Thursday, September 25, 2014

Throwback Thursday: The day a plane crashed in Fullerton, California • No one died, but the air show disaster, 10 years ago today, left physical and emotional scars



Tony Albanese can’t use his legs. Burn scars cover three-quarters of his body. He lives in constant pain.

“I saved many peoples’ lives making that test flight,” Albanese said. “If I had just left and said, ‘The engine sounds fine,’ that plane would have crashed with 14 people in it.”

Instead Albanese, an airplane mechanic, was the only one permanently injured when a replica Ford Tri-Motor airplane spiraled out of control during an air show 10 years ago today at the Fullerton Municipal Airport. He had worked on the plane’s center engine and told pilot Jay Yoshinaga that he would join him for a “return to service flight.”

The Bushmaster 2000 stood as a proud symbol of classic aviation at the Fullerton airport, a replica of some of the first passenger planes in 1929. Yoshinaga provided sightseeing rides from the airport to the ocean and back for aviation enthusiasts who had paid $50 a seat.

As the airplane started its takeoff roll, it began to veer to the left off of the runway.

About midway down the runway the airplane lifted off the ground and flew over a crowd of people.

It climbed to about 50 feet, made a steep roll to the left, flying between the control tower and a light pole. It crossed over the boundary fence, and the left wing struck a moving vehicle before coming to rest against several parked cars.

Hundreds watched in horror as the plane’s wing sideswiped a car and then burst into flames.

Officials later determined that a rudder tie-down had not been removed, which kept the plane moving to the left.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined the crash was caused by inadequate preflight inspection by the pilot-in-command.

Yoshinaga was thrown from the cockpit and escaped serious injury. Albanese remained strapped into his seat, enveloped by flames. Airport workers ran to the crash scene with fire extinguishers and doused him.

Valerie Akin and her mother, Rebecca Perez, had minimal injuries after the plane clipped the front side of their car.

Bystanders helped Rebecca get away from the car. Valerie’s door jammed shut, so they pulled her to safety through the driver’s side.

The trauma, both physical and mental, has in some way stayed with them.

The Mechanic


Albanese lay in an induced coma at UCI Medical Center for a month, his spine broken and about 75 percent of his body badly burned.

Eight months after the crash he left the hospital, following skin-graft surgeries and a painful rehabilitation. He would eventually undergo more than 11 major surgeries and spend more than two more years in and out of hospitals.

In 2006, Albanese returned for the airport’s annual air show and answered questions about the crash. A year later he went back to the skies flying a special plane called a Sky Arrow. He flew it with the help of another pilot sitting behind him.

Though he settled for $200,000, Albanese, 56, is running out of money and living on disability. His father has taken a reverse mortgage on the family home but Albanese isn’t sure how he can afford to pay it when his parents die.

The Pilot


Yoshinaga wished he had walked away.

He’d arrived at the airport in his own plane. But when he got there, Albanese was working on the Bushmaster’s engine. It wouldn’t start right away and he kept waiting.

“I don’t know why I stuck around,” he said. “I should have just gone home. Many times I was going to leave and they kept convincing me to stay. Something didn’t feel good.”

Yoshinaga, now 55, does his best not to think about the crash. He’s in management at Boeing Co. His parents are elderly, and he’s there to help out. But despite his best efforts, thoughts of the crash seep into his mind.

“I remember waking up in the hospital and wondering what I was doing there,” he said.

Yoshinaga, then a mechanical engineer at Boeing, didn’t know what day or month it was when he woke up. He had a fractured vertebra, significant burns and his front teeth were smashed. He was hospitalized for more than a month. All he thought about was going back to his job and getting back to normal life.

“I wanted to make sure I was still functioning,” he said.

He went back to work and went through out-patient rehabilitation. Over time he improved physically. Emotionally, he was spent. For the next two years he would be in court facing lawsuits.

“It was very stressful and worse than the physical trauma,” he said. “I felt like I had no control. I had zero memory of what happened. ... I’ll never say I wasn’t responsible, but I wish I had made a different decision.”

The Women in the Car
Perez and Akinhave moved to Northern California. Both women are nervous about flying and still vividly remember the day of the crash.

Akin remembered seeing a giant propeller and the body of the plane engulfed in flames a few feet in front of their car. That evening, she watched the news from home because some part of her still wasn’t convinced that it all had really happened.

“It finally became clear that this event was a miracle, because everyone involved survived,” Akin said. “I know how lucky I am, especially when I learned that Tony Albanese wasn’t so lucky and is now paraplegic from the crash. I haven't met Tony but talked with him over the phone. He had such a positive spirit and he was just happy to be alive himself. It really humbled me and put everything into perspective. My car ended up being like a pillow for the Bushmaster plane. Had my car not been there at that moment, the plane would have impacted on pavement and Tony would not be alive.”

Perez, now 66, often thinks of the crash and ducks even if a bird flies overhead.

“It took me at least seven years to even get on a plane,” she said. “I get a bit on edge but I keep myself occupied and try to not think that I am on a plane. I am very grateful to everyone that came to our rescue that day and that there were no fatalities.”

Akin, 41, is married and has a 6-year-old son. She doesn’t fly commercial alone and sometimes has panic attacks.

“The car I drive must have a sunroof so that I can look up if need be and whenever I hear a plane I often look for it,” she said. “I don’t take my life for granted. I am closer with my friends and loved ones. Whenever I hear that song by Tim McGraw ‘Live Like You Were Dying,’ I cannot help but smile because I do know how precious life is and how it is a miracle I walked away from that fateful day on Sept. 25, 2004.”

Did you know?

The land that the Fullerton Municipal Airport is on was first used for flying in 1913 while it was still a pig farm. Barnstormers and crop dusters used parts of it as a makeshift airstrip. It was later a sewer farm. In 1927, William and Robert Dowling, with the aid of H. A. Krause and the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce, petitioned the City Council to turn the abandoned sewer farm into a landing field.

The Fullerton City Council approved an ordinance in 1927 making it an airport. The council leased the land to the chamber for five years, at a fee of $1 per year. Fullerton took control of it in January 1941.

Today the airport is 86 acres and accommodates 600 planes.

Source: City of Fullerton

Story and Photo:  http://www.ocregister.com


 

NTSB Identification: LAX04FA330.
The docket is stored in the Docket Management System (DMS). Please contact Records Management Division
Accident occurred Saturday, September 25, 2004 in Fullerton, CA
Probable Cause Approval Date: 07/31/2006
Aircraft: Bushmaster Aircraft 2000, registration: N750RW
Injuries: 2 Serious,2 Minor.

NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.

The airplane crashed onto a street adjacent to the airport shortly after takeoff. As the airplane started its takeoff roll, it began to veer to the left off of the runway. About midway down the runway the airplane lifted off the ground and flew over a crowd of people assembled at the airport for an airport appreciation day. The airplane climbed to about 50 feet, made a steep roll to the left, flying in-between the control tower and a light pole, and crossed over the boundary fence where the left wing struck a moving vehicle before coming to rest against several parked cars. Numerous photographs (including video footage) were taken by witnesses on the airport of the airplane on the takeoff ground roll and throughout the accident sequence. The photographs clearly show a nylon strap connecting the left elevator and rudder. It was surmised that the use of the nylon strap was as a flight control/gust lock for the airplane. During the investigation, a nylon strap was observed hanging from an S-hook that was attached to the vertical stabilizer/rudder hinge attach point. The loop at the other end of the strap had come apart, and when investigators looked under the left stabilizer/elevator hinge attach area they noted a similar S-hook attached to the hinge attach area.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:
the inadequate preflight inspection by the pilot-in-command, where the pilot failed to remove the makeshift gust lock attached to the rudder and left elevator of the airplane. As a result, the airplane veered off the runway surface during the takeoff roll, became airborne, and immediately began an uncontrolled descending left roll until impacting vehicles and the ground.


HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On September 25, 2004, at 1323 Pacific daylight time, a tri-motor Bushmaster Aircraft 2000, N750RW, impacted the ground during the takeoff initial climb from runway 24 at Fullerton Municipal Airport (FUL), Fullerton, California, and struck a car on an adjacent street. The pilot operated the airplane under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91. The airplane was destroyed. The commercial pilot and the private pilot rated passenger sustained serious injuries. The two people in the car sustained minor injuries from the deployment of their airbags. The local area flight departed at 1522. Day visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed.

The accident occurred during the Fullerton Airport Appreciation Day. A spectator at the airport videotaped the accident sequence, and provided the footage to the National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge (IIC). In addition to the videotape, spectators at the airport submitted numerous photographs. One such photograph, enhanced by the Safety Board vehicle recorders specialist, clearly showed a strap connecting the left elevator to the rudder. 

According to witnesses, as soon as the airplane began its takeoff roll, it started to veer to the left of the runway. The airplane departed the runway, went into the grass area that separated the runway from the taxiway, struck a runway light, and crossed over to the taxiway. The airplane rolled towards a crowd surrounding parked airplanes on the ramp prior to lifting off the ground. Witnesses said that the airplane continued in a left turn and went between the air traffic control tower and a light pole, and crashed. Witnesses reported that the airplane was about 50 to 100 feet above the ground, and the wings were 90 degrees to the ground, when it passed between the air traffic control tower and the light pole. 

Witnesses further reported that they did not hear anything abnormal with the engines when the airplane powered up for takeoff or at any point during the accident sequence. One witness reported that prior to the airplane impacting the ground he thought he heard an engine, or all of the engines power back.

Air traffic control personnel indicated that they issued a takeoff clearance for the pilot and after takeoff there were no further communications. 

PERSONNEL INFORMATION

Flying Pilot

The pilot held a commercial pilot certificate with ratings for airplane single and multiengine land, and instrument airplane. He also held a certified flight instructor (CFI) certificate with ratings for airplane single and multiengine land, and instrument airplane.

The pilot held a second-class medical certificate issued on September 24, 2003. It had the limitation that the pilot must wear corrective lenses.

The pilot had a total flight time of 3,700 hours. He logged 31 hours in the last 90 days, and 12 in the last 30 days. He had an estimated 54 hours in the accident make and model. He completed a flight review on June 18, 2003, in the accident make and model, which he also held a type rating for. 

Non-Flying Pilot/Mechanic

The passenger was a certificated private pilot, with a rating for airplane single engine land. He reported about 1,000 hours of flight time, none of which was in the accident make and model. 

The private pilot also held an airframe and power plant mechanic certificate, with a Federal Aviation Administration inspection authorization. 

AIRCRAFT INFORMATION

The airplane was a tri-motor Bushmaster Aircraft 2000, serial number 2. A review of the airplane's logbooks revealed that the airplane had a total airframe time of 1,420 hours at the last annual inspection, which was completed on March 1, 2004; there were no engine times recorded during the inspection. The tachometer for the number 1, 2, and 3 engines read 588.1, 479.1, and, 588.1, respectively, at the last 100-hour inspection dated February 29, 2004. 

METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS

The closest official weather observation station was Fullerton (FUL), located at the accident site. An aviation routine weather report (METAR) for FUL was issued at 1253. It stated: winds from 230 degrees at 7 knots; visibility 7 statute miles; skies clear; temperature 30 degrees Celsius; dew point 17 degrees Celsius; altimeter 29.88 inches of Mercury.

WRECKAGE AND IMPACT INFORMATION

Investigators from the Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) examined the wreckage at the accident scene. The airplane came to rest in an industrial section of Fullerton about 300 feet south of the airport on Commonwealth Avenue on a magnetic heading of 360 degrees. The first identified point of contact was a concrete divider that separated Commonwealth Avenue and a frontage road. On the north facing side of the concrete divider was a scrape mark with paint transfer. Adjacent to the concrete divider was a green electrical box that had a piece of airplane metal embedded in it. A road sign in the same area showed evidence of a clean cut, which is indicative of a propeller strike. 

About 5 feet from the concrete divider was the car that was struck by the airplane. Approximately 12 feet of the outboard section of the left wing was embedded in the front end of the car. The airplane, with the exception of the outboard section of the left wing, remained intact and came to rest about 20 feet from the car. Propeller marks were found in the road between the car and the airplane's final resting point. All of the engines' propellers exhibited signs of S-bending, leading and trailing edge gouging, and chordwise scratches. 

While photographing the area, a Safety Board investigator observed a nylon tie down strap hanging from the vertical stabilizer/rudder hinge attach point. When examined, the IIC noted an S-hook at the hinge attach point. The other end of the nylon strap had been folded over and stitched together to make a loop. The IIC noted that the stitching had been pulled apart and there was no S-hook attached to it. The IIC examined the underneath portion of the left horizontal stabilizer/elevator area, and found an S-hook at the hinge attach point. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Safety Board IIC released the wreckage to the owner's representative on February 5, 2005.

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