Family Saved after Crash at Sea

[RanchPilot]

Lucky folks.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/46098821#46098821

[180Marty]

I looked at the Bay Island Air website and it looked like the Air Cam was a 3 seater. I thought they only had 2. Wonder what happened to have both engines quit?

[hotrod150]

The TV news report I saw said the couple and their young son were on board, so unless one of them was the pilot there were actually 4 people on board. The dad said he was told they "lost an engine" so maybe only one side quit? Unless taking off or otherwise slow with full power it seems like that should have been controllable, esp since the aircam's engines don't look like they're mounted very far outboard. Unless the single engine just couldn't maintain altitude & they were so low that they descended into the water before the pilot could take any corrective measures.
Like they say, airspeed is life & altitude is life insurance.

[side slip]

Even with the engines near the centerline, since the props don't feather, I imagine it's pretty poor with one quit.

[AvidFlyer]

According to Aircam it flies really good on one engine

http://www.flyingmag.com/news/crash-sig ... -questions

[andy]

My wife and I flew in an almost identical AirCam in the British Virgin Islands. The pilot let me fly it for a while. Great view! With one operational engine and four people on board, I doubt you could maintain altitude, but a water landing should have been a non-event. Once you were on the water It might have been a problem establishing contact with base to get picked up since radio communications can be sketchy in the islands. I don't know why it would have flipped unless the pilot got preoccupied trying to restart the failed engine and made a bad water landing. If it took off from the water, the floats were ok.