Superstition Mountain Plane Crash 2011-11-23

A plane crashed tonight and we caught it on our webcam.

Donations for the Perry Family can be made here: http://www.perryfamilymemorial.org/

Due to the large volume of inappropriate comments, I am disabling non-moderated comments for this video. It is a sad state we are in, when a newsworthy and tragic video has enabled others to spew such hatred and intolerance towards the opinions and beliefs of their fellow humans.

• Category

  News & Politics

[Dee Dee]

So many already copying and sharing this video as, if they are the originals..ugh..This is so sad :(

[Ryan Johnston]

Yes it is sad. Especially since this one has been flagged as inappropriate and marked as "age restricted" by YouTube, which makes it essentially disappear unless you are willing to create an account and log in.

[Ryan Johnston]

I'm sorry, but I felt it had to be done. There were a lot of conversations going on that were inappropriate, hateful, threatening, and completely off topic. I hate censorship as much as the next person, but there were comments on here that were downright disrespectful of others, including those who perished, and the families they left behind. I've tried to keep an open mind while moderating, and am trying to approve anything that has ANY meaningful value.

[rwbooker1]

Good call on changing the comment setting Mr. Boseefus. Today, I am thankful that website commentators are not representative of the folks that we both deal with on a daily basis. It's hard not to take them seriously, but many are just young trolls looking for a reaction. Thankfully, most humans have better things to do.

[Dee Dee]

Flagged and"age restricted" ? what's wrong with people?. So sensitive.. gezzz

[swimmerB0B]

had nothing to do with the recent changes in metro airspace. i think something led pilot russel hardy (not the kids' father) to believe his plane was higher than it actually was.... or he/they were confused by misinformation resulting from setting up a new system on the recently-acquired aero commander. hardy and the young guy knew the mountains where there. very hard to see dark terrain heading away from twilight in hazy mountain air. the twilight and the airplane's lights make it worse...

[Brock Borud]

The weird thing is was i went to arizona for vacation that week and then saw that happen....

[Fcreceptor]

- Yeah, I have an old VFR terminal chart from 2003, and it allows you to climb to 8,000 for VFR at the 20 nautical mile ring to avoid the class B airspace. Now it looks completely different and the 5,000 floor extends to the 25 nm ring, which is rather close (~13 nm) from the peak of the mountain. He definitely had time to climb out of it though and still avoid the mountain and class B airspace. Seems he could've just started climbing once he hit the 25 nm ring from PXR.

[csmgibeau1]

I can only imagine the anguish in the pilot's mind in the final couple of moments "My kids are here..."

I hurt for this man, and for the surviving family members.

[AryanKnight]

~Not being disrespectful, to the contrary i am concerned for the innocent victims! How does a skilled pilot fly into a mountain in clear-weather? Speculation has it that this was not an accident; --perhaps morbidly distraught over marriage difficulties? -or on drugs?..!!

[mtweiss01]

A few years ago, the FAA lowered the floor of the Class B airspace (visualize an upside down weeding cake of various levels of controlled airspace surrounding major city airports) to 5000 feet - effectively "dipping" the level of that section of the "cake" below the top peaks of the Superstition Mountains. Pilots must be in radio contact and have transponder communication to fly in any section of the upside down wedding cake visualization. Prior to the change, there was a sufficient "gap" bet

[Fcreceptor]

Possibly he was staying below the 5,000 foot level to avoid class B airspace, but that would be a horrible mistake given the route, especially if he did a proper preflight.