The fiery crash of a private plane in Long Beach on March 16, 2011, claimed the lives of Tom Dean, Jeff Berger, Bruce Krall, Mark Bixby and one other person. The airplane, a twin engine Beechcraft Super King Air 200, had just departed but was circling in an apparent attempt to land when it crashed in a fireball on the field at Long Beach Airport.

The King Air is a very well regarded aircraft. It is a solid, twin engine airplane capable of safely carrying passengers and cargo over long distances. So what happened the morning of March 16, 2011? The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is still investigating the situation, but one possible cause could be what pilots call a “VMC Roll.”

To understand this concept, bear in mind that an airplane such as the King Air with two engines produces thrust from both wings. So long as the thrust is equal, the pilot can control which way the plane travels. But if the thrust becomes unequal, things can quickly unravel and get out of control. If one engine quits, the pilot has precious little time to identify the problem and apply the correct control inputs to keep the plane flying.

All pilots learn certain airspeeds for the planes that they fly. For example, on one end of the spectrum is VNE: Velocity Never Exceed. On the other end of the spectrum is VMC: Velocity Minimum Controllable. This is the specific airspeed below which a twin engine airplane is going to be uncontrollable if an engine quits. Both VNE and VMC are important numbers for pilots to have etched in their hard drives before they ever fly.

The most dangerous time for a twin engine airplane to have an engine quit is on take off. The airplane is much closer to stall speed, and there is little altitude in which to correct things. At that low a speed, if an engine quits and the pilot does not keep the airspeed at or above VMC, what will happen is that the airplane will quickly roll over inverted and crash. There is literally no way to avoid this fate if your airspeed is below VMC and one engine gives up the ghost.

Is this what happened to the souls aboard the ill-fated King Air? Time will tell. Witnesses have said that the plane appeared to be turning back to the airport. Did the pilot experience a problem with the airplane which caused him to try to make it back? Tapes of air traffic controllers are preserved after such an accident, to try to see what communications took place between the control tower and the pilot. It is also possible that the pilot had his hands full, and did not make a “Mayday” call to the tower.

This accident was a real tragedy, causing the deaths of a number of persons highly regarded in the Long Beach community. Follow the NTSB website for details as to its investigation. At some point in time the NTSB will release its “Probable Cause Report,” which will opine as to the cause of this accident. In the meantime, Godspeed to the families of the victims of this accident.