ULM crash near Hasselt : 2 people die.

[andorra-airport]

There has been a crash with a small airplane (ULM, Ultra Léger Motorisé) at the airfield of Aero Kiewit, near Hasselt, according to various Belgium news websites.

Unfortunately 2 people died in the accident; an instructor from Kermt (Johny Renckens, 59) and a student-pilot (Ronny Theunis, 53) from Beverlo.

They got probably engine trouble just after take-off. The 2 tried to return to the airport, but crashed in a sand wall, which put the ULM on fire. All help was too late for the 2.

[jan_olieslagers]

As I understand, they had the classical problem of loosing the engine just after take-off, and responded with the equally classical error of trying to return to the aerodrome with a 180° turn.
R.I.P.

[Propwash]

Jabiru or Rotax engine?

May they Rest in Peace.

[teddybAIR]

Unfortunately, this crash underlines the importance of thoroughly going through the departure briefing including the emergency procedures on take-off. Some of my fellow students question the necessity of repeating this briefing before every single flight.

Returning to the airport takes a turn in excess of 180° if you want to land on the strip or abeam the strip you just departed from. I don't want to imagine that we take off from runway 29 at Antwerp only to face an engine failure below 1.000ft! In that case, you will be flying over the city and returning to the airport will be very challenging and depending on the climb gradient you flew on initial climb out.

Therefore,my following advice to fellow (student) pilots: go over your emergency drills over and over again and make sure they become intuïtive and don't require any brainpower in a real emergency.

All my thoughts go to the families and friends of the victims.
bAIR

[Safe-T]

Belgian news videos show a person holding the aircraft checklist, found at the crash site. It shows a photo of Asso Aerei Champion V OO-G08. This airplane is based at Kiewit making it very likely that this was the plane involved in the accident.
See: http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=75483

@propwash I believe it had a UL260i 95 hp engine.

[regi]

again.

maybe the ULM people will have to be satisfied with the autogyro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogyro

[jan_olieslagers]

again:
autogyro's cannot be registered in Belgium.

[regi]

again:
autogyro's cannot be registered in Belgium.

right.
It depends of course on the pressure been given.
To use a well known phrase : "it takes only 5 minutes of political courage to change this"