I live close to where this accident happened. The pilot was a well known Buffalo NY attorney and his was flying his niece back home from a meeting. The plane hit the ground at such an angle and high speed that it dug a crater in the ground and there wasn't much left identifiable of the aircraft or the 2 souls on board.

Fantastic video, really amazing to hear these less well known incidents!

My guess would be that he probably suffered from a stroke. I have seen stroke victims that can speak normally and at first glance they seem OK, but you spend more than a minute with them. You’ll realize something is very very wrong.

Amazing the plane held together during the decent

Just came across this... and i reckon that, he may have been having the onset of a heart attack, which he was trying hard to coverup because of his niece. It certainly is a strange incident....his reaction to a.t.c was slow in my opinion, due to him covering up his condition ? Tragic accident it certainly was....my heartfelt condolences to all involved.

Really interesting, perhaps the Pilot had a heart attack or stroke. It doesn’t explain the gap in contact with ATC, then the ‘’everything is fine’’ response. Hmm, very strange.

I've seen a transient ischemic attack close up, and it bears resemblance to the behavior exhibited by the pilot. Sudden onset of confusion, lack of coordination, and loss of memory, followed by completely normal behavior 10-15 minutes later, followed by another round of symptoms.

I believe he had a atroke or mild heart attack. When the plane descended, he could have been dead at the controls and the lady was helpless.

Oh what a shame that they crashed. And that is one beautiful little airplane! Very good video...thank you for uploading and sharing! 😊🛩♥

I think this is one where a further background check of the pilot (and the passenger) should be done. I'm thinking this might be a suicide situation.

The following examples and explanations stem from a clinical perspective, naturally all of this is purely speculative, without evidence the circumstances of this tragedy will remain purely hypothetical. The pilot may have become swiftly incapacitated following one of three likely sudden onset events, or a less likely cardiac event that I’ll also explain. 1. Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) a type of 'mini stroke' caused by micro emboli being distributed through the arteries of the brain subsequently occluding smaller vessels. These types of events are often associated with poorly managed AF, a heart arrhythmia amongst a few other causes. Depending upon the vessels involved the result can be anything from temporary confusion to momentary loss of consciousness, including a loss of both coordination and situational awareness. 2. A Cerebral Vascular Accident (Stroke) either as a consequence of a bleed (termed Haemorrhagic) which typically produces a severe headache prior to being overcome, or a clot (termed Ischaemic) which is often painless but depending upon the location within which vessel has been occluded will determine how clinically catastrophic the outcome will be. Both of these events, TIA and CVA, can cause a hemiplegia which is weakness and loss of balance in the opposite side of the body from the affected hemisphere of the brain. Both weakness and imbalance could cause that pitched down banking and apparent loss of control. 3. A Cardiac Arrhythmia any of which will cause anything from lightheadedness to loss of consciousness due to insufficient blood pressure, while some other arrhythmias will induce cardiac arrest meaning static blood flow causing zero pressure and zero perfusion. In either case if the pilot slumps forward on account of low or no blood flow to the brain the result will be the same, an unrecoverable pitch down. If either he collapsed to one side or the event occurred during any stage of banking the aircraft that could easily account for the higher bank angle. Depending upon the condition of his body when recovered any useful pathological evidence may have been destroyed subsequently becoming 'causes undetermined'. If his body was in a sufficient state for Autopsy, of the three scenarios only a CVA or Coronary Artery Disease related event will be evident during an investigative Post Mortem exploration. Unfortunately Cardiac Arrhythmias remain frustratingly invisible to the pathologist. Certainly any older TIAs can be demonstrated macroscopically by small scarred areas revealing any damage. Acute events though are exceptionally difficult to demonstrate unless all vessels are explored which is difficult and unlikely, as such they will typically be missed despite the temporary disabling mischief they cause particularly when trauma occurs while operating any type of equipment, or a fall from height due to sudden temporary imbalance or collapse. Although a far less likely cardiac event it remains prudent to consider irrespective. That being a Myocardial Infarction (MI) aka a 'heart attack'. While this type of event is associated generally with distress along with the classic symptoms of specifically located pain and discomfort prior to any clinically catastrophic sequelae. There are two circumstances where this event may be less obvious. Earlier ignored symptoms of an MI, which males frequently are guilty of, followed by what is termed ‘extending an MI' where tissue damage deteriorates further, producing new symptoms typically of sudden onset or induce cardiac arrest due to tissue damage and imbalance of critical biochemistry. Secondly there is a lesser known type of MI, termed a ‘Silent' MI that also damages tissue consequently producing cardiac insufficiency without any of the classic MI symptoms, although those affected will generally appear 'off-colour' and quite unwell there are however as always exceptions to this. My initial go-to was also a hypoxic event due to a gradual cabin depressurisation. Mercifully that would be the desirable event in this instance by rendering both occupants calmly euphorically incapacitated thus circumventing any terror from an unaffected passenger. G-d bless both their souls and comfort their loved ones, may they enjoy long lives.

The report indicates that the pilot mentioned that he was having trouble with his radio. He began his initial descent at 4,500 fpm, which seems a bit steep but I’m not a pilot and I don’t know. Of course the descent rate increased almost exponentially and a spiral developed. When the plane broke out of the lowest cloud layer the descent slowed, perhaps indicated some spatial disorientation. But again, I just watch a lot of KZfaq and don’t claim any expertise. He seemed to be rather close to his destination and still at cruise altitude. Is this so? He began his descent pitched down 10 degrees. Is this unusual? I’d be interested in what pilots have to say, particularly those who have some familiarity with this aircraft. This pilot had a fair amount of experience - he flew that plane up to 100 hours per year and had owned it for about four years I think. Anyway he had about 300 hours in this plane if I recall correctly. That may be a lot or a little for all I know. I’m inclined to think that the TBM is a huge step up from a normally aspirated engined plane. Perhaps more like a light jet than a 172. But again I just don’t know.

Stroke my dad sounded exactly the same way exactly the same way.

It sounds like the pilot became incapacitated at some point, perhaps a heart attack or stroke.

Seems to me like either suicide/foul play or sudden illness.

So was a heart attack or stroke ruled out then? What about the possibility of interference by the passenger?

When an aircraft hits the ground that hard it's very difficult to put the puzzle back together. Doesn't seem like a mechanical failure, as the comms were working normally, when the pilot used them, and he would've said something other than "all is well." Pilot incapacitation is the only thing left, really. With that kind of impact, not to be gross, but you'd only have two spots of mush where the people were. Difficult to autopsy that condition of the remains. Someone said transient ischemic attack, and while I don't know what that is, they way it's described it sounds certainly plausible.

He had a female passenger.. if the gentleman had a medical issue surely she would have attempted to alert someone on the ground. It sounds very like an intentional act.

IMHO medical problem of some kind. But you'd think the passenger would at least try to take over.

Possible decompression and hypoxia kicked in. The coroner should be able to find out but it would makes sense. Could the engine sound be the pilot feathering the prop to get more speed out of the aircraft and increasing engine rpm.

Maybe he and the Pax had an emotionally charged critical argument that distracted for 25 minutes, leaving a spiral dive as the preferred solution ????

First thing I thought was hypoxia, but if not that, possibly a stroke?? Could explain the garbled responses. A seizure is less likely but I can’t say it’s fully ruled out. I think a look into the medical history of the pilot is very much in order to find out anything else.

Could be carbon monoxide poisoning. Or a stroke... Also strange that the approach was not loaded in to the FMS for the AP to fly.

Another similar crash of a TBM 700 about 2 yrs ago in Ohio. Pilot stopped com with ATC

very little info... I have a feeling this was him using the autopilot but mixing up, than, fixating on fixing the problem... he is probably task saturated at this point trying to figure what he did wrong... hearing is the first thing to go... I do not think Hypoxia is involved, he is too coherent... the reason for the previous silence is he probably misdialed the frequency... only realizing it on the final... fatigue of some kind was probably a factor, maybe with CO poisoning, though, I would expect they would detect that...

The oxygen system failed. The pilot came to realizing an issue but being out of it and didn’t put on mask and also Embarrassed,instead of declaring an emergency he asked for clearance to 8000. But in his slumber he turned off auto pilot to do a rapid decent knowing autopilot wouldn’t decend that fast. In doing so killed everyone onboard who was not dead already.

Sounds like a cabin pressure mishap causing low oxygen.

I wonder if someone else replied with “yea, everything is fine”.

If I was to invest so much money in plane like that.. I'd go ahead and add a CVR and other monitoring systems .

I wonder if they were arguing when there was no contact with ATC for 25 mins, and then the argument boiled over afterwards which led to the crash.

The auto pilot became sentient then depressed and eventually suicidal.

For me, it seems to me that the pilot suffered a cerebrovascular accident (stroke) during the flight, which he himself did not perceive.

Probably cause tricky to determine.

Autopsy would show if the pilot had an illness though. I don't think he had heart attack

🤔 female passenger.... Radio silence for 25 minutes... That could be really good or really bad not sure which...

Who was the woman in the aircraft? Was there a domestic issue that might have occurred? Did anyone bother to ask about a suicide or murder suicide.

Thought of hypoxia too.

What prompt the tower to ask if he's ok?

This report needs extensive biological info about the pilot incl. his doctor’s opinion.

Hypoxia?Then lucid at 8,000? Seems to negate, but some weird combo of hypoxia & carbon monoxide poisoning?? Above my pay grade for sure

Stroke.

👍🏼

"I'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers."

My inital thought was hypoxia too.

First thing I thought of was hypoxia.

Old dudes for safety should have a copilot just in case they have a heart attack. Lots of qualified guys will take rides at no charge. But maybe this was a situation of no oxygen.

No idea what happened but I’m willing to rule out a medical issue as there was a “female passenger” who certainly would have taken control of the plane at that point. This sounds like whatever happened disabled both of them, or it was a problem with the aircraft.

Was this the steven Barnes accident

based on just the information given, kind of sounds like he wanted to take himself out. This seems like it just went to crap as if noone was even flying it. Yes hypoxia could have been a issue, but ????

Carbon monoxide poisoning perhaps?

Poor lady passenger hire her own death well Pilot is dead before crashing down. 47⁰ nose dive @ 370 knot with 90⁰ turn speed increasing every second hit like missile vanish all posible evidence of cause. Mystery RIP

Greyout, blackout

High altitude flight - hypoxia ?

Pilots age? Redout

Heart attack?

It was Hunter's laptop

Mile high club?

Surprised it wasn't blamed on Covid. Everything was back then.

the two were getting it on. plain and simple.

How are you going to see me in the next one? What if there are gals in your audience, but you call us all, "guys?"

Lame