Report blames fatal crash on pilot’s inexperience
By:David Learn
Inexperience was the chief factor in a plane crash that killed two
people last May, according to a report released Friday by the National Transportation and Safety Board.
The plane, a rented 1969 single-
engine Piper Cherokee 28-140,
took off at 3:45 p.m. May 29, 1999,
from Central Jersey Regional Airport and crashed in a wooded area
to the near of the fourth hole of the
Roycebrook Golf Course, located
near the airport.
The board’s report said the accident probably was caused by "the
pilot’s failure to maintain an adequate airspeed, which resulted in an
inadvertent stall." In aviation terms,
"stalling" indicates the plane is
pitched at an angle to get heavy
wind resistance, rather than indicating its engine has stalled.
The plane struck a tree and then
fell nose-down to the ground. Both
pilot John Jackson, 51, of Staten Island, N.Y., and his passenger, John
E. Coleman Jr., 53, of Laurelton,
N.Y., were pronounced dead at the
scene.
A single-engine Piper Cherokee
is one new pilots train on.
"It’s really your basic model,"
said Tina LoSardo of Amwell
Road, a private pilot with about
250 hours of flight experience. "It
doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that you would find in a more
powerful plane."
Mr. Jackson’s logbook, recovered from the plane, showed he had
not flown by himself since Oct. 26,
1998, but had flown with a flight
instructor on April 2, nearly two
months before the accident. He had
a total 117 hours of flight experience, and had been signed off on
the Piper Cherokee two months before the accident.
"No documentation was discovered that indicated the pilot had any
flight experience in the accident
airplane," the report stated.
Steve Richard, co-owner of
Central Jersey Regional Airport,
could not be reached for comment.
The report also indicated that
Mr. Jones needed help to start the
plane, but Ms. LoSardo said that is
nothing unusual.
"You could take five 140
planes, and each one would have its
own little knack to getting the ignition key to start," she said. "That probably was not part of the problem."
See a copy of the report by the National Transportation Safety Board.
See the report summary
See the entire report