The Knoxville News Sentinel reported Jenny Blalock, 45, an aviation vlogger, died when the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza she was piloting crashed in Giles County, Tennessee, Thursday morning.
Blalock had gained a following of nearly 16,000 subscribers on YouTube sharing aviation videos and documenting her flights under the username TNFlygirl.
Data from FlightAware.com shows the aircraft registered to Plantation Reclaimed Inc. It took off from Island Home Airport in Knoxville (DKX) at 10:48 a.m. and was en route for more than an hour before crashing in Giles County. The local news outlet also reported Blalock’s father, James Blalock Jr., 78, died in the accident, according to Bill Myers, director of emergency services for Giles County.
Myers said the plane crashed into a hillside in a remote area of the county, making it difficult to reach the accident site.
The NTSB is investigating the crash and noted it was ultimately flying from Madison, Minnesota, to Benton, Arkansas. In a comment on her last Instagram post, Blalock said the aircraft was undergoing avionics work in Arkansas.
Sorry to hear.
I’d only come across one of her videos about 2 weeks ago and liked it.
Prayers for her family.
Sadly, this wonderful world of aviation is not always so wonderful. May Jenny and James Blalock rest in peace, and may their memories be a blessing.
Condolences to the Blalock family and friends. Looking at flight aware, the last moments the plane was 5900′ @90kts, at then quickly 2800′ @188kts.
And the half hour before that was an odd, seemingly slow motion, increasingly unstable loss of pitch control while the path across the ground stayed pretty stable.
Single axis autopilot + carbon monoxide poisoning? What else fits?
Fits, assuming no radio use/recordings.
Blancolirio explored this yesterday with a working theory of inadequate proficiency on the 2 axis autopilot. Worth the watch. Compelling case.
Indeed it was, I caught that yesterday and I like his theory better than my own, especially because I have a bit of time with that avionics platform but in a different type airplane.
RIP Jenny and James. Prayers for their family and friends.
Watching one of her earlier videos you see she was having trouble with that autopilot. Seems she let it run away in pitch until the last second on that flight also. She cancelled it only seconds before a stall on that one. So if she let the autopilot stall the plane, of course the autopilot will continue to hold up elevator when the only remedy is forward elevator.
Most if not all APs have a built-in function that will disconnect the system when excessive elevator and trim forces are encountered and multiple methods of disconnecting the system. When properly installed, rigged and maintained. From watching her videos, this one obviously was not. I have had both Century and King systems lock up to the point they would not release when an attempting to deactivated it. In both cases the rigging was out of adjustment. I ‘would guess’, this might be the case with this aircraft.
All too often the autopilot system is ignored in annual inspections and seldom are pilots new to an aircraft properly instructed and checked out in its operation. I can add that the setup and adjustments when installing and maintaining an autopilot system is long and tedious. And very expensive. Getting acquainted with a system in flight when neither the pilot nor instructor is totally familiar with it can be disastrous even when they are operating properly.
She should have at some point been advised not to use the system and it quite likely should have been tagged and disabled before flight. It is also apparent that she treated this system as her primary method of flying that aircraft rather than an aid. Her reluctance to become proficient at hand flying it is quite apparent not to mention all those electronic gadgets cluttering up the cockpit distracting her attention. But there is a good chance the FAA or NTSB now has her latest video to reference and the cause will be found in the Final report. Too bad she couldn’t muddle through one more flight getting to that avionics shop. IMHO, the entire system of training let her down. Piloting requires all of your skills and abilities and certainly a low time pilot in a new to her aircraft didn’t need to add all of those distractions to the task. Somebody should have spoken up before this happened.
A developing structural issue until failure? So very sorry. I’m short distance from Giles Co. Flown over about where it happened often.