October 2011 Archives

Beaver, West Virginia-based Albatross Air has one around its neck. It would appear that maintenance and an otherwise intelligent decision not to top the tanks caused a serious crash of one its charters, a Beechcraft 58 Baron (N86BR), in a Rainelle, West Virginia backyard on 18 September 2010. Albatross is a charter, flight instruction and maintenance company.

According to the recently issued NTSB factual report, the Baron was cruising at 8,000ft on the return leg of a charter flight from Morgantown (MGW) back to Mercer County (BLF) with one pilot and four paying passengers. First the right engine unexpectedly shut down, followed shortly thereafter by the left.

The pilot definitely had "the right stuff" in the left seat of the now-quiet cockpit. Before the left engine failed, he tried to turn the left fuel tank selector to cross-feed from the left tank to try and restart the right engine, a natural reaction when an engine fails. The fuel selector wouldn't budge however.

After the left engine failed he feathered both props for maximum glide, set up best glide angle and continued in vain to restart an engine.

Reaching the airport was not an option, so the pilot picked a yard and flew to the ground, sliding about 60ft before hitting the back of a house. As testament to pilot skill and a solid airplane, all five on board received only minor injuries.

An investigation reveals the accident, at least to me, looks to have been completely avoidable.

"Further examination of the left fuel selector knob revealed that when in the "On" position, indicating that the left engine was drawing fuel from the left tank, fuel was actually drawing from the right tank," says the NTSB. The left fuel selector valve had been removed, resealed and reinstalled during annual maintenance on 8 September 2010. The NTSB did not state which company did the work.

How much fuel was on board is also a topic of interest. Albatross had topped off the Baron with 200 gallons (194 gallons usable fuel) the week before, flying 3.2 hours in the interim before the accident flight. Had the fuel system worked properly, there would in theory have been plenty of fuel for the flight. NTSB retrieved no fuel from the right tank; the left tank had been punctured during the accident and 5 gallons remained.

Why the pilot was not clued in to the right tank being much lower than it should have been, eventually running dry, is unclear, and had he topped off for the charter flight, the problem would likely have remained uncovered.

Utah-based private pilot Bradley Kalmar may want to get his eye glasses checked. The low-time private pilot was out looking for a place to practice "off-airport" landings on 14 September when he recieved a hard lesson in soft-field etiquette.

As far as a location to do an off-airport landing, it's hard to imagine there'd be any safer than a salt flat in Nevada, but you can't judge a book by its hard-looking cover, apparently.

"Did low/slow fly-bys of an area that had tire marks in soil and looked to be firm and stable," Kalmar writes in his accident report to the NTSB. "Configured aircraft for soft field landing and executed landing."

Everything seemed fine untl the Cessna 172M slowed to about 25kt. Then...

Here's the view looking back, showing the ruts..

Lesson learned?

"Receive proper instruction for off-airport landings," Kalmar writes, adding, "Receive further instruction for off-airport landings."

In late October last year, I had written the post, pictured to the left, about an NTSB investigation into the 29 September 2010 hydrogen balloon downing that had likely killed sport balloonists and adventurers Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis over the Adriatic sea as they took part in a race.

At the time, they were presumed dead because neither the balloon nor its occupants had been found despite a significant search effort. Their sad end the likely reason it came about is now laid out in the NTSB final report, issued on Monday.

Turns out that the balloon and the remains of the crew were found by accident in December 2010 by a fishing vessel that snagged the balloon.

Despite ICAO rules that say an aircraft accident in international waters (which radar returns showed the balloon in fact, was) is to be investigated by the country in which the aircraft is registered (the US, in this case, as the balloon was N801NM), the Italian government stepped in an laid claim to the remnants and the investigation.

(UPDATE 28 October 2011 on how the investigation was handled. From an NTSB spokesman:

The Italians actually did not take over the investigation, they just claimed the wreckage, which is not all that uncommon when a potential criminal probe is launched.  We see this occasionally outside the US.  The Italians assisted us, but the NTSB conducted the investigation and made the determination of probable cause.)

Be that as it may, what the Italians found was this:

• According to communications transcripts from Italian air traffic control, in the last moments of the flight, the crew reported thunder and lightning in the vicinity of the balloon, that they were losing altitude due to the snow, and ultimately stated that they were descending very fast towards the sea.
• A technical advisor, appointed by the Prosecutor's Office in the Court of Lucia, Italy, who claimed jurisdiction over the wreckage and the crew's remains, determined that the balloon envelope revealed "thermal damage in the lower half of the envelope consistent with a lightning strike. Further examination revealed shredding in the lower half, and slices in the upper half consistent with a hydrogen detonation."
• He found that the basket was deformed by impact damage, but displayed "no evidence of thermal damage".
• The Italian report suggests the crew was fixated with winning the race, and had discounted an experienced weather forcaster's advice not to fly that particular route. 

Taking all that into account, the NTSB made its own declaration as to the probable cause:

"The crew's intentional flight into known adverse weather conditions, which resulted in destruction of the balloon envelope by lightning strike and the subsequent uncontrolled descent to the sea."

Seventy-four year-old John Bokk of Winthrop, Washington is one lucky geezer. Bokk just barely escaped from his crashed Cessna 170A on 28 August before it burst into flames.

What exactly happened on departure from the private airstrip in Grangeville, Idaho depends on who Bokk is talking to, apparently. Either way, he's ok and the aeroplane's definitely not.

Per Bokk's chat with the NTSB:  "Shortly after takeoff the pilot heard a bang and the airplane veered right" before descending and impacting pine trees about 300 feet east of the departure end of the airstrip. Bokk's foot was caught under the crushed dashboard, but he was able to pull the foot out of the shoe and claw his way to freedom.

"A Federal Aviation Administration inspector and the county sheriff inspected the control cables of the airplane and found them all connected and continuous between the flight control surfaces and the cockpit controls," the NTSB report reads.

Bokk's chat with a hunter who heard the crash and helped him put out the ensuing fire indicates that a poorly running engine and stall may have been the real culprit. Either way, the hunter's description of the event is worth a read.....