Anti-Ice System Left Off in Crash of Executive’s Jet in Maryland
Anti-Ice System Left Off in Crash of Executive’s Jet in Maryland.
U.S. NTSB releases preliminary report on 2014 Maryland crash
Small jet was piloted and owned by a health-care executive
The pilot and owner of the plane never switched on the plane’s anti-ice systems before the Dec. 8, 2014, crash, which killed six people including a mother and two children on the ground, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The reports contain factual information, but the NTSB hasn’t concluded the accident’s cause yet.
About one minute and 20 seconds before impact, a warning system on the plane sounded to alert the pilot that it was flying too slow and banked too steeply to stay aloft. “Stall, stall,” said the warning system’s mechanical voice, according to a transcript of the plane’s cockpit recorder.
“Oh no,” an unidentified passenger said 13 seconds later.
“Whoa,” replied the pilot. Michael Rosenberg, 66, the plane’s owner and chief executive officer of closely held Health Decisions Inc., was at the controls at the time of the accident, according to the NTSB.
The plane, a twin-engine Embraer SA Phenom 100, was approaching Montgomery County Airport in Gaithersburg, Maryland, one of several airports around Washington popular with corporate pilots. The plane is one of the smaller models of corporate jets.
Weather data and reports from other pilots suggest that the plane was exposed to ice for about 15 minutes, the NTSB concluded. Ice that forms on wings or other aircraft surfaces not only slows a plane, but it can also disturb airflow and reduce lift from the wings.
The plane’s final seconds as it plunged “are consistent with an ice-contaminated airplane,” the NTSB wrote in one report.
The Phenom 100 uses inflatable rubber boots on the wings to break off ice before it can cause harm. If it had been switched on, it would have issued a warning about 20 seconds earlier, which would have given the pilot more time to recover, according to the NTSB.
January 20, 2016
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/
