Ailerongirl
Back in DFW!
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2003
- Posts
- 874
Probe takes closer look
Key parts of doomed Beechcraft 1900D are taken to Washington for more intense scrutiny.
By EMILY C. DOOLEY and DAMIAN PALETTA
STAFF WRITERS
Investigators are taking a closer look at key pieces of wreckage from the plane that crashed off Yarmouth last week, killing two men.
The National Transportation Safety Board took the Beechcraft 1900D's throttle assembly, the elevator trim system, and two control yokes to its headquarters in Washington, D.C., for further analysis, said Robert Gretz, the agency's air safety investigator on the case.
On Aug. 26, the US Airways Express flight operated by Colgan Air crashed minutes after taking off from Barnstable Municipal Airport. Pilot Scott Knabe, 39, and co-pilot Steven Dean, 38, were killed. There were no passengers on board.
Before the crash, maintenance crews for Colgan Air in Hyannis replaced several parts of the plane's elevator trim system, which controls the plane's equilibrium.
The crew did routine maintenance and replaced the parts over the course of three days, ending the day prior to the crash.
The Beechcraft 1900D is used to carry hundreds of passengers between the Cape and islands, as well as Boston and New York City every day.
Gretz said they are taking a closer look at the trim because pilots reported a problem with that equipment just before the plane crashed.
"It's just part of the investigation," he said. "We do know that the pilots reported runaway trim. We have better working conditions in Washington, and rather than working on a hangar floor, we can work in a nice secure lab with all the tools."
"Witness marks"
An aviation expert said the NTSB is likely trying to gauge the position of the controls at the time of impact. John Hansman, director of the International Center for Air Transportation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the force of a crash often leaves behind what investigators call "witness marks," which could indicate what was happening inside the plane.
Colgan air is conducting its own investigation into the crash, company Vice President Mary Finnigan said yesterday.
Citing the investigation, Finnigan declined to comment on whether maintenance work on other Beechcraft 1900Ds in the Colgan fleet was being scrutinized or if the four-person crew that worked on the ill-fated plane were still employees of the airline, which is based in Manassas, Va.
"I'm not going to answer anything like that," Finnigan said.
The plane crashed into the water 100 yards from Point Gammon as the pilot was turning the aircraft back to Hyannis to make an emergency landing.
Investigators are looking at both the pieces installed in the plane as well as the pieces taken out of the plane by maintenance workers.
Investigators will have to work without some clues, though. Gretz said the plane's elevator cable snapped, and not all of the cable has been located.
The missing component may make it difficult to determine a cause, but it is something investigators will pursue, Hansman said.
"What they want to determine is, 'Did the failure occur due to the accident or due to something before the accident?'" Hansman said.
There were problems with the elevator cable in a Beechcraft 1900D that crashed in Charlotte, N.C., in January, killing all 21 aboard. Investigators are looking for links in the two crashes.
In the Charlotte case, maintenance had been performed two days before the crash, and the NTSB later said the crash may have occurred because of a repair manual that provided instructions for a different airplane.
After the Charlotte crash, the FAA issued an order known as an "airworthiness directive" that required maintenance crews to change the way they performed work on the airplane's elevators in all Beechcraft 1900Ds. It required a person in the cockpit to operate the controls while another person was stationed at the airplane's tail to be sure the equipment responded properly.
So far, neither the NTSB nor the FAA has issued any such directives as a result of the Hyannis crash for the Beechcraft 1900D, a plane that was manufactured by Raytheon Aircraft Co.
"At this point we are still looking at it as one airplane and not a fleetwide problem," Gretz said.
Links investigated
But that does not mean inspectors and companies are not paying attention to the possible link between the crashes.
The FAA and principal maintenance inspectors routinely observe work done on airplanes. If a company has a fleet that includes planes that have been the subject of problems - such as maintenance performed on similar parts before a crash - they would pay specific attention, said Susan Coughlin, who is president and CEO of the Aviation Safety Alliance and former vice chairwoman of the NTSB.
The Alliance is a not-for-profit advocacy group that promotes understanding of safety records and standards in the commercial and general aviation industry.
"Certainly, anyone today who is overseeing maintenance of 1900s is going to be particularly sensitive to looking at maintenance procedures that may have been the result of a crash," Coughlin said.
An insurance adjuster is taking the rest of the Cape Cod wreckage to a holding hangar in Biddeford, Maine.
(Published: September 4, 2003)
Key parts of doomed Beechcraft 1900D are taken to Washington for more intense scrutiny.
By EMILY C. DOOLEY and DAMIAN PALETTA
STAFF WRITERS
Investigators are taking a closer look at key pieces of wreckage from the plane that crashed off Yarmouth last week, killing two men.
The National Transportation Safety Board took the Beechcraft 1900D's throttle assembly, the elevator trim system, and two control yokes to its headquarters in Washington, D.C., for further analysis, said Robert Gretz, the agency's air safety investigator on the case.
On Aug. 26, the US Airways Express flight operated by Colgan Air crashed minutes after taking off from Barnstable Municipal Airport. Pilot Scott Knabe, 39, and co-pilot Steven Dean, 38, were killed. There were no passengers on board.
Before the crash, maintenance crews for Colgan Air in Hyannis replaced several parts of the plane's elevator trim system, which controls the plane's equilibrium.
The crew did routine maintenance and replaced the parts over the course of three days, ending the day prior to the crash.
The Beechcraft 1900D is used to carry hundreds of passengers between the Cape and islands, as well as Boston and New York City every day.
Gretz said they are taking a closer look at the trim because pilots reported a problem with that equipment just before the plane crashed.
"It's just part of the investigation," he said. "We do know that the pilots reported runaway trim. We have better working conditions in Washington, and rather than working on a hangar floor, we can work in a nice secure lab with all the tools."
"Witness marks"
An aviation expert said the NTSB is likely trying to gauge the position of the controls at the time of impact. John Hansman, director of the International Center for Air Transportation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the force of a crash often leaves behind what investigators call "witness marks," which could indicate what was happening inside the plane.
Colgan air is conducting its own investigation into the crash, company Vice President Mary Finnigan said yesterday.
Citing the investigation, Finnigan declined to comment on whether maintenance work on other Beechcraft 1900Ds in the Colgan fleet was being scrutinized or if the four-person crew that worked on the ill-fated plane were still employees of the airline, which is based in Manassas, Va.
"I'm not going to answer anything like that," Finnigan said.
The plane crashed into the water 100 yards from Point Gammon as the pilot was turning the aircraft back to Hyannis to make an emergency landing.
Investigators are looking at both the pieces installed in the plane as well as the pieces taken out of the plane by maintenance workers.
Investigators will have to work without some clues, though. Gretz said the plane's elevator cable snapped, and not all of the cable has been located.
The missing component may make it difficult to determine a cause, but it is something investigators will pursue, Hansman said.
"What they want to determine is, 'Did the failure occur due to the accident or due to something before the accident?'" Hansman said.
There were problems with the elevator cable in a Beechcraft 1900D that crashed in Charlotte, N.C., in January, killing all 21 aboard. Investigators are looking for links in the two crashes.
In the Charlotte case, maintenance had been performed two days before the crash, and the NTSB later said the crash may have occurred because of a repair manual that provided instructions for a different airplane.
After the Charlotte crash, the FAA issued an order known as an "airworthiness directive" that required maintenance crews to change the way they performed work on the airplane's elevators in all Beechcraft 1900Ds. It required a person in the cockpit to operate the controls while another person was stationed at the airplane's tail to be sure the equipment responded properly.
So far, neither the NTSB nor the FAA has issued any such directives as a result of the Hyannis crash for the Beechcraft 1900D, a plane that was manufactured by Raytheon Aircraft Co.
"At this point we are still looking at it as one airplane and not a fleetwide problem," Gretz said.
Links investigated
But that does not mean inspectors and companies are not paying attention to the possible link between the crashes.
The FAA and principal maintenance inspectors routinely observe work done on airplanes. If a company has a fleet that includes planes that have been the subject of problems - such as maintenance performed on similar parts before a crash - they would pay specific attention, said Susan Coughlin, who is president and CEO of the Aviation Safety Alliance and former vice chairwoman of the NTSB.
The Alliance is a not-for-profit advocacy group that promotes understanding of safety records and standards in the commercial and general aviation industry.
"Certainly, anyone today who is overseeing maintenance of 1900s is going to be particularly sensitive to looking at maintenance procedures that may have been the result of a crash," Coughlin said.
An insurance adjuster is taking the rest of the Cape Cod wreckage to a holding hangar in Biddeford, Maine.
(Published: September 4, 2003)
