratoga II's have "weeping wing" deicing systems

It has to be installed at manufacture:
http://www.newpiper.com/promo/PIIPS/

9299N does not appear to have been equipped with it, according to this "for sale" ad from a few years back. Nice avionics, though:
http://www.pilotmarket.com/aircrafts/Aircraft_For_Sale/Single_Engine_Piston/Piper/Saratoga/listing-12862.html

Weather conditions sure look like icing to me.

[Christa]

58. K & R nt

[Junkdrawer]

59. Speculation: Electromagnetic Pulse and or radio jamming would seem to me...

to be an ideal method here - it's Twilight Zone nature would work to make sure no "credible" accident investigation would seriously consider it.

And if, say, an autopilot signal were jammed or spoofed, there would be no trace.

[rocktots]

60. Could have been icing

BUT alot of politicians and people connected seem to die in plane crashes.

I have seen articles that he was worried about sabotage, because he may have wanted to spill the beans on election fraud.

Die-bold vice president also died in a plane crash.

Politics is dirty, this stuff happens ALL THE TIME, and in Europe also.

Power is power, it wants what it wants, and it has the means of trying to control the situation.

[defendandprotect]

62. Looks more than suspicious to me --

and I think one of the biggest tricks they've kept covered up is the

mechanical stealing of elections, going back certainly to mid-'60's ...

but possibly even further back to '59.

Before electronic voting, the lever machines could be rigged by shaving

the plastic wheel that regulates count, making it skip 200-300 votes.

The large computer counters used by media to count votes came in mid-60's;

with off break downs and crashes -- odd jumps and then roll back in

candidate totals.

Indeed this may have been THE issue re Watergate break in ...???

http://www.constitution.org/vote/votescam__.htm

The investigators had been to see Larry O'Brien at the Watergate ...

[Pilotguy]

63. Video of crash scene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwBMObtsbqw

Witnesses say they heard the engine running when the plane came down.

[Dennis Donovan]

64. I was just about to post this...

I think this confirms there was fuel on board.

It sounds like it was pretty windy - you can hear it on the video.

"I heard the plane going down and then the explosion..." I'm not sure if that means he heard the engine - although it's likely he did (since a dead-stick landing wouldn't make enough noise to notice).

[Dennis Donovan]

65. In another thread - someone said the wreckage was removed by 10 pm that night:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4707057&mesg_id=4707382

Can anyone else confirm this?

If it was, why would they do that without examining it in daylight? Couldn't they have cordoned it off and guarded it until the next morning?

[laundry_queen]

68. That would be odd.

Especially considering I was listening to an investigator of the Denver crash talk about leaving the plane as long as was needed to gather perishable evidence. Why they would remove this one so quickly would be strange indeed.

Also, when I watched the video I was certain I heard the witness say they heard the engine rev up right before the crash? I'd have to watch the video again though - it was right near the end.

[robertpaulsen]

70. Good news - an MSM link on the story.

Bad news - its in the UK. Better than nothing, though nothing is what we're getting as far as follow-up reporting from CNN, MSNBC, etc.


George Bush aide dies in plane crash
Mystery surrounds the death of a Republican pollster, recently compelled to give evidence about alleged election fraud in the 2004 election in Ohio, after he was killed in a plane crash.

Top internet strategist Michael Connell, 45, was the only person in his single-engine private plane that crashed three miles short of the Akron-Canton airport on Friday night as he prepared to land after flying from College Park, Maryland, close to Washington.

He had worked on Mr Bush's two presidential campaigns, advised John McCain this year and was also linked to allegedly missing White House emails in the 2006 controversy over a string of firings of US attorneys.

The death of the married father of four immediately triggered conspiracy theories amid speculation that he had been about to reveal embarrassing details of the complicity of senior members of the Bush administration in fixing an election and destroying incriminating emails.

In a blog posting entitled "One of my sources died in a plane crash last night...", Larisa Alexandrovna of The Raw Story revealed that Mr Connell had been talking to her about the Ohio case alleging that vote-tampering during the 2004 presidential election resulted in civil rights violations.

"Mike was getting ready to talk. He was frightened... I am not saying that this was a hit nor am I resigned to this being simply an accident either. I am no expert on aviation and cannot provide an opinion on the matter. What I am saying, however, is that given the context, this event needs to be examined carefully."

more...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3885913/George-Bush-aide-dies-in-plane-crash.html