Experimental plane crashes in Virginia killing a father and son

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the crash of an experimental plane near Colonial Beach, Va., that killed a father and son. The accident happened on Wednesday, the NTSB said in a post on Twitter.

At 10:28 a.m. Wednesday, Virginia State Police (VSP) responded to a plane crash in the area of 687 Layton Landing Rd. in Colonial Beach, Va. “A Vans R6 model single-engine plane had crashed in a cornfield near a driveway, then, caught fire,” VSP said in a statement.

The pilot, Logan Edward Woodworth, 28, and his passenger Bruce Edward Woodworth, 57, both of Wilmington, N.C., formerly residents of the Northern Neck, were both confirmed deceased on the scene. No one on the ground was injured.

The crash remains under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and NTSB.

2023 Fatal Plane Crashes In Virginia

June - Cessna jet bound for New York crashes near Staunton, Va.

March - Preliminary report investigating plane crash in Hillsville, Va., released by NTSB

February - NTSB releases preliminary report on plane crash in Rockingham County, Va.

January - NTSB report shows pilot and passenger were in plane “not to be flown”

Cessna jet bound for New York crashes near Staunton, Va.

A Cessna Citation jet was destroyed when it disappeared from radar screens and crashed near Staunton, Va., on Sunday.

Flight tracking data from websites like Flightaware.com show that the plane left Elizabethton Municipal Airport, Tenn., on Sunday and headed for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York.

The jet never landed in New York and made a course reversal about one hour and 15 minutes into the flight and continued a straight path for about 50 miles.

Flight tracking data shows that the airplane began a rapidly descending right spiral from 34,000 feet, followed by another spiral at 20,000 ft. The FAA confirmed the jet crashed near Staunton, Va.

The aircraft is a Cessna 560 Citation V (registration N611VG) manufactured in 1990. The multi-engine jet is registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc. in Florida, according to FAA records.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command sent F-16 aircraft to intercept the unresponsive jet once it entered airspace near Washington, D.C.

The F-16 aircraft made several attempts to establish contact with the pilot until it crashed. The jet was intercepted at approximately 3:20 p.m. EDT. The pilot was unresponsive. The Cessna soon crashed near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia.

This is the fourth fatal plane crash in Virginia now under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board in 2023. Two fatal plane crashes were reported near Suffork and Dayton in January and one in Hillsville, Va., in February.

Five-year UH-60 maintenance contract for Virginia Air National Guard

The Virginia Army National Guard is soliciting for a contractor to provide Phase 1 & 2 maintenance for the UH-60 Blackhawks at the Virginia Army Aviation Support Facility (AASF).

“The government intends to award a single contract to the qualified offeror,” the Army said in a contract solicitation released Wednesday.

The contractor will furnish all labor and services required to provide a wide range of maintenance and related administrative services. The base period of performance for the contract is Aug. 1 through July 31, 2024, with four, one-year option periods.

The Army Aviation Support Facility of the Virginia Army National Guard is responsible for Aviation Unit Maintenance, Aviation Intermediate Maintenance and Depot/Sustainment repair of all Army National Guard helicopters in support of federal and state operations. The facility, located in Sandston, Va., provides full-time support to aviation units including flight operations, safety, maintenance, standardization and training.

Approximately 120 full-time employees at the AASF and the annex at the Chesterfield County Airport support 18 UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters, three HH-60 medical evacuation Black Hawk helicopters, four UH-72 Lakota light utility helicopters and a C-12 twin turboprop passenger and cargo aircraft.

Ryanair orders up to 300 Boeing 737 MAX planes

Europe's leading low-cost airline, Ryanair, has selected the largest Boeing 737 MAX model to power its future growth with an order for up to 300 airplanes. The purchase agreement, announced by Boeing on Tuesday, is the biggest in Ryanair's history and includes a firm order for 150 737-10 jets and options for 150 more.

Ryanair has deployed a growing fleet of 737-8-200 airplanes to accelerate its post-pandemic recovery and meet strong travel demand. The 197-seat 737-8-200 model has helped the airline reduce fuel use and emissions by over 20% compared to the airplanes they are replacing. The new order announced on Tuesday adds the larger 737-10 variant, which offers 228 seats.

“These new, fuel-efficient, greener technology aircraft offer 21% more seats, burn 20% less fuel and are 50% quieter than our B737-NGs," said Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's Group CEO.

"We expect half of this order will replace older NGs while the remaining 150 aircraft will facilitate controlled, sustainable growth,” O’Leary said in a Boeing press release. “This order, coupled with our remaining Gamechanger deliveries, will create 10,000 new jobs for highly paid aviation professionals over the next decade," O'Leary said.

He added, "In addition to delivering significant revenue and market growth opportunities across Europe, we expect these new larger more efficient aircraft to drive further unit cost savings, which will be passed on to passengers in lower air fares. The extra seats, lower fuel burn and more competitive aircraft pricing supported by our strong balance sheet will widen the cost gap between Ryanair and competitor EU airlines for many years to come."

DCNewsroom most popular posts April 2023

1.) Full-service outage on Inmarsat satellite affecting Asia-Pacific region - Inmarsat experienced an outage on its I-4 F1 satellite in April that caused widespread communications problems throughout East Asia and the Pacific region. [Full story]

2.) Army meets with industry to review unmanned aircraft portfolio - The U.S. Army met with defense contractors in April to review the current and future plans for the service’s unmanned aircraft systems. [Full story]

3.) Air Force releases RFI to repair ‘battled damaged’ F-15SA fighter - The U.S. Air Force is conducting market research to identify potential sources with expertise, capabilities, and experience to meet the qualifications to repair a “battled damaged F-15SA aircraft for the Royal Saudi Air Force.” [Full story]

4.) Rocket launch from Virginia will test new technologies - NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia launched a sounding rocket for the Suborbital Technology Experiment Carrier-9 mission on April 24. [Full story]

5.) NASA seeks contractor to provide launch imagery due to budget reductions - NASA’s Kennedy Space Center issued a Request for Information document last month for the purpose of seeking sources and soliciting information from private industry on obtaining launch ascent imagery “as a service on an as-needed basis” for the agency’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) Program vehicle launches. [Full story]

Caesars Virginia gets application approval, new casino opens next month

Caesars Virginia became the third approved casino operator in the commonwealth on Wednesday. The Virginia Lottery Board approved its application to open a casino in Danville, Va.

This comes after a comprehensive review of application materials submitted by Caesars Virginia, LLC and an extensive background investigation by the Virginia Lottery.

Under legislation passed by the General Assembly in 2020, the Virginia Lottery licenses and regulates casinos and sports betting in the commonwealth.

Caesars Virginia will be the third casino to open in the commonwealth behind Hard Rock’s Bristol Casino and Rivers Casino Portsmouth. Hard Rock received its license approval in April 2022 and subsequently opened the doors of its temporary facility to the public in July 2022. Rivers Casino Portsmouth received its license approval in November 2022 and opened publicly in January 2023.

“For months, the Lottery’s Gaming Compliance Department and legal team have conducted background investigations and examined every detail of this application,” said Virginia Lottery Executive Director Kelly Gee. “Those investigations include not just Caesar’s Virginia, but all the vendors and employees.”

Caesar’s will initially operate at a "temporary facility" while it prepares to open its permanent resort next year.

Caesars Virginia will open its doors on May 15 at 10 a.m.

Full-service outage on Inmarsat satellite affecting Asia-Pacific region

UPDATE - 4:44 p.m. EDT - Tuesday - April 18

NAVCOM services are "Verified Operational" again on the Inmarsat I-4 F1 satellite.

NAVCOM is a wholly owned subsidiary of John Deere which manufactures GNSS receiver technology and also provides PPP (precise point positioning) correction services.

Classic Aero services aboard the Inmarsat I-4 F1 satellite "has been fully restored, and the transition of Inmarsat‑C from the contingency network back to 4F1 is in progress," according to a Network-Alerts update from m-cramer SatellitenServices, a satellite service company in Germany.

Classic Aero has been the choice for cockpit safety services for 30 years, used by more than 90% of the world’s transoceanic aircraft for communication and surveillance today.

We expect a further update from Inmarsat at 21:00 UTC (5:00 p.m. EDT) on Tuesday.

Background Information

Statement from Inmarsat: "Inmarsat experienced an outage on its I-4 F1 satellite, which provides L-band services for East Asia and the Pacific region, at 21.14 UTC (5:14 p.m. EDT) on Sunday. This resulted in the temporary loss of services from the satellite and the company immediately instigated its recovery procedures.

"Safety services are being prioritized and Inmarsat can confirm that immediately following the incident, it instigated the process to transfer maritime safety services, in line with the IMSO-approved operational process to a contingency satellite. That process was completed successfully.

"Inmarsat Classic Aero recovery has now started and is expected to be operational in a matter of hours. This will be followed by the transfer of Inmarsat-C services from the contingency satellite back to I-4 F1 and then a focus on the restoration of other services.

"All other satellites in the L-band fleet are unaffected by the incident. This includes Inmarsat’s two new L-band satellites  – I-6 F1 and F2 – which will be joined in 2027 by a further three new micro L-band satellites, the Inmarsat-8s, specifically designed to enhance safety service back-up for L-band customers."

m-cramer SatellitenServices

“Inmarsat have advised that due to the nature of the problem and the complexity of the recovery procedure, Inmarsat expect this to be an extended outage. Inmarsat engineers are working to have services restored as soon as possible,” m-cramer said on their website.

Pivotel

"All services in Australia and New Zealand are currently affected," Australian communications company Pivotel reported on their current outages. Pivotel supports more than 100,000 Australian and New Zealand users who travel or operate outside of mobile phone coverage.

Services affected:

• Inmarsat BGAN M2M
• Inmarsat Voice/GSPS
• Isatphone/GSPS
• BGAN
• BGAN M2M
• FleetOne
• Fleet Broadband
• IsatDataPro (IDP)
• Trimble RTX based GPS connections
• Farmbot Satellite units
• some John Deere GPS correction systems

Inmarsat has advised that this is being treated as a top priority with key technical resources involved.

The organization plays a big role in providing voice and data communications to the aviation industry. Aircraft safety and communications services are transmitted to and from aircraft globally via satellites orbiting the Earth. Inmarsat I-4 F1 provides services over Asia and the Pacific region.

The satellites deliver voice and data communications to the aircraft cockpit, aircraft systems, and passenger cabin.

Other users of Inmarsat services include ships at sea and mobile users on land working in remote locations outside the range of terrestrial networks across the major landmasses of the world.

FAA Notice to Airmen

Once the Inmarsat service outage was announced, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) on Monday advising all pilots and commercial traffic of the situation.

The agency advised all aircraft operators and dispatchers that Inmarsat is experiencing an outage at approximately 175 degrees west longitude to points beyond 160 degrees east. The NOTAM instructs pilots to log off their Inmarsat connections and continuously report their position by using vintage high-frequency radio communications. The FAA NOTAM remains in effect until April 24.

Inmarsat I-4 F1

Inmarsat I-4 F1 was built by Europe-based EADS Astrium using a Eurostar E2000 bus. Launched in March 2005, the 13,000-pound satellite was designed for a life of 13 years. The satellite was launched into geosynchronous orbit by an Atlas V rocket. It is currently located at 143.5 degrees East on the Earth’s equator.