There's never a guy with a pair of binoculars around when you need one...

[FN FAL]

The first story features a witness that watched a pilot "not pre-flight" before a deadly flight. The second story concerns the alleged tampering of an aircraft which resulted in the death of an airport owner and his side kick...

Report: Pilot of doomed plane may not have inspected craft

The Associated Press
June 22, 2005

A preflight inspection may not have been performed on a small airplane that crashed earlier this month, killing a New Iberia couple, the National Transportation Safety Board says.

But the final cause of the accident will not be determined for months, said NTSB investigator Tim LeBaron.

The Beech twin-engine airplane crashed shortly after takeoff from LeMaire Memorial Airport on June 3. The pilot, Dickie Segura, 69, and his wife, Joy, 71, were killed.

The NTSB report said that a witness who lives across the street from the runway watched the Seguras arrive in a vehicle and unload their baggage onto the ground. Through a pair of binoculars, the witness watched the couple load the bags and untie the airplane. The witness did not see Dickie Segura conduct a pre-flight inspection, the report said.

The witness said he saw the plane take off and before houses blocked his view.

"Still able to hear the engines, the witness reported hearing a loud `pow pow,' then silence," the report states.

The plane crashed into a sugar cane field.

Information from: The Daily Iberian,

.....

Report: Airplane crash might not have been an accident

June 19, 2005, 12:21 PM EDT

MARLBORO, N.J. -- A 1998 airplane crash that killed a Monmouth County pilot who intended to buy Marlboro Airport might not have been an accident, according to a published report.

An investigative report published in Sunday's editions of the Asbury Park Press raises questions about the National Transportation Safety Board's finding that the crash was probably caused by a bird striking the plane's tail.

The newspaper cites testimony of the airplane's owner, Lino A. Fasio, in a court deposition given months before he died that two airplanes he owned had been tampered with after he signed a contract in July 1997 to buy the airport.

In one incident fuel was drained from one his plane's gas tanks, Fasio testified. In another incident, he said, a safety cable had been unscrewed and cut, causing an engine to fail in flight and forcing him to make an emergency landing.

"Somebody sabotaged my airplane," Fasio testified. "They could have killed me."

The airport was ultimately sold in 2000 to a partnership from Staten Island and has since become the focus of a major political scandal. A former Marlboro mayor admitted in federal court in April that he took $245,000 in bribes from a developer to help get the airport property rezoned for housing.

The airport was closed in 2002, and the land has not been rezoned.

Fasio, 34, of Union Beach, and his co-pilot, Eric S. Shibla, 28, of Manasquan, were killed on March 4, 1998, when Fasio's twin-engine 1958 Piper crashed into a condominium complex in Hillsborough.

The National Transportation Safety Board ruled that the crash was an accident, probably caused when a bird hit the plane's left rear stabilizer, causing part of it to fall off.

But five national aviation crash experts, who reviewed photographs of the plane's tail section and the NTSB report at the request of the newspaper, said there is no direct evidence that a bird hit the tail.

One suggested that a bolt might have come loose, either through negligence or tampering.

The lack of bird remains on the tail, along with Fasio's testimony about the previous tampering incidents, led two experts to say the federal investigation should be reopened.

"There's certainly a lot of strong evidence that there was somebody out to get this guy," said Charles F. Leonard, a former NTSB supervisor.

 

[English]

Birds hitting the tail? From behind?

Must've been a Citation.

 

[ISaidRightTurns]

Birds hitting the tail? From behind?

Must've been a Citation.

HEYOOO!!! ZING!

 

[JediNein]

Ow! Now, be nice. Just 'cause my last bird-strike was 'cause it rear-ended us . . .