Wellston Crash Report Quote

Aero-News Quote of the Day

"This tragic accident that took the lives of a respected U.S. Senator,
members of his family, staff, and the flight crew, shocked us all...*It
sadly and starkly points out the need for more aggressive action to
improve safety in the on-demand charter industry."

Source:*NTSB Chairman Ellen G. Engleman, commenting on the final report
issued in the NTSB investigation of the KingAir crash that took the
life of Senator Paul Wellstone and seven others.*


You don't suppose the federal governments decisions to close local
flight service stations (and control towers that report weather) over
the past twenty years have had anything to do with it, do you?

The NTSB report concluded that that pilot stalled the aircraft. How would a
control tower or a local FSS have prevented that?

Best regards,

Steve Robertson
N4732J 1967 Beechcraft A23-24

EDR wrote:

Aero-News Quote of the Day

"This tragic accident that took the lives of a respected U.S. Senator,
members of his family, staff, and the flight crew, shocked us all... It
sadly and starkly points out the need for more aggressive action to
improve safety in the on-demand charter industry."

Source: NTSB Chairman Ellen G. Engleman, commenting on the final report
issued in the NTSB investigation of the KingAir crash that took the
life of Senator Paul Wellstone and seven others.

You don't suppose the federal governments decisions to close local
flight service stations (and control towers that report weather) over
the past twenty years have had anything to do with it, do you?

In article , Steve Robertson
wrote:

The NTSB report concluded that that pilot stalled the aircraft. How would a
control tower or a local FSS have prevented that?

He stalled it because he flew into icing conditions and iced up.
AFSS's are so widely located the the local weather the smaller local
FSS's would gather provided filled in the gaps.

"EDR" wrote in message
...

He stalled it because he flew into icing conditions and iced up.
AFSS's are so widely located the the local weather the smaller local
FSS's would gather provided filled in the gaps.


There are more weather observation stations now than before FSS
consolidation. One of them is at the Eveleth-Virginia airport.

In article . net,
Steven P. McNicoll wrote:

There are more weather observation stations now than before FSS
consolidation. One of them is at the Eveleth-Virginia airport.

AWOS and ASOS are no substitute for human observers and balloons.
It would be an interesting study to learn how many accidents have been
caused by pilots flying into conditions reported by ASOS and AWOS.

On 2003-11-19 20:52:17 -0800, EDR said

In article . net
Steven P. McNicoll wrote

There are more weather observation stations now than before FS
consolidation. One of them is at the Eveleth-Virginia airport

AWOS and ASOS are no substitute for human observers and balloons
It would be an interesting study to learn how many accidents have bee
caused by pilots flying into conditions reported by ASOS and AWOS


Are you offering to fund all of these human observers

"EDR" wrote in message
...

AWOS and ASOS are no substitute for human observers and balloons.
It would be an interesting study to learn how many accidents have been
caused by pilots flying into conditions reported by ASOS and AWOS.


You still don't get it. AWOS isn't substituting for a human observer at
EVM. There was no human observer at EVM before the AWOS. If EVM didn't
have AWOS it would have no weather reporting at all.

EDR wrote in message
He stalled it because he flew into icing conditions and iced up.
AFSS's are so widely located the the local weather the smaller local
FSS's would gather provided filled in the gaps.

Hey - the NTSB sure could have used your help. They completely missed
the icing factor. In fact, the NTSB said that ICING WAS NOT A FACTOR.

Sometimes it helps to read what the NTSB actually says. From their
press release dated 18 November 2003:

The Board judged that while cloud cover might have prevented the
flight crew from seeing the airport, icing did not affect the
airplane's performance during the descent. Cockpit instrument readings
on course alignment and airspeed should have prompted the flight crew
to execute a go-around.

Instead, as others have said, the pilot just stalled the plane. In
short, it was just poor flying. Again, from the press release:

"During the later stages of the approach," the Board said, the flight
crew "failed to monitor the airplane's airspeed and allowed it to
decrease to a dangerously low level (as low as about 50 knots below
the company's recommended approach speed) and to remain below the
recommended approach speed for about 50 seconds." The airplane then
entered a stall from which it did not recover.

50 knots off the approach speed??? I don't think that even meets the
private pilot PTS standards.

So, now maybe you can clarify your point by explaining how the closure
of FSS resulted in this pilot not being able to fly the proper
approach speed.

Ace Pilot wrote:
Hey - the NTSB sure could have used your help. They completely missed
the icing factor. In fact, the NTSB said that ICING WAS NOT A FACTOR.


Interesting... the "Press Release" contains more information than the
final report contained in the database webpage.

DCA03MA008

On October 25, 2002, at about 1022 central daylight time, a Beech King
Air A100, N41BE, operated by Aviation Charter, Inc., crashed while on
the VOR approach to runway 27 at Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport
(EVM), Eveleth, Minnesota. The accident site was located approximately
two miles southeast of the runway 27 approach end. The airplane was
destroyed by impact forces and post-crash fire, and the six passengers
and two flight crewmembers were fatally injured. The airplane was being
operated as a charter flight under Title 14 CFR Part 135 of the Federal
Aviation Regulations (FARs). Instrument meteorological conditions
existed at the time of the accident, and an instrument flight rules
(IFR) flight plan had been filed.

The public docket on this accident has been opened and includes NTSB
group chairman factual reports.

In article , john smith wrote:
Ace Pilot wrote:

Interesting... the "Press Release" contains more information than the
final report contained in the database webpage.

DCA03MA008

The database shows only a summary. The actual report on any accident is
hundreds or even thousands of pages long. For some reason, the web
database hasn't been updated with final report summaries since September.