James Michael "Mike" Duncan died unexpectedly on Monday, May 28, 2012. He was born in Wichita, Kansas on February 5, 1952. He received a degree in nuclear engineering from Kansas State University in 1974 and his Doctor of Medicine degree from the School of Medicine at the University of Kansas in 1977. Mike was a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and was certified in internal medicine, critical care and pulmonary disease. Mike began his career as a physician in the United States Navy in Portsmouth, Virginia from 1977 to 1985, before starting in private medical practice for 13 years.
Mike served as Deputy Chief Medical
Officer of the Space Life Sciences Directorate at the Johnson Space
Center in Houston, Texas. He began his work with the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) when he joined Wyle
Laboratories in 1999 to provide medical coverage to astronauts in
training in Star City, Russia. He became a flight surgeon for NASA in
2000 and participated in the Space Shuttle Program as Deputy Crew
Surgeon for STS-104 and STS-108 before being named Lead Crew Surgeon for
Expedition 6 to the International Space Station. He served as Manager
of Medical Operations for NASA from 2002 to 2004, and as Chief of Space
Medicine from 2004 to 2009. He became Deputy Chief Medical Officer in
2009. During his tenure at NASA, he received numerous awards, such as
the Johnson Space Center Superior Achievement Award and the NASA
Outstanding Leadership Medal. Mike led the NASA team that traveled to
Chile in September 2010 in support of the rescue of the 33 trapped
miners. For their efforts, they were awarded the NASA Exceptional
Achievement Medal and the 2011 Samuel J. Heyman, Service to America,
National Security and International Affairs Medal. The Service to
America Medals program recognizes the exceptional work of unsung heroes,
who are part of the federal workforce. In 2010, he was elected by his
peers as a full member of the International Academy of Astronautics. He
was also a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Senior Aviation Medical
Examiner, a Fellow in the American College of Chest Physicians and an
instrument-rated private pilot.
At the time of his death, Mike served as
the Chief Medical Officer at the National Transportation Safety Board.
Mike enjoyed many outside activities, traveling, cooking and flying.
Mike is survived by his wife of 35 years, Candace ("Candy") Hart Duncan.
He is predeceased by his parents, James Sydney and Glennis Ruth Duncan.
Other survivors include his brother-in-law, Charles Hart and his wife
Karla; his sister-in-law, Cheryl Hart-Morris and her husband, Don
Morris; and five nieces and nephews: Ben, Andrew, Carson, Reagan and
Paul. As passionate as Mike was about his wife, family and career, there
was a very special place in his heart for his beloved dog, Sophie.
Sophie would always put a smile on Mike's face. The family will receive
visitors at Joseph Gawler's Sons Funeral Home LLC, 5130 Wisconsin Ave.
in Washington, DC on Friday, June 1, from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. A
memorial service will be held at the funeral home on Saturday, June 2 at
11:00 a.m. Inurnment to be held at Arlington National Cemetery at a
later date. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be
made to the James Michael Duncan Engineering Scholarship Fund at Kansas
State University. The address is KSU Foundation, 2323 Anderson Ave.,
Suite 500, Manhattan, Kansas 66502.
Investigator in Charge John Lee and three other investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada will conduct a probe and write a report about Monday's mid-air collision over Sumerduck in Fauquier County, Virginia.
"Over the next few days, we'll be looking at the man, the machine and the environment," Lee said, giving a general description of the "field investigation."
Because the accident involved private planes, flown by pilots employed by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, the heads of those agencies requested outside investigators.
Two Transportation Safety Board of Canada investigators examining the wreckage from the Beechcraft BE-35. On May 28, 2012, at approximately 1621, a Piper PA-28 and a Beechcraft BE-35 collided in flight just over 6 miles from Warrenton-Fauquier Airport in Sumerduck, VA. After the collision, the Piper PA-28 crash landed in a field and the BE-35 crashed vertically in a lightly wooded area. The sole occupant of the Piper PA-28 survived, but the two occupants of the BE-35 were fatally injured
The crashed Piper PA-28. On May 28, 2012
Photo Credit: Lawrence Emerson
Transportation Safety Board of Canada Inspector in Charge John Lee conducts a press conference Wednesday afternoon at the Hampton Inn in Warrenton.
Canadian plane-crash investigators have been called in by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration - the two main U.S. air-safety agencies - after a fatal mid-air collision this week near Washington, D.C., that, bizarrely, involved pilots from the NTSB and the FAA themselves.
In one plane was Thomas Proven, 70, a crash investigator with the FAA, which regulates all air travel in the U.S.
In the other were pilot Mike Duncan, 60, chief medical officer with the NTSB - the lead U.S. air-crash investigation body - and passenger Paul Gardella, 57, a veteran flight instructor with Virginia-based Aviation Adventures.
When the two private aircraft collided and fell from the sky on Monday afternoon near a small regional airport in Virginia, southwest of the U.S. capital, the tragedy left Duncan and Gardella dead in the flaming wreckage of Duncan's Beechcraft BE-35 and Proven injured and taken to hospital after he managed a crash landing that tore a wing from his Piper PA-28.
Reeling from news of a deadly crash that, in a strange twist of fate, touched both of their organizations in a personal way, top officials at the NTSB and the FAA were also facing the prospect of having to probe the piloting actions of two of their own employees.
After discussions between NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman and the FAA's acting administrator Michael Huerta, the agencies turned to Canada for help in carrying out an impartial investigation of the crash.
"This accident hits especially close to home," Hersman said in a Tuesday announcement about the crash, adding she was grateful to Wendy Tadros, chairwoman of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, for promptly agreeing to send an investigation team to the Virginia crash site.
"The NTSB stands ready to support and assist them in any way we can," said Hersman.
The Canadian agency later issued its own statement explaining it was undertaking the probe on U.S. soil because of the "special circumstances" surrounding the crash - namely, the coincidence of the NTSB's top medical official and an FAA investigator accidentally crashing their planes into each other.
"We're going to lead the investigation," said TSB spokesman Chris Krepski, adding that the gathering of evidence, analysis of the wreckage and drawing of conclusions about what happened "will be carried out under Canadian law."
He said it's not unusual for Canadian investigators to be involved in a secondary capacity in a case outside of this country.
Whenever an aircraft that's Canadian-built, Canadian-registered or with Canadians on board is in an accident in the U.S. or elsewhere, the TSB is typically tapped for its expertise.
Canadian investigators also provide services occasionally in countries that don't have fullfledged crash-investigation regimes.
"But in this case," said Krepski, "it is a special circumstance because of the two [U.S.] agencies involved," and the inherent conflict-of-interest they would be facing in any crash probe.
"I can't honestly answer whether there's a precedent for this or not," said John Cottreau, another TSB spokesman who returned to Ottawa on Thursday after spending two days at the crash site in Virginia.
Jon Lee, the head of the fourmember Canadian investigation team, held a news conference Wednesday in Warrenton, Virginia, near the site of Monday's accident.
He said he hoped to be able to speak to Proven in the coming days, once the Maryland resident is released from hospital. "He did sustain some serious injuries," Cottreau said.
Proven "has some healing to do," he told Postmedia News. "So we're going to give that gentleman time to recuperate."
Source: http://www.timescolonist.com
FAA IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 6658R Make/Model: BE35 Description: 35 Bonanza
Date: 05/28/2012 Time: 1600
Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Fatal Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Destroyed
LOCATION
City: WARRENTON State: VA Country: US
DESCRIPTION
AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH ANOTHER AIRCRAFT IN FLIGHT. WARRENTON, VA
INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 2
# Crew: 0 Fat: 2 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
OTHER DATA
Activity: Unknown Phase: Unknown Operation: OTHER
FAA FSDO: WASHINGTON IAD, DC (EA27) Entry date: 05/29/2012
FAA IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 23SC Make/Model: PA28 Description: PA-28 CHEROKEE
Date: 05/28/2012 Time: 1600
Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Minor Mid Air: Y Missing: N
Damage: Substantial
LOCATION
City: WARRENTON State: VA Country: US
DESCRIPTION
AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH ANOTHER AIRCRAFT WHILE IN FLIGHT. WARRENTON, VA
INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
# Crew: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 1 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
OTHER DATA
Activity: Pleasure Phase: Approach Operation: OTHER
FAA FSDO: WASHINGTON IAD, DC (EA27) Entry date: 05/29/2012
No comments:
Post a Comment