Never Forget January 31, 1996 Guardian Air San Francisco Peaks, AZ Beechcraft King 90 Flight Nurse: Laura Thomas Parada Flight RT: Karen Peebles Pilot: Stephen J. Tully NTSB HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn January 31, 1996, about 1305 hours mountain standard time, a Beech E-90, N300SP, was destroyed during an instrument approach to the Flagstaff Pulliam Airport, Flagstaff, Arizona. The pilot and his two passengers received fatal injuries. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed for the positioning flight and an IFR flight plan had been filed.The flight originated at 1228 on the day of the accident, and was to have made a medical patient pickup at Phoenix, Arizona. Shortly after takeoff from Flagstaff, the pilot contacted the maintenance department and reported an unsafe gear light. The maintenance department advised him to follow normal emergency procedures. He modified his instrument departure with Albuquerque Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZAB) to seek an area of VFR conditions to resolve the gear problem. Afterwards, he reported to ZAB that the problem was resolved. The pilot manually extended the landing gear with safe light indications.At 1251:41, the pilot requested a clearance back to Flagstaff when he was about 20 miles south of the airport. At that time, ZAB gave him the altimeter setting of 29.89 inHg. The ZAB controller cleared him to the Flagstaff airport via direct with the option of going direct to FRISY intersection to eliminate the procedure turn. He said he would go direct to the VOR. The pilot received clearance at 1255:38 for an ILS DME runway 21 approach, however, he did not have the current Flagstaff weather. Subsequently, the pilot advised ZAB that he had the weather. At 1257:48, ZAB cleared him for the ILS runway 21 approach and advised that radar service was terminated and to contact Flagstaff ATCT. At 1258:18, he contacted the Flagstaff ATCT and was advised to report SHUTR fix inbound. The local controller advised him that Flagstaff weather information ZULU was current. The pilot responded he had the weather and stated he was proceeding direct to the VOR. The local controller asked you are on the ILS, verify, and he responded, thats right Im doing the ILS 21.At 1302:48, the ATCT advised the pilot of new weather information which was: 600 feet scattered, measured ceiling 1,000 variable broken, 1,800 overcast; visibility 7 miles with light snow; and the ceiling was 800 variable to 1,200 feet. At 1303:01, the pilot acknowledged and that was the last radio contact with him. The last recorded radar contact was at 1305:06, at 10,000 feet msl. During the initial search phase for the missing aircraft radar data was obtained by the FAA Western Pacific Region from Albuquerque Center and reviewed. According to the radar data, the aircraft flew an outbound course west of the published course with a meandering and undulating flight path. Subsequently, the Safety Boards Office of Research and Engineering further refined the data which revealed a wide range of airspeeds during the outbound course from the Flagstaff VOR. On February 3, 1996, the wreckage was located at the 10,500 foot level on the northeast side of Humphreys Peak along the 354-degree radial about 15 DME from the Flagstaff VOR and 10 miles west of the final approach course. The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be: failure of the pilot to follow prescribed IFR procedures and his failure to maintain control of the aircraft. Factors relating to the accident were: the adverse weather conditions with icing and turbulence.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 04:45:31 +0000
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