Jet to Pick Up Elder Bush Was Warned

[rvsm410]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041123/ap_on_re_us/jet_crash


U.S. National - AP
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/brand/SIG=br2v03/*http://www.ap.org Jet to Pick Up Elder Bush Was Warned

Tue Nov 23, 6:10 PM ET
<A href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/addtomy/*http://add.my.yahoo.com/content?id=6063&.src=yn&.done=http%3a//news.yahoo.com/news%3ftmpl=story%26u=/ap/20041123/ap_on_re_us/jet_crash" target=_blank>U.S. National - AP

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON - The pilot of a private jet was warned the plane was flying low minutes before it crashed en route to a scheduled landing in Houston to pick up former President Bush (news - web sites), a federal investigator said Tuesday.


An investigation is under way to find out what caused the Gulfstream G-1159A jet to go down Monday morning, killing a crew of three. The plane, which belonged to Jet Place Inc. of Tulsa, Okla., left Dallas an hour earlier and was to have picked up Bush, who lives in Houston, for a trip to Ecuador to give a speech at a business conference.

Mark Rosenker, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (news - web sites), said the control tower at Hobby Airport told crew members about three minutes before landing that winds were calm and their runway was clear.

"The controller talked with the aircraft approximately two minutes before the accident and asked them to check their altitude because they saw them at somewhere approximately 400 feet," said Rosenker.

It was not immediately known if the crew responded, NTSB (news - web sites) officials said.

The jet's wing and the landing gear on the right side clipped a 120-foot tall light pole on a road about 3 1/4 miles south of the runway. The normal altitude for a jet at that point would have been 1,000 feet.

Rosenker said there are alarms aboard a plane that tell a pilot if he is flying too low, but it was not immediately known if they were activated.

Various factors, including the condition of the aircraft, the weather and the history of the flight crew, are being examined. Rosenker said the pilot and crew were "seasoned," each having 19,000 hours of flying experience. The investigation could take up to a year to complete

 

[hydrarkt]

pure speculation... sounds like the wrong altimeter setting.

 

[Guitar Guy]

pure speculation... sounds like the wrong altimeter setting.

But if the plane was crashed only about 3 miles from the runway, wrong altimeter setting or not, it sounds like they should have been the glideslope. I thought the last info on that crash said that the localizer and glideslope were operational.

By the way, why is this under "fractionals"? Shouldn't it be under "corporate"?

 

[Vortilon]

More likely it will be the crew disregarding weather minimums, an improperly flown approach, and a good dose of "complete the mission syndrome." After all, God forbid an ex-president waits for the weather to lift.

 

[gunfyter]

I doubt it was the altimeter setting. BUT there were some extremely low settings in some areas of the country that week... like 29.30. If one put 30.30 in by mistake that would put you 1000 ft low. Or if you FAILED to reset the altimeter leaving Class A airspace you would tend to be 620 ft low.

I was flying that week and surprised by some of the extremely low pressures.

 

[Bandit60]

But if the plane was crashed only about 3 miles from the runway, wrong altimeter setting or not, it sounds like they should have been the glideslope. I thought the last info on that crash said that the localizer and glideslope were operational.

By the way, why is this under "fractionals"? Shouldn't it be under "corporate"?

I agree with you on the first part, but it should be under charter not corporate.

 

[Hobbes]

doesn't this type of thing still concern us in fractionals since we fly these type of planes and can learn from the accident? I agree it was not a fractional flight...but I am still interested in what happened.

It would also good to know more about the crew duty/rest cycle of the crew. Maintenance status of the aircraft (i.e. any recent altimetry issues?) possibly recurring writeups? There are so many possible factors that until the tapes and such are reviewed...who knows. But again, like someone said, if the GS was working on the approach, altimetry shouldn't be too much of a factor.

 

[Ace-of-the-Base]

What the heck does the altimeter have to do with ANYTHING on an ILS (except as a crosscheck at certain points on the approach.) Glideslopes don't know from altimeter settings.

Man some of you guys sound like you should go back thru basic instrument training.

Ace.

 

[Bandit60]

What the heck does the altimeter have to do with ANYTHING on an ILS (except as a crosscheck at certain points on the approach.) Glideslopes don't know from altimeter settings.

Man some of you guys sound like you should go back thru basic instrument training.

Ace.

Could not agree more with you.

 

[Hobbes]

but do we KNOW the glideslope was working? if not then they may have been flying the LOC only approach. I think that is where some people may have been coming from.