Severe thunderstorm flips small planes at Orlando airport Thursday afternoon, 1 killed and 1 injured

[John Robinson]

Wind gusts to 62 mph were measured at Orlando Executive Airport (ORL) during the storm Thursday afternoon. The victims were in a twin-engine plane that had taxied out and was awaiting take-off. A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was in effect at the time. Pre-deadly flip, plane’s final minutes a tragedy of timing

 

[Mike Smith]

John,

Thanks for posting this.

This appears to be the first downburst fatality in the field of aviation since July 2, 1994, when USAir 1016 crashed at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (KCLT).

Attached is the TMCO data for 4:58pm EDT which is the time of the accident. There are pixels of 53mph winds but the radar is far enough away that the beam may be overshooting the highest winds. The airport reported a gust of 62 mph.

The article discusses a "high wind" warning for the airport but I suspect that it was a wind shear warning; which would have been triggered by an algorithm attached to the TDWR and relayed to the control tower as it was clearly a downburst in the area.

Mike

 

[Jeff Wright]

An earlier event: