ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 18816
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| Date: | Friday 3 April 1992 |
| Time: | 09:50 |
| Type: |  Grob G115 |
| Owner/operator: | Tayside Aviation Ltd |
| Registration: | G-BPKG |
| MSN: | 8088 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Loch Muick, near Ballater, Scotland -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | Aberdeen Airport (ABZ/EGPD) |
| Inverness (Dalcross) Airport (INV/EGPE) | |
| Investigating agency: | AAIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Crashed 3-4-1992 into Loch Muick, near Ballater, Scotland, during bad weather, killing both persons on board. Aircraft had taken off from Aberdeen at 09:01 hours for a VFR cross country flight to Inverness and back. The aircraft had on board enough fuel for four hours flight.
The last radio call from the aircraft was at 09:37 hours to Aberdeen ATC, advising that the aircraft was heading for the Aboyne area. At 09:50 hours, the aircraft was not visible on radar. Over the next 30 minutes, the ATC at Aberdeen tried to contact G-BPMG several times, but go no reply.
When the duty ATC was relieved by his successor at 11:33 hours, they both decided to make inquiries as to the whereabouts of G-BPKG. When he was informed by the Aberdeen flying club that G-BPKG was due back at 11:00 hours, and had not returned, the watch supervisor initiated overdue action at 11:46 hours. A full distress phase operation was activated at 12:03 hours, which meant that a full Search And Rescue operation was begun, involving three helicopters and three Mountain Rescue Teams.
Later in the day, a member of the public called in to the police, stating that he had seen a small white object in the water at the south-western end of Loch Muick. This eyewitness, and another, reported that an aircraft was seen flying in a snowstorm at around 09:45 hours with the engine sounding "rough". According to a contemporary newspaper report on the inquest into the death of the two persons on board:
"Bang heard by Balmoral maid before plane crash
10 Aug 1993
A HOUSEMAID on the Balmoral estate told a fatal accident inquiry yesterday how she heard a loud bang shortly before a light aircraft is known to have crashed into Loch Muick, about six miles away. Mrs Ruth Thomson, 57, told Stonehaven Sheriff Court she had been working at the Queen Mother's residence at Birkhall on April 3 last year when she heard the noise of an aircraft passing in front of the house.
''There was a loud bang and then lots of a grinding noise after that,'' said Mrs Thomson Immediately after the bang, she looked outside but did not see the aircraft. Just then a snowstorm began in the direction of the loch and lasted about ten minutes.
She was giving evidence at the inquiry into the deaths of Mr Kenneth Ramsay, 21, a geology technician, of Great Western Road, Aberdeen, and Mr Mark Ives, 34, New Croft, Hill of Ord, Aberchirder. Mr Ramsay, a trainee pilot and Mr Ives, chief flying instructor with Aberdeen Flying Club, were in a Grob 115 aircraft when it crashed into the Loch near Ballater.
It was more than three weeks before the aircraft was found and the bodies recovered. They were still strapped in. Mr John Brodie, 76, of Royal Warrant Cottages, Ballater, said he looked out of the window of his house between 11.30 and noon after hearing the noise of an aircraft. It was heading up the glen towards Loch Muick and it was not very high.
Mr Brodie said the engine did not sound quite right to him. He heard ''a bit of a crackling noise'' coming from it, but then it improved. The aircraft was flying towards a snowstorm coming down from the direction of the loch.
Mr Brian Crookshanks, fiscal, suggested to Mr George Lawrence, 23, now a part-time instructor at the Aberdeen club, that if the aircraft had flown down Loch Muick to avoid a shower it would, to some extent, have been flying down a blind alley towards a sheer wall and that it would have been more reasonable to turn back to Aboyne and then Aberdeen. Mr Lawrence said this was possible.
Mr David Bell, 47, a computing adviser with Aberdeen University, said he and his wife were walking round the loch about noon when he saw something floating in the water. He retrieved the object, a piece of white glass fibre about 3ft long and 9in wide, and put it down at the side of the loch.
On their way back to the car park he twice saw a helicopter but it was not until the following day when he read about the missing aircraft that he realised there might be some connection between the helicopter and what he had found.
Constable John Tulloch, of the Grampian police underwater search unit, said the aircraft eventually had been found after using sophisticated sonar devices in about 50 feet of water. When he and a colleague went down they found both pilots still strapped in their seats. The aircraft was lying at an angle of 45 degrees and the engine and cockpit were twisted back under the fuselage.
Mr John Ramsay, 54, a plumber, said his son, Kenneth, had qualified as a gliding instructor and it was his ambition to obtain his private pilot's licence and go on to a career in flying. ''Flying was something he loved doing but he was well aware of the risks involved,'' said Mr Ramsay.
Mrs Kirsty Ives, 25, the mother of two children, one of whom was born after the death of her husband, said they had first met when he was the part owner of a nightclub in Margate. When it got into financial trouble they moved to Scotland and her husband became a flying instructor with the Aberdeen club. Two months before the crash he became the chief instructor."
Due to the size of the Loch, and adverse weather conditions (rain, hail and snow), it was not until April 26 1992 that the main part of the aircraft wreckage (with both the pilot and passenger still inside) were recovered from the waters of the Loch
Damage sustained to aircraft: Per the AAIB report "aircraft destroyed". As a result the registration G-BPKG cancelled by the CAA as "Permanently withdrawn from use" on 10-12-1992
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. AAIB: https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media/5423048be5274a1317000cab/Grob_G115__G-BPKG_08-92.pdf
2. CAA: https://siteapps.caa.co.uk/g-info/rk=BPKG
3. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12724554.Bang_heard_by_Balmoral_maid_before_plane_crash/
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-May-2008 11:10 | ASN archive | Added |
| 25-Apr-2009 22:49 | Anon. | Updated |
| 23-Aug-2011 23:44 | Porrohman | Updated [Time, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
| 24-Aug-2011 07:38 | Anon. | Updated [Embed code] |
| 10-Oct-2012 14:25 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Cn, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 13-Apr-2016 20:38 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Time, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 13-Apr-2016 20:39 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 13-Apr-2016 20:41 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 13-Apr-2016 20:46 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 13-Apr-2016 20:46 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
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