Two and one half years ago one of the pilots in my flying club died in a crash. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is charged with investigating (among other things) all aircraft accidents, but they’re not very speedy about it. On this quiet Sunday morning I looked again, and found they had published a slew of findings, although no conclusion (in NTSB parlance, a “statement of probable cause”).
The findings include notes and photographs on the disposition of the accident aircraft, found embedded in a river adjacent to the departure airport, horribly wrecked. They document the pilot’s background and history; Tom was a very experienced pilot, although this was only his second flight in our club’s Mooney M-20. They talk about the weather (poor, with high winds, low level wind shear, and icing conditions), provided an analysis of the engine monitor data, which they could retrieve despite the device spending a few days in the mud at the bottom or a river. They also performed a routine toxicology screen on the pilot (a doctor), who was found to have clonazepam in his system, an SSRI that has side effects severe enough to be on the FAA’s banned medications list.
Upon reflection, you can paint a picture of all the factors that lead to the accident. An experienced pilot with little time in the accident aircraft, flying in poor weather, influenced by a medication that he knew disallowed him from flying.
A few days before the accident I flew that aircraft over Lake Michigan to Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit family. While in the past I have experienced engine problems in that aircraft, including being stranded on the way home from Colorado on due to an oil leak one occasion, and making a precautionary emergency landing on another, it performed flawlessly on the trip to Michigan and was a delight to fly across country.
I’m saddened by Tom’s tragic death, a few months before his planned retirement, and his contributions to it that could have been so easily averted. I’ll miss him, and I feel for his wife and kids.
#aviation #ntsb #accident
