Update 24/02/17: YMEN VH-ZCR CFIT fatal accident.
We get confirmation that the gear remained down, plus Hoody comes under fire in the latest from the Weekend Oz
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P2 comment - Despite the obvious high profile nature of this tragic accident, it did strike me as odd that Greg Hood was front, centre and flapping his gums un-aided by the one person who should hold the primacy and control in the investigation - i.e. the IIC?? Unless of course Hoody is the designated IIC...
MTF...P2
Ps - IIC & relevant Annex 13 references:
We get confirmation that the gear remained down, plus Hoody comes under fire in the latest from the Weekend Oz
:Quote:Pilots’ anger as facts lost amid plane crash fallout
Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Greg Hood speaks to the media about the fatal plane crash at a Melbourne shopping centre that claimed the lives of five men.
The plane, with landing gear down, about to crash.
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The most important detail about the doomed flight VH-ZCR, which plunged into a Melbourne shopping centre this week killing all five onboard, is the one not disclosed by the chief commissioner of the body charged with investigating the crash.
That detail changes the course of the story so far: when the Beechcraft B200 Super King Air lost power in one engine — almost certainly the left — its landing gear was down.
When the relatively new chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Greg Hood, fronted media the day after the accident, he declined to mention this fact, even though a subsequent statement cast doubt over the pilot, Max Quartermain.
“Certainly, modern aircraft with two engines are designed to climb away on one,” he said on Wednesday.
That, according to pilots and a well-placed air safety source, is only part of the story.
Stephen Thompson, a retired pilot with the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Queensland, is only alive today, he says, because when the engine on his Beechcraft C90 failed on take-off near Mount Isa in 1997, he had just retracted the landing gear. “There is not a pilot in the world who could have climbed that aircraft away,” Thompson says. The gear creates drag and slows the aircraft.
Quartermain — who was ferrying American golf buddies Greg DeHaven, John Washburn, Glenn Garland and Russell Munsch to King Island — would have taken off close to “blue-line speed”, the critical momentum that allows the plane to climb away, but disaster appears to have struck almost immediately after the wheels left runway one-seven at Essendon Airport.
“It is normal for the pilot to accelerate to close to the blue-line speed and, when the aircraft lifts off, he looks at the panel of instruments to see if the aircraft is climbing properly,” Thompson says. “If that is the case, he lifts the gear up. That usually takes about three to four seconds. It could be up to six seconds before the aircraft gets into a clean configuration.”
An engine failure in those critical seconds denies an opportunity for the pilot to climb away.
In the crucial final moments of the flight, just before it smashed into the DFO shopping centre, vision shows the wheels of the Super King Air extended.
A slim chance of survival is offered on a longer runway, potentially allowing the pilot to land again, but the north-south runway one-seven at Essendon is much shorter than the east-west runway. Beyond it is the Tullamarine Freeway and many houses.
In any case, Quartermain did not have flaps deployed in a landing configuration. By all accounts, he appears to have allowed the plane to twist to the left, or deliberately steered it away from buildings and a packed freeway.
Many pilots feel the comments by ATSB boss Hood were unfair. “Watching the ATSB press conference and hearing this was a little off-putting — it does seem like a hugely broad ... statement,” one wrote in an online forum.
Another wrote: “Pretty broad statement there. Better off keeping your mouth shut unless you are going to fully explain.”
An air safety source familiar with the incident — though not part of the investigating team — said the engine appeared to have failed “at the worst possible moment”. “What Greg (Hood) said is right, providing the (landing) gear is up, the propeller of the dead engine is feathered (positioned to create less drag) and you’ve kicked in the opposite rudder,” he said. “If you manage to do all of this in less than a second, because that is all the time you’ve got, then you stand a chance.”
A spokesman for the ATSB clarified Hood’s comments following questions from this newspaper.
“The intent of Mr Hood’s comment in the media conference was a general statement about how single-engine power loss in a twin-engine aircraft does not automatically mean the plane can’t fly, necessitating a forced landing,” he said. “We don’t yet know what the pilot was facing or what cues he was getting to help manage what was a complex situation.
“Mr Hood was not speculating on any of these factors when making his statement.”
The ATSB issued an update yesterday. “A number of components, including the aircraft’s engines and propellers, have been recovered for detailed examination at Essendon Airport. This will take place into next week,” the statement says.
Quartermain’s daughter Melissa spoke for the first time yesterday in a video released on behalf of her mother, Cilla, and brother Max. “I’d firstly like to acknowledge the pain everyone affected by this tragedy is experiencing. Our hearts go out to all, especially the families of the people who died in this tragedy.
“Secondly, we extend our utmost gratitude for the love and support from our friends and family. It’s been a tremendous comfort. The support provided to us through official channels has been outstanding. It’s made us so proud of this country,” she said.
“Our dad meant so much to a lot of people. To us, he was our hero, our inspiration and our rock. We will miss his generosity, his energy and his passion for his work.”
Quartermain hired the plane from the former directors of MyJet, who retained ownership of the aircraft despite transferring the air operator certificate to Australian Corporate Jet Centres. The paperwork had been approved but was sitting in the CASA system and ACJC was not aware its operator status had taken effect.
Former pilot Craig Zilko, who lost a friend in a similar accident in the 1970s, said it was that short but critical moment when the engine failed on take-off that was “every pilot’s worst nightmare”. “That split second to diagnose, then to try to rectify and, failing that, successfully execute a Plan B,” he said.
In the first instance, it is not clear what caused the engine to fail or even whether the second engine also faltered. Investigators will have other incidents to inform their work.
In 2014, a carbon-copy crash occurred in Wichita, Kansas. A pilot of a B200 plane experienced left-engine failure, also with the landing gear extended, failed to make it above 120ft, banked left and crashed into a building. Investigators concluded the “pilot did not follow the emergency procedures for an engine failure during take-off, which included retracting the landing gear’’.
A component in the hydraulic landing gear of the B200 involved in the Essendon crash was replaced about two months ago.
In late December, former Victorian pilot Darren Wilton watched Quartermain take off smoothly in the same B200 plane at Murray Bridge in South Australia. “I suspect what will be found (in the crash investigation) was he realised it wasn’t going to make it over the building. If he had gone for the freeway, that’s 100 litres of jet fuel. When that hits the ground at 100 miles an hours, it explodes. I tend to think he made that choice.”
P2 comment - Despite the obvious high profile nature of this tragic accident, it did strike me as odd that Greg Hood was front, centre and flapping his gums un-aided by the one person who should hold the primacy and control in the investigation - i.e. the IIC?? Unless of course Hoody is the designated IIC...
MTF...P2
Ps - IIC & relevant Annex 13 references:
Quote:Investigator-in-charge — Designation
5.5 The State conducting the investigation shall designate the investigator-in-charge of the investigation and shall initiate the investigation immediately.
Investigator-in-charge — Access and control
5.6 The investigator-in-charge shall have unhampered access to the wreckage and all relevant material, including flight recorders and ATS records, and shall have unrestricted control over it to ensure that a detailed examination can be made without delay by authorized personnel participating in the investigation.
Non-disclosure of records
5.12 The State conducting the investigation of an accident or incident shall not make the following records available for purposes other than accident or incident investigation, unless the appropriate authority for the administration of justice in that State determines that their disclosure outweighs the adverse domestic and international impact such action may have on that or any future investigations:
a) all statements taken from persons by the investigation authorities in the course of their investigation;
b) all communications between persons having been involved in the operation of the aircraft;
c) medical or private information regarding persons involved in the accident or incident;
d) cockpit voice recordings and transcripts from such recordings; and
e) opinions expressed in the analysis of information, including flight recorder information.