Two occupants of a Cessna 340 were killed Sunday afternoon in a plane crash in a field just south of David Wayne Hooks Airport near Tomball, Texas, according to the Klein Fire Department. Officials said the aircraft had recently departed the airport after refueling when the pilot reported complications and attempted to return. The fire department said in a social media post that there were no survivors.
Sgt. Richard Standifer of the Texas Department of Public Safety told reporters that the pilot and passenger, described as an older man and woman, had been en route to Lubbock.
“They developed some type of an issue, a mechanical issue,” Standifer said, according to local news reports. “The pilot attempted to turn the plane around. He got fairly low to the runway. I don’t necessarily think he was lined up exactly to the runway. And he landed the plane well shy of the runway. Once the plane made contact with the runway, it burst into flames.”
The crash sparked nearby brush fires, although fire crews were able to contain and extinguish them shortly afterwards. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the accident, authorities said.
Since the plane had flown in successfully, and all they did was add fuel, I wonder if jet fuel was loaded instead of avgas?
Probably not. It was in the air too long and the writer, for some reason , left out that the pilot reported an open door, but not which one.
The reported mechanical issue was that the door opened up at takeoff…
“The writer” is an A.I. bot supposedly supervised by the editor in the byline.
Door opened on takeoff. When are we going to learn to ‘fly the plane’. Weather it was the baggage door on the nose, or the cabin door, the plane will fly. More airspeed is needed because of the added drag. I saw the video. They got too slow on approach and dropped a wing into terrain. Perhaps ‘open door’ should be in the pre-flight briefing.
The C-340 only has one door.
The Cessna 340 has a cabin door (upper and lower), nose baggage door, and nacelle baggage doors.