NTSB: Pilot Error Caused Fatal Jet Crash

The captain of a Beechcraft 390 Premier failed to follow the correct procedures for an anti-skid failure, resulting in a fiery crash that killed five passengers, the NTSB said in its final report on Tuesday. The jet was returning to Thomson-McDuffie County Airport, in Thomson, Georgia, on February 20, 2013, when it failed to slow down after touchdown. The captain initiated a go-around. Nine seconds later, the jet collided with a utility pole about 1,835 feet from the end of the runway, 63 feet above the ground. The captain and first officer suffered serious injuries. NTSB Acting Chairman Christopher Hart said crew fatigue was a factor in the accident.
"This pilot's inadequate knowledge of his aircraft was compounded by his fatigue," said Hart. "As a result, five people died who did not have to. Just as pilots should not take off without enough fuel, they should not operate an aircraft without enough rest." The captain failed to adhere to the airplane's flight manual procedures for anti-skid failure in flight and did not retract the lift dump -- a critical system to assist in stopping the aircraft -- immediately after making the decision to perform a go-around, according to the NTSB. According to the checklist for an anti-skid system failure, the flap configurations available for the pilot were flaps up or flaps 10. Either of these configurations would have required a longer landing distance than the runway provided. As a result, the pilot should have sought landing at an alternate airport, the NTSB said.
Investigators found the aircraft had extended flaps 30 on the approach, which is prohibited by the anti-skid failure procedures. At the time of impact, the flaps were transitioning through flaps 15. Additionally, while both the airplane's flight manual and a placard in the cockpit warned against extending the lift dump in flight, the go-around was attempted with the lift dump deployed, making a safe climb unlikely. The full report is posted online.

The wreckage of an airplane that was missing for more than six months has been found in Marion County

The wreckage of an airplane that was missing for more than six months has been found in Marion County, Florida, about five miles from the airport where it last took off, local news outlets have reported. Daryl Burns was hiking in dense woods on Sunday afternoon when he spotted the wreck. Skeletal remains were found in the cockpit, Burns told The Gainseville Sun. The airplane, a Sonex, was largely intact, but it was upside down, and the engine was detached. Pilot Theodore Weiss, 74, had departed from the Marion County Airport for Zephyrhills Municipal Airport on April 5.
Volunteers had searched the forested area multiple times since the crash, according to The Sun. The wreck site was only about 300 yards from a state road, but it was hard to spot among the oak trees. "Our helicopter had trouble finding it -- even knowing where it was," said Lauren Lettelier, spokesperson for the Marion County sheriff's office. The wreckage has been removed.

Flying Car Crash Cause Determined

Some tangled parachute lines, a seriously aft C of G and some kind of air turbulence ganged up on a Maverick flying car to send it spiraling into a schoolyard in western Canada in early May. Canada's Transportation Safety Board turned over the investigation to the manufacturer of the aircraft, ITEC, to come up with the cause and the company's COO Troy Townsend traveled to Kelowna, British Columbia, a week later to conduct the probe. By analyzing video from two GoPro cameras onboard the aircraft, plus video shot from the ground by AVweb and airport surveillance camera video, Townsend and pilot Ray Siebring determined at least three independent factors contributed to the stall/spin that ended with the Maverick spinning from an altitude of about 500 feet into the playground fence of a school in Vernon, B.C., on May 10. "Any one of those factors wasn't enough to bring the aircraft down but they all added up together," said Townsend, who has hundreds of hours on the vehicle, which is really just a large powered parachute with a street-legal car as its payload

New Technology Will Produce Safer Maps

Pilots may presume that we now have access to accurate terrain maps nationwide, but in some remote areas, maps may be based on incomplete data or inaccurate observations that are decades old. "Mars is better mapped than the state of Alaska," Steve Colligan, president of E-Terra, an Anchorage mapping firm, told The Washington Post recently. Fatal accidents have been blamed on a lack of accurate terrain data that could have made a difference to pilots caught in changing weather in the mountains. Now the U.S. Geological Survey is leading an effort called the 3D Elevation Program, with the aim to chart all 50 states using state-of-the-art, accurate technology -- airborne lasers (lidar) or radar (ifsar).
The lidar (light detection and ranging) data and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (ifsar) data make it possible for the USGS to construct accurate 3-D terrain maps. "It's not an image; it's data," Kevin Gallagher, associate director for USGS Core Science Systems, told the Post. "That's what makes it so powerful. Lidar is like looking at the world through a new set of glasses." The project to collect all the needed data has run into funding obstacles, the Post reports. The effort to map Alaska started in 2010, but it's only about half done. High-quality lidar data is available for only about 4 percent of the U.S., according to the USGS. The agency estimates it would take eight years to collect data for the entire country.

Three Die In Midair At Frederick Airport (Updated)

Three people were reportedly killed Thursday afternoon at the Frederick, Maryland, airport when an airplane and a helicopter collided close to the runway. The airplane was a Cirrus SR22, according to WJZ-TV, and news photographs show firefighters with a deployed parachute from the aircraft.  Two men aboard the Cirrus were taken to a Hagerstown, Maryland, hospital where they were treated and released. The three men who died were on the helicopter, a Robinson R44 that was on a training flight
Gilbert Porter, 75, a passenger on the Cirrus told the Washington Post that pilot Scott Graeves, 55, were getting ready to land at Frederick when they felt the collision. Graeves deployed the chute and the aircraft settled in a copse of trees."I'm very lucky to be alive. What saved our lives was that parachute," Porter told the Post. Both Porter and Graeves live near the airport and were returning from a day trip to Tennessee when the collision occurred about 3:40 p.m. The occupants of the helicopter were all found near its wreckage. They've been Identified as Christopher D. Parsons, 29, of Westminster, Md.; William Jenkins, 47, of Morrison, Colo.; and Breandan J. MacFawn, 35, of Cumberland, Md. It wasn't immediately known who was flying.

Skydiving Altitude Record Shattered

Following a nearly three-year secret development program, computer scientist Alan Eustace today shattered the world skydiving record with a jump from 135,890 feet, a supersonic free fall and a safe landing 70 miles from his departure point at Roswell, New Mexico. The previous record skydive was from from 128,100 feet—it was set by Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner during a highly-publicized event two years ago. Eustace, 57, is a senior vice president at Google and has been described as an engineer with a deep passion for details and as well as a team-oriented leader. Forgoing a capsule for the trip aloft and the millions in sponsorship money used by Baumgartner, Eustace worked with scientists with expertise in spacesuit design, life support systems, balloons and parachutes to create a system that suspended him in a spacesuit as he was carried up to nearly the top of the stratosphere.
On a comparative shoestring budget, Eustace used GoPro cameras to record the experience and an off-the-shelf radio for contact with is ground crew. An explosive squib allowed Eustace to release himself from the helium balloon. During his free fall Eustace reached a maximum speed of 822 MPH and generated a sonic boom that was heard on the ground. His technical team also designed a carbon fiber device that prevented Eustace from becoming entangled in his parachute should he not be stabilized when he deployed the parachute. The United States Parachute Association’s director of competition, James Hayhust, verified the record and said the jump was “. . . legitimate science. I think they’re putting a little lookout tower at the edge of space that the common man can share.”

Virgin Galactic and Galactic Unite announce new Mandela inspired initiative

In celebration of Nelson Mandela on Mandela Day, Virgin Galactic and Galactic Unite have announced a new initiative, inspired by the great man himself.

Above: Virgin founder Richard Branson and Nelson Mandela.

In celebration of the wonderful Nelson Mandela on Mandela Day, Virgin Galactic and Galactic Unite are thrilled to announce a new initiative, inspired by the great man himself.

The premise of Mandela Day is that every one of us has the ability to make a positive impact in the lives of others. Galactic Unite, inspired and driven by Virgin Galactic’s Future Astronaut community, has already fostered a number of scholarships for students around the world in the STEM+ areas of education.

Today, Galactic Unite are excited to announce a new strand of this – the Galactic Unite South Africa Scholarship Programme. To mark the launch of this, the staff of Virgin Galactic are supporting the initiative with a new scholarship .

They have pledged to raise the necessary funds to enable the STEM+ education of a high school student in South Africa for three years, along with an engagement programme with Virgin Galactic staff providing mentoring and support. In doing so, Virgin Galactic looks forward to supporting Galactic Unite in their vision that in this new age of commercial space travel, educating the future generations on the advances in science and technology will help unlock answers to global challenges and change the world for the better.