Monday, December 29, 2008

The Connell crash


A comment on OpEd News got me to thinking about the nature of the Mike Connell air crash. (Scroll down for the earlier stories if you're new to this mystery.)
"His small airplane left College Park, MD, for home in Ohio and ran out of fuel just before he got home, crashed, and burst into a ball of flames (without fuel!!!), consuming Mike Connell...
The problem, of course, is this: How can a plane without fuel burst into flames? That would indeed be an intriguing conundrum -- if I could find a news account in which a witness states that the craft exploded in mid-air. So far, no luck. But I did find this...
Julie Fano said the house at 2017 Charolais St. had been vacant since the spring. She and her husband, Joe, were eating dinner when they heard the plane’s engine cutting in and out.
That's consistent with running out of fuel, of course. The video above -- raw footage from the night of the crash -- begins with the words "I heard the plane going down, then the explosion." The phrase is repeated about five minutes in. Someone even does an imitation of what the craft sounded like as it came in. You may decide for yourself whether a craft without fuel would cause the fires seen in the video.

Have we ruled out sabotage? Of course not. Fuel lines have been cut or tampered with in the past.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! What are you saying?

If you suddenly disappear, we'll know who put the hit on you.

The film industry.

Every last American movie relies on crashed vehicles blowing up in huge balls of fire.

Anonymous said...

The fuel pick up is never on the bottom of the fuel tank. If it was it would suck up all the dirt that eventually collects there and foul the fuel pump. When you run out it doesn't mean the tank is dry it means the pick up is sucking air. Fuel vapor is highly explosive, more so than the liquid, that fraction of an inch remaining at the bottom is like a bomb. It goes off and the heat generated is enough to ignite the foams, plastics, wire insulation and etc the airplane is made of.

Peter of Lone Tree said...

Related, Joe?:
There's a post at Cryptogon.com entitled "The Death of Jennifer Ellis-Seitz" which begins,
"None of the stories that I’ve read about the death of Jennifer Ellis-Seitz mentioned that she was involved with training poll workers for upcoming elections in Florida.

"So, we have:

"(A reporter) from (Florida), who also happened to be involved with (Florida elections), supposedly committed (suicide) during a cruise that she took with her family to celebrate her one year wedding anniversary.

"I thought I’d mention the Florida elections part, since it doesn’t seem to be worth mentioning in regular media stories about this."


Maybe these stories need some kind of new classification. Oh, say "Loose ends to tie up before leaving office?"

Clayton said...

Man do people not take basic chemistry classes? Even a auto mechanic/welder knows this one. Fuel needs a proper gas/air ratio in order to ignite. from wikipedia

For gasoline fuel, the stoichiometric air/fuel mixture is approximately 14.7 times the mass of air to fuel. Any mixture less than 14.7 to 1 is considered to be a rich mixture, any more than 14.7 to 1 is a lean mixture

This is why when welding your hgas tank, they fill it with water, no explosion. Running out of fuel, doesn't negate an explosion risk, it actually increases it. Then you have a plane crash into kindling, exploding and starting a fire. where the only thing burning is the flammable parts of the plane and whatever else it hit. A good way to kill a pilot is to have the plane run out of fuel so it does explode.

Anonymous said...

The NTSB has issued its first preliminary report on the accident. It is not consistent with a plane running out of fuel, and in fact states that the engine was apparently still under power when the plane crashed.

NTSB preliminary report here: http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20081223X12815&key=1

Anonymous said...

Read this book and see how small airplanes are taken down..with no fuel.


Barry & 'the Boys': The CIA, the Mob and America's Secret History by Daniel Hopsicker

Perry Logan said...

I don't believe Repubicans would have the balls to do it. That's my only problem with the theory.

Anonymous said...

Yeah they don't have the balls to do that! Paul David Wellstone was just another Steve Fossett.... Mel Carnahan wasn't going to beat Ashcroft's sorry ass... same with Mary McEvoy, Charles Yates, Thomas Allgood Sr., Thomas Hale Boggs, Sr.& Rep. Nicholas Joseph Begich, State Rep. Cecil Franklin Weeding, Senator Henry John Heinz III, Mickey Leland, Jerry Lon Litton , and of course, Reagan's parting gift to Omar Torrijos (So Sorry You Have To Go.... or, Messing with the Plane, Manuel).

See, there's just no precedent for them doing something like that...

Anonymous said...

Barry and The Boys????

Now you're talking.... but er, while some here do like Hopsicker, even Joe (sometimes), you gotta be ballsy to post something here that screams MENA MENA MENA MENA!!!!!

N0, really. That book is the Menaest of ornery Menas if ever a mena screamed Vince Fos--

Heck its not only HRC + WJC; That book fingers Ed Meese, Tony Coelho and Gore, and of course; GWB (aka 43) who got to fly in many of Seal's planes. Even after Seal's passing....

And yet, bringing that stuff up here is about as smart as pissing on a bonfire.

Anonymous said...

Hello. And Bye.