Five people were killed when a Beechcraft King Air crashed shortly after takeoff from Arkansas’ Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport (LIT) on Wednesday. The aircraft went down about one mile south the airport at approximately 12 p.m. local time. The aircraft was owned and operated by Little Rock-based environmental consulting firm CTEH. The pilot and four passengers onboard were all CTEH employees reportedly travelling to Ohio to respond to a fatal explosion at a metal factory.
The cause of the accident is not yet known and the NTSB is investigating. A post-crash fire occurred. Storms were reported in the area at the time of the crash with wind gusts of up to 46 MPH recorded. A Special Weather Statement was issued by the National Weather Service at 11:32 a.m. for a fast-moving line of strong convective rain showers with wind gusts up to 50 mph expected to impact the area through noon CST.
REALLY?
Weather is a killer.
That’s in poor taste. Be ashamed.
Poor taste for sure . . . but everyone was thinking it.
When that same frontal line came through north central Arkansas, it was violent. I happened to be outside prior to the passage, and it was only breezy. The rumble of the wind as it came over the top of us and through our woods, will not be forgotten. Encountering this line at low level during takeoff, would have been a handful for anyone. The Doppler recording for this time period will be interesting to see.
And this happens not long after the near disaster departure of the 777 in Hawaii into severe weather.
Leading up to approx 12pm local time Feb 22, 2023, Little Rock had TAF’s issued at 0520z, 1028z, 1133z, 1521z, 1601z, 1604z, 1721z, 1732z, and 1820z. The METAR at 11:53am local time was wind 210@19 gusts 27. The METAR at 12:02pm local was wind 300@22 gusts 40 windshift at 11:48am.
It will be interesting to learn what the airlines were doing that were arriving and departing at time of this accident.
Notam: [MAGAmoron] present, use caution when applying decency or logic
Also in poor taste to try to tie all Trump supporters to the OP, then slither away with no ID.
Equally inappropriate.
People died you fool. Fellow pilots and passengers. Friends. Why you choose personal political diatribes after a terrible incident to reflect your almighty opinions is pathetic. Grow some moral appendages to your soul and in the mean time shut up
Beneficial partial thread deletion on part of editors in this instance.