| Crash Remains Mystery |
A year-old federal investigation into a fatal light-aircraft crash in Cornwall couldn't pinpoint its cause.
But even though the NTSB could only offer "undetermined reasons" for the crash that killed Calvin Minor, 63, of New Haven and Mark Reese, 51, of Lincoln, members of the men's families said they were pleased with the results.
"I'm actually relieved that the FAA says it was undetermined because it doesn't say that it was pilot error," Reese's wife Marybeth McCaffrey said Friday.
Reese was providing flight instructions to Minor on the evening of Sept. 20th, 2006, when the crash occurred.
Minor, who owned the two-seat Air Trikes Tourist, was a certified commercial pilot with some prior flight experience in the ultralight craft.
Witnesses who saw the accident said the craft performed takeoffs and landings for about an hour before the crash. In the moments before the accident, Minor and Reese were performing high-altitude stalls, allowing the craft to glide to a lower altitude before restarting the engine and repeating the process, FAA investigators wrote.
In the report, witnesses said the aircraft performed "all sorts of crazy maneuvers" just before it arced to the left and spun toward the ground.
There were no radio communications prior to the accident and a fire after the crash hampered the investigation.
But while federal investigators decided they didn't have enough evidence to fully explain what happened, McCaffrey and Minor's son, Arlon Minor, said they believe the findings from an unofficial investigation conducted by ultralight pilots and engineers offered a convincing explanation.
In that report, which Arlon Minor, himself a commercial pilot, participated in, faulty rivets at the front of the craft seem like the most plausible reason for the crash. Minor said the experts jointly compiled the report and contributed it to FAA investigators, who arrive at many of the same conclusions in their report.
"There is a strong possibility that the rivets were sheared prior to the final flight of the trike. The sheared surfaces of the rivets are dull and not bright as are the surfaces of aluminum components that were broken during the accident," the unofficial report reads.
The weakened rivets would have reduced the maximum load factor on the mast of the aircraft leading to a catastrophic chain of events when the pilots began engaging in high-stress engine stalls.
"Because of its reduced G capacity the mast failed and folded exposing a greater frontal area of the wing to the direction of travel forcing the wing to rotate violently backward. The control bar would have been torn from the pilot's grip and arc forward and up striking the front strut with great force," the unofficial report reads.
McCaffrey believes that the control bar knocked the two pilots unconscious, preventing them from releasing a ballistic parachute on-board that could have broken the craft's fall.
Arlon Minor, 25, said he is so sure of the unofficial findings that he is preparing to lobby federal aviation officials to change their standards to prevent future crashes.
"I'm convinced of it," he said. "I haven't seen anything that says it was pilot error. It was a structural failure in my mind."
The Air Trike Tourist flown by his father was produced in the Ukraine. Minor said it is considered superior in many respects to other ultralight models. But he said he believes the rivets are a fatal flaw that could be easily corrected by using bolts.
"One more bolt and my father would still be alive," he said. "I'm not looking for any monetary gain here. I just want to rectify the situation."
|
|
| |
| Article Rating
|
Average Score: 0
Votes: 0
|
 |
|
