Infamous High Performance Plane In The News Again

In a depressingly familiar story, another Mitsubishi MU-2 twin- turboprop has gone down in Florida killing its pilot. Friday's crash follows the loss of the same type aircraft less than a week earlier in the state, where a Michigan couple died.

The aircraft was on a flight from Tulsa, OK to Panama City, FL and ended near the panhandle town of DeFuniak Springs. The pilot has not yet been identified.

The MU-2, a plane reviled by critics but adored by the pilots and owners who use them, is a high performance twin turboprop aircraft that has become popular because of its relatively low price and operating costs. The plane is used frequently in air cargo operations, particularly bank check transfers, and is also often flown single-pilot by individual owners. It has been subject to a very detailed FAA analysis that mandates that pilots be made aware of its unusual flying characteristics as well as specific training in icing awareness.

The plane is particularly unpopular in Colorado where two accidents occurred in quick succession last winter. The plane was subject to an intensive media investigation by local media. Their conclusion, supported by an aviation professor, was that since the airplane uses spoilers instead of ailerons for roll control, that the airplane was essentially uncontrollable if it lost an engine at high gross weight and low speed. About 10% of all MU-2s have crashed since being introduced from Japan in the mid-60s.

FMI: Read More About The MU-2