NTSB Identification: CEN15LA433
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Saturday, September 26, 2015 in Fort Wayne, IN
Aircraft: CESSNA 150F, registration: N6922F
Injuries: 1 Serious.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators may not have traveled in support of this investigation and used data provided by various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
On September 26, 2015, about 0345 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 150F, N6922F, impacted terrain during climb after takeoff from Fort Wayne International Airport (FWA), Fort Wayne, Indiana. The airplane received substantial damage. The private pilot and a passenger sustained minor injuries. The airplane was registered to and operated by the pilot under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight that was not operating on a flight plan. Night visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The flight was originating at the time of the accident.
FAA Flight Standards District Office: FAA South Bend FSDO-17
The randomness and potential mayhem of a plane accident are particularly disconcerting, and when it happens, a community instinctively wants to know why it happened.
Such was the case when a small plane got into trouble after taking off from Fort Wayne’s Smith Field early September 26. On its way to land back at the airport, the Cessna 150F struck trees, a power line and a rooftop and flipped into the backyard of a Ludwig Park Drive home.
Federal Aviation Administration officials are investigating, and the National Transportation Safety Board has also taken an interest. But any report is predicted to be weeks away.
Shouldn’t local authorities be a little more involved, if for no other reason than to give the public some answers?
No one on the ground was hurt in the 3:45 a.m. crash, though a passenger in the plane was treated at a local hospital for injuries. The pilot apparently walked away from the scene. Beyond that, there was little information available to the media and the public.
Wednesday, attorney Michael Loomis said he already had notified the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board that Jeffrey Mills, the registered owner of the plane, was indeed the pilot. Loomis said Thursday that Mills had left the site of the crash “dazed and confused” and was also getting medical assistance, adding that “I can tell you that he has medical conditions outside the incident.” In fact, Loomis said, he had strongly recommended to his client that he surrender the medical license that allows him to pilot a plane.
By then, it had become clear that local police were not involved in the probe and that Indiana State Police had only a limited role in the investigation. The Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority would have gotten more involved if the plane had actually crashed on airport authority property, a spokesperson said.
“We are the lead agency on the accident investigation,” Anthony Molinaro, FAA spokesman for the Great Lakes Region, said Friday. Though agency representatives had not talked with Mills, FAA officials have viewed the crash site and will interview witnesses, study records and issue a report, Molinaro said. “We will be in touch with the pilot,” he said.
But Molinaro made it clear that the FAA would only be investigating the circumstances of the crash itself.
While Loomis has provided some answers to the media, his responsibility is first, of course, to his client.
The public still knows very little about the circumstances that led to the crash, and doesn’t even know what questions are going to be asked and answered by federal investigators.
- Who was Mills’ passenger?
- When will the two of them be interviewed about the accident?
- Are authorities convinced Mills was just taking a pleasure spin around the airport area in the middle of the night, as he told his attorney? What caused the plane’s engine to sputter out?
- Did Mills’ medical problems play into what happened and, if so, is there something other pilots should learn from the incident?
- Is there anything more local air authorities should be doing to ensure that apparently spur-of-the-moment airplane rides in the middle of the night are conducted safely?
- Is that OK with everybody?
- Or should there be some kind of protocol to get local authorities more involved in such investigations?
Original article can be found here: http://www.journalgazette.net/opinion/editorials
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