Friday, June 01, 2012

Beechcraft V35B Bonanza, N6658R and Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee, N23SC: Accident occurred on May 28, 2012 in Sumerduck, Virginia

NTSB Identification: ERA12RA367A
Accident occurred Monday, May 28, 2012 in Sumerduck, VA
Aircraft: BEECH V35B, registration: N6658R
Injuries: 2 Fatal, 1 Serious.
The foreign authority was the source of this information.

NTSB Identification: ERA12RA367B
Accident occurred Monday, May 28, 2012 in Sumerduck, VA
Aircraft: PIPER PA-28-140, registration: N23SC
Injuries: 2 Fatal, 1 Serious.

On May 28, 2012, about 1604 eastern daylight time, a Beech V35B, N6658R, and a Piper PA-28-140, N23SC, collided in flight in the vicinity of Sumerduck, Virginia. The Beech was destroyed, and the pilot and flight instructor were fatally injured; the Piper was substantially damaged, and the pilot was seriously injured. Neither of the local flights was operating on a flight plan, and both were being conducted under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Day visual meteorological conditions prevailed. The Beech departed Warrenton-Fauquier Airport, Warrenton, Virginia, on a flight review for the private pilot, and the Piper departed Culpeper Regional Airport, Culpeper, Virginia, on a personal flight.

The pilot/owner of the Beech was an employee of the NTSB, and the pilot/owner of the Piper was an employee of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Under the provisions of Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation and by mutual agreement, the United States delegated the accident investigation to the government of Canada. The NTSB designated an accredited representative to the investigation on behalf of the United States, and the FAA designated an advisor to the accredited representative.

The investigation is being conducted by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada under its statutes. Further information may be obtained from:

Transportation Safety Board of Canada
Place du Centre
200 Promenade du Portage, 4th Floor
Gatineau, Quebec
K1A 1K8

Tel: 1 (800) 387-3557
Fax: 1 (819) 997-2239
Email: airops@tsb.gc.ca
Web: http://www.tsb.gc.ca

Occurrence Number: A12H0001

This report is for informational purposes only, and only contains information released by or provided to the government of Canada.
    
 
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



 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."2

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