Sunday, March 01, 2015

Piper PA-28-140, N1513J: Accident occurred March 01, 2015 at Wheeler Downtown Airport (KMKC), Kansas City, Missouri

NTSB Identification: CEN15CA158
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Sunday, March 01, 2015 in Kansas City, MO
Probable Cause Approval Date: 04/21/2015
Aircraft: PIPER PA 28-140, registration: N1513J
Injuries: 1 Minor, 1 Uninjured.

NTSB investigators used data provided by various entities, including, but not limited to, the Federal Aviation Administration and/or the operator and did not travel in support of this investigation to prepare this aircraft accident report.

Shortly after takeoff, following a touch and go landing, the engine sputtered and lost power. The left wing and empennage were substantially damaged during the forced landing. An examination of the airplane, engine, and related systems revealed no anomalies. The left fuel tank was empty and the right fuel tank contained 10 gallons of fuel. The pilot wrote that the loss of engine power was the result of fuel starvation.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
The loss of engine power due to fuel starvation.




At least one person suffered minor injuries after an aircraft apparently crashed Sunday night at Wheeler Downtown Airport.

One of the aircraft’s two occupants suffered a broken arm, said Joe McBride, a Kansas City Aviation Department spokesman.

The Piper single-engine aircraft lost power and went down on the north side of the airport on or near a gravel maintenance road, McBride said. It was unclear whether the airplane crashed or sustained a “hard landing,” McBride said.

Kansas City Fire Department personnel responded to the accident, which occurred just before 7 p.m.

Story and photo: http://www.kansascity.com

Cessna Citation Mustang, N7876C, JetBlue

Sarina Gumbert, an air traffic controller, will be honored this week in Las Vegas for helping a small plane avoid crashing into a JetBlue plane in midair back in October 2014.


ORLANDO --   An air traffic controller in Central Florida is being awarded for saving countless lives after she helped divert a small plane that was on a collision course with a JetBlue flight.

The near-crash happened just before noon on Oct. 24, 2014, when something unusual caught Sarina Gumbert's eye.

"Instinct takes over," said Gumbert, who is an air traffic controller at the Central Florida Terminal Approach Control, known as Central Florida TRACON. "Your training takes over, and you just start separating airplanes as best you can."

Gumbert said she quickly realized a Cessna Citation Mustang, which had just taken off from Orlando International Airport, was flying straight toward a JetBlue flight, and so she quickly told the small plane to make an immediate left turn.

Now she's being credited with saving dozens of lives.

"It's a little bit surreal when you look back and think about how close it got and what could have happened if I hadn't had caught it," she said. "I love my job. I love controlling airplanes."

Gumbert will receive the Archie League Medal of Safety Award from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association at its annual conference, which is being held Wednesday, March 4, in Las Vegas. The event honors top air traffic controllers from around the United States who ensured safety and saved lives during an emergency situation in 2014.

Gumbert, however, said she doesn't consider herself a hero.

"It's hard to say that it was heroic or feel that way because it's my job," she said. "That's what we're supposed to do. I did exactly what I was supposed to do that day, and it worked out really well."

Regardless, she's excited about being recognized as one of the top air traffic controllers in the country.

"There is 14,000 air traffic controllers in this country, and when one of us does something wrong, the whole country knows about it pretty quickly," Gumbert said. "But every single day, somebody in our career field does something extraordinary, and ... most of the time, the entire nation doesn't ever hear about it."

Gumbert describes herself as "calm and cool" — two traits almost required for air traffic controllers.

"Air traffic is one of those jobs where if you sound confident in what you're doing, the pilot is going to trust you," Gumbert said. "This award that I'm getting is one of those opportunities to actually bring positive press to what we do every day."

Story, two videos and photo:  http://www.mynews13.com

Accident occurred March 01, 2015 at Enterprise Park in Calverton, New York

Authorities are investigating the crash of a powered paraglider that left a 49-year-old Shirley man in critical condition Sunday at Enterprise Park in Calverton.

Marcelo Ibarra, who possibly suffered two broken legs, was airlifted by the Suffolk County police Medivac helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital, Riverhead police said in a statement. Police said the powered paraglider crashed about 8:20 a.m. soon after takeoff at the town-owned corporate park, which has an active airstrip and is a former manufacturing and test site for Grumman Corp. military aircraft.

No criminal charges were filed, but the probe of circumstances surrounding the crash is continuing, police said. Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter declined to comment, citing the ongoing probe.

Federal Aviation Administrator investigators were called to the scene by police. But the aircraft was not required to be registered and therefore the accident did not come under the agency's jurisdiction, the agency said.

"The FAA responded to the scene and confirmed the vehicle was not a registered aircraft," FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. Agency investigators would still obtain a statement from the operator of the paraglider, but would have no further role in the probe, she noted.

A man at the scene said he witnessed the accident. But the man, who described himself as a friend of Ibarra's and a fellow paraglider, declined to identify himself while being interviewed by authorities. Riverhead police also declined to identify the witness.

The man said the craft became unstable and Ibarra put his feet out to absorb the impact of the impending crash.

After the accident, "He was conscious, I went to him, took off his helmet, asked him a couple of questions," the man said. "He was lucid, he was awake, he was talking. His leg was hurting him and he basically just worried about his wife."

The man said he then called 911.

The witness, a fellow paraglider, said this is not the season for paragliding.

"This is actually a summer sport; most pilots I know are in hibernation right now. It's too cold for them," he said. "Only the hard-core paragliders are out flying right now."

Powered paragliding is a form of ultralight aviation involving a pilot wearing a motor on his back which provides the thrust to take off using an adapted paraglider or paramotor wing. It can be launched in still air, on level ground or by the pilot alone.

EPCAL, a publicly owned, private-use facility 3 miles west of Calverton's central business district, was given to Riverhead in 1998 by the Navy. Formerly known as the Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant, Calverton, the site was used by the Navy to assemble, test refit and retrofit jets built by Grumman.

Town officials have been trying to develop EPCAL into an industrial park.

The site covers 2,921 acres and contains two asphalt and concrete runways used by the Sky Dive Long Island group, which since 2000 has leased the facility from the town for its skydiving activities.

Story, video and comments:  http://www.newsday.com

Move pending for last house in lawsuit: Lenawee County Airport (KADG), Adrian, Michigan

A decision to move or demolish the last of five Lake Madison homes purchased by the Lenawee County Airport is on hold until spring.

The five houses were purchased with federal and state grant funding after extensive litigation over the airport’s impact on their safety and value. The case went to court after a runway extension project 10 years ago.

Two of the houses have been torn down, and two others were lifted and trucked from Lake Madison to Planeview Subdivision at the opposite end of the airport.

It will probably be spring before a decision is made on what to do with the last house, which is still occupied by the former owners, said airport manager Joe Malak.

“I leaned real hard toward wanting to have the houses moved,” Malak said. Relocating the houses nearby preserves the local tax base, he said, as well as avoiding the destruction of relatively new structures.

The first house purchased by the county, located on Cadmus Road, was torn down before a moving option was proposed, he said.

Plans were made last year to move three houses at the Lake Madison development. Arrangements could not be made in time to avoid the demolition of one house, he said. Windows and some other parts of the house were salvaged before it was torn down and the debris hauled away, he said.

The first move was done last summer, Malak said.

Equipment from Cliff McCormick House Moving and Excavation in Jackson returned in December to take a second house to a vacant lot in the Planeview Subdivision off Sand Creek Highway, just west of the airport.

Sections of fence were taken down at each end of the airport so the houses, loaded on trailers, could travel across the airport to their new locations. The trailers were allowed to travel on the airport taxiway, but not the runway, he said.

There is interest by the moving company in returning to pick up the airport’s remaining house, he said.

State and federal officials required the buildings be removed after they were purchased. The property is within a runway protection zone that was enlarged after the airport’s runway was lengthened from 4,000 feet to 5,000 feet.

There is pending litigation by eight other Lake Madison homeowners seeking to sell their property to the airport. 

- Source:  http://www.lenconnect.com

Incident occurred February 28, 2015 at Naples Municipal Airport (KAPF), Florida



Two F-18s made an unexpected landing at the Naples Municipal Airport on Saturday. 

According to airport authority officials, the Navy fighter jets left from Key West.  The lead aircraft saw a warning light turn on.  The F-18s landed at the nearest airfield -- which was the Naples Municipal Airport. 

The pilots are spending the night in Naples as they wait for Naval maintenance crews to arrive. 

Naples Airport Authority officials say this is a rare occurrence. 

Story and photos:  http://www.nbc-2.com