NTSB report on Groton air crash

[Rich]

For you sailors and boaters who helped with or witnessed the June air crash in Groton, Connecticut, a pilot friend forwarded me the url for the NTSB report on the crash. If nothing else it offers a little window into how such an event is analyzed. (Notice, by the way, that for an air crash the wreckage is salvaged and analyzed intensely at public expense; if it were a boating accident, the wreck might very well be left alone, end of story...)

 

[Paul McGhee]

Read between the lines...

This is a case of a pilot trying to make a difficult landing in very low instrument meteorological conditions, with a misset altimeter. Notice how they repeated the altimeter for the airport several times in the report?There are some fine pilots out there who wouldn't try to land with a 250 foot ceiling, and the misset altimeter was a problem.Actually, the NTSB investigates boating accidents, too, and would likely recover the wreckage in the case of an accident where all aboard perished. When the accident is clearly not due to a failure of the aircraft (or boat) and the pilot (sailor) survives to explain what happened, the NTSB usually releases the wreckage right away.Also, there are a whole bunch of federal laws dictating how aircraft must be maintained and their maintenence tracked. Aircraft wreckage is often inspected to determine if the aircraft was maintained according to the federal aviation regulations. No such laws exist for boats.

 

[Big Windy]

Altimeter

We cannot tell for sure from the report what altimeter setting was in the Cessna. The investigators found 30.31, but that very easily could have changed during the crash sequence. Even if it was the setting used, comparing it to the setting taken after the accident of 30.25, the difference of 60' would not have affected the outcome of this situation...the airplane would have been 60' lower than he should have been (in fact it would have put him under the overcast). The pilot was legal in attempting this approach. Required minimums were 200' ceiling and 1/2 mile visability...he had 200' and 5 miles. Obviously, although he was legal, this weather was beyond his ablity/training/experience.