No mechanical failure in fatal air crash

Scotia: A preliminary report into a deadly plane crash earlier this month found no evidence that the small single-engine aircraft had mechanical failure or malfunctioned before it splashed into the Mohawk River.
The Piper struggled to ascend after leaving Mohawk Valley Airport at 2:21 p.m. June 14 before plunging into the water with Dr. Krishnan Raghavan, 52, George Kolath, 42, and his 11-year-old son, George Kolath Jr. inside. More than an hour later, police divers pulled the bodies of the boy and Raghavan from the river. The body of the elder Kolath was recovered the June 15 after the plane was hoisted from the water. Autopsy results show the victims drowned.
The National Transportation Safety Board report stated that "the flaps were found retracted, not in the partially extended position for a short field takeoff and the landing gear was extended." The flight was being conducted under visual flight rules, in which pilots navigate using references on the ground. No flight plans were filed.
In the NTSB report, eyewitness accounts from two people indicate the doomed plane made at least two approaches and barely got off the ground before running into trouble.
"As he did his takeoff roll, he kind of ran out of runway," one witness told an NTSB investigator. "He lifted off barely above the weeds at the end of the runway and began to sink in the air towards the river. He pulled the nose up sharply, stalled the aircraft and the tail slid into the river." A second witness said on the second try the aircraft was "more aggressively striking the tail on the ground" and unsuccessfully attempted to get aloft a third time before hitting the waters.
The report did not identify who was the pilot in command.
Albany attorney Terry Kindlon, a seasoned pilot, said Wednesday it appears the aircraft "just wasn't going fast enough on a short, wet, turf to acquire sufficient airspeed for a good takeoff" and that when it left the ground it was wallowing along in what's called "ground effect." Put another way, the plane failed to gain sufficient enough speed to generate the lift and had a "aerodynamic stall" when the pilot abruptly pulled back on the yoke in an effort to clear the trees at the edge of the water, Kindlon said. The turf runway is 1,840 feet long and 120 feet wide with 29 trees about 102 feet off the end of the runway the plane was on.
Kolath was Raghavan's first student since he obtained his certified flight instructor certificate, and Ragavan obtained his commercial pilot certificate in 2005, according to the NTSB,
Raghavan had flown 5 1/2 hours with Kolath in the last 30 days and 25 hours in the past three months, according to the document.
25/06/09 Paul Nelson/timesunion.com

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Categories: Foreign Jun 2009, Safety Jun 2009