I admit it. I did it. CBS has memos that say so.
I admit it. I did it. CBS has memos that say so.
Paul Wellstone was killed because the pilot of the airplane wasn't even close to being proficient. This is such BS I can hardly see straight.
Let me guess. Bush?
Hmmmm? How about we drag out the 80 deaths associated with Clinton and send them a little message.
No, not really. Coleman had moved ahead in the polls, partly as a result of Wellstone's Iraq vote.
Kerry ought to concede the race . . . in honor of President Reagan.
Their book and photos say "If the fuel was in the wings, why did the fuselage burn?" The obvious answer is that they were in the smoking section.
Man those peyote beans must have been real good!
No more true than right now - can you say Ron Brown, Vince Foster and the Clinton Dead Friends Society?
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 36,536
The credentials of anyone who knows aviation and/or the meticulous discipline of aviation accident investigation are conspicuously absent.
Give me a break.... over
Regards
These DUmmies obviously don't understand arkancide.
> ... killed in the mysterious crash of his small aircraft.
Umm, what mystery?
For those familiar with the sorry history of light twin
charter, there wasn't the least bit mysterious about it.
Some FR coverage:
NTSB: Pilot Error Caused Wellstone Crash
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1024329/posts
NTSB: Pilot error caused Wellstone crash
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1024293/posts
NTSB report finds nothing wrong with plane that crashed and killed Sen. Wellstone
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/857425/posts
No Mechanical Failure in Wellstone Crash, NTSB Says
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/808406/posts
My comments from the time:
> Wellstone liked the pilot of the plane on this trip
> and always requested this pilot for trips. Wellstone
> believed this pilot was a better pilot because he
> got Wellstone to his destination when other pilot
> failed to do so.
That alone would suffice. There's is no need for
conspiracy theories here. Small twin-engine charter
has, for over half a century, been a popular way
for celebrities to die. Buddy Holly made it trendy.
They're flying because they're in a hurry. Because
flight is relatively fast, they often wait until
the last minute to depart, and any delay means
"trip cancelled". Because they are "important
people", they hate wasting time waiting, so this
also drives them to last-minute departures.
Get-there-itis prevails.
If the celeb is still alive, that probably means
that they've "gotten away with it" before in
marginal conditions. Push your luck long enough, and
it will eventually, but surely, push back.
Politicians (as passengers), and doctors (as self-
pilots) may be the most extreme examples, because
their inflated sense of self-importance leads them
to think that they are above petty concerns about
icing, visibility, fatigue, etc.
Correction; should be: Don "Four Martinis" Jacobs, Ph.D.(Piled higher and Deeper)
They think we used a pumpkin cannon like this to wipe out Wellstone -- they just couldn't find the pumpkin in the wreckage.
Just damn.
If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
This dreck isn't even worth our time.
Which reminds me. I'll be up Jack Frosts way again this year. Anyone else have a message they want delivered? Cheney's list is a bit long this year, but Jack's got time. He enjoys his work.
They've been saying that ever since it happened. I still can't understand why they would even fly in the bad weather we had that day.
In April 1989, the pilot had been issued a notice of disapproval by the FAA following a flight check for his ATP certificate because of his unsatisfactory performance in several areas, including area arrivals, instrument landing system [ILS] approaches, normal/abnormal procedures, and judgment. He received additional training before retaking....
According to documentation provided by the pilot's wife, the pilot worked at Simmons Airlines (doing business as American Eagle) from November 1989 until April 27, 1990. Simmons could not provide investigators with any documentation regarding his employment at the company.(This is not the only time his records don't jibe with the real world's. However, airlines only have to keep a pilot's records for five years after he's gone. -C18F) However, the pilot's personal records indicate that he reported for Simmons' ground training...program consisted of 17 days of ground instruction, 3 days of training in a Frasca 121 flight-training device, more than 30 hours of flight training, and about 20 hours of initial operating experience. One of the pilot's personal logbooks indicated that he had completed only 13.6 hours of flight training in Avions de Transport Regional 42 aircraft and that he had passed a checkride during this training. (we're a few hours short of the 30 here...) The pilot's logbook also indicated that he had flown four revenue service flights as a first officer...(a total of 4.5 hours) (a few hours short of the 20 too. Gee, why didn't he finish? Read on...)
From February 2 to 20, 1990, the pilot stood trial on criminal charges for mail and wire fraud. He was convicted and sentenced to 2 years in prison and 5 years probation. The pilot submitted a letter of resignation to Simmons dated April 27, 1990. He began his prison sentence on June 8, 1990, and remained in prison until November 8, 1991, at which time he started serving the probation sentence, which he completed on November 7, 1996. (I guess that's why he never finished his probation with Simmons... he had another kind of probation to deal with).
According to the employment application the pilot filled out at Aviation Charter, he worked as a registered nurse... did not contain any information regarding previous aviation-related employment. (He probably did not want them to check and discover why he had resigned from Simmons, the kind of regional job a young up-and-coming pilot usually wants. Neither his employers nor Wellstone, apparently, knew he was a felon. To be fair to the guy, he never got in trouble with the law again, but wait till we look into his logbook before you call him reformed...) According to Aviation Charter records, the pilot had flown approximately 5,116 total flight hours, 598 hours of which he flew with the company, 200 hours of which were as a company pilot-in-command (PIC) in King Airs. He had flown approximately 101, 53, and 36 hours in the 90, 60, and 30 days, respectively, before the accident.
Aviation Charter's lead ground instructor stated that the pilot was average on learning airplane systems and that several company pilots had indicated that the pilot's flying skills were below average. (Well, we can't all be above average). Several Aviation Charter pilots who had flown with the accident pilot described him as "very meticulous," "by the book," "calm," and "laid back."
The pilot was also described as "friendly," "cheerful,""pleasant," "calm," and "diligent in his use of checklists." According to several Aviation Charter copilots, the accident pilot was generally well liked by them because he had a reputation for letting them fly the airplane.
A few copilots stated that because the pilot often let them handle the flight controls, they were not certain of his skill level. Several Aviation Charter pilots indicated that the accident pilot often allowed them to conduct the flights they flew with him as if they were single-pilot operations (that is, he allowed them to handle the flight controls and communications and perform all of the checklists without his assistance).
One Aviation Charter pilot expressed concerns about the pilot's flying skills, monitoring capabilities, and tendency to become distracted. Some company pilots stated that the accident pilot was not particularly assertive; however, other pilots stated that they thought the accident pilot could be assertive, if necessary. One company pilot, who had flown with the accident pilot shortly after Aviation Charter hired him, described him as "too timid to be a pilot." An Aviation Charter King Air pilot indicated that he had taken the airplane controls away from the accident pilot during an instrument approach because he could not maintain altitude. A company King Air copilot indicated that during level flight in IMC, he had to take the controls away from the accident pilot because he allowed the airplane to enter a 45° bank and a 1,000-fpm descent.
Further, another company King Air copilot indicated that during a flight with the accident pilot about 2 months before the accident, the pilot did not have his navigational radio tuned to the VOR in use for the approach, which caused the pilot's course deviation indicator (CDI) to provide erroneous indications during the entire approach. The copilot was the flying pilot and had his navigation radio tuned to the correct VOR and completed the approach without incident. The copilot stated that he later had to explain to the accident pilot the reason that his CDI was not indicating properly during the approach. According to Aviation Charter's director of operations and the company pilots who told Safety Board investigators about these incidents, none of them were ever reported to company management. (Until he killed himself and seven other people. How sad. The basic problem was, he was a nice guy, everybody liked him -- that was probably useful to him when he was doing his wire fraud way back when, too).
The pilot's logbook indicated that he had flown Senator Wellstone at least 12 times. According to the pilot's wife, he got along well with the Senator, who would often call her husband at home before scheduled trips. (Like the pilot, people who know Wellstone say he was basically a nice guy).
3 days before the accident, the pilot flew Senator Wellstone from STP to ...Rochester, New York, in a King Air 90. The copilot of this flight, ...who was the flying pilot, stated that during takeoff, instead of activating the yaw damper switch, the pilot activated the adjacent autopilot switch, which caused the airplane to pitch down.
The copilot stated that he (the copilot) immediately applied back pressure and then disconnected the autopilot, which caused the airplane to pitch up erratically before it returned to normal climb. The copilot stated that after the airplane was stabilized, he had to explain to the pilot that he had engaged the autopilot instead of the yaw damper and that the pilot replied, "Oh, that could have been pretty bad." (No comment)
...on the return flight to STP, the pilot repeatedly identified the airplane as "Citation 6356K" instead of "King Air 6356K." An air traffic controller eventually asked, "You wouldn't happen to be in a King Air today would you?" The pilot acknowledged his error and apologized to the controller. (For the non-pilots: it's important for controllers to know your type for a number of reasons, but mostly because it helps them to estimate your cruise, minimum, climb and descent performance - C18F).
1.5.1.2 The Pilot's Logbook History
After the accident, Safety Board investigators obtained five of the pilot's logbooks from his wife, the most recent of which began with a statement signed by the pilot and a notary public, dated January 23, 2001, which stated that the pilot had "lost his logbook(s) dating from 1979 to December 1994." The letter summarized the pilot's flight hours from 1979 to 1994 as 4,518 total hours, 3,379 hours of which were in multiengine airplanes. The notarized statement also stated that the pilot had "not operated an aircraft from 1994 to December 2000."
Safety Board investigators reviewed all of the logbooks provided by the pilot's wife. One logbook covered a period from December 1978, when the pilot received initial flight training, through May 1986. The pilot's flight time from May 1986 to May 1990 was recorded in two separate logbooks, and these logbooks contained conflicting accounts of his activity during this period. The disparities between these two logbooks included the following:
In addition, the two logbooks contained multiple entries by a certified flight instructor (CFI) who provided the pilot with training for his ATP certificate, but the signatures in the two logbooks were different. According to the CFI named in the logbooks, only one of the logbooks contained his actual signature.
The flight hours reported in the January 23, 2001, notarized statement contained in the pilot's most recent logbook represent an increase of more than 1,460 undocumented hours from the flight hour totals in the final entries of the two conflicting logbooks. Further, in August 1992, the pilot reported on an FAA medical certificate application form that he had a total of 3,250 flight hours, which is 1,268 fewer hours than he claimed in the notarized statement to have acquired as of December 1994. (You may miss the significance of these numbers if you are not a pilot. For someone who is not a professional pilot to accumulate 635 hours a year is quite difficult. Note also the contradiction with his other statements). Safety Board investigators did not find any records that could verify the hours reported by the pilot in his private logbooks. See figure 4 for a reconstruction of the pilot's reported flight hours.
unfortunately, I can't easily suck Fig. 4 out of the .pdf and put it here, but the graph shows an inexplicable jump in hours. The inescapable conclusion is that he pencil-whipped his logbooks.
I'll just give you some bullets on the copilot -- much more in the .pdf.
Once again, this incompetent co was a nice guy: "Pilots who had flown with the copilot described him as "friendly,""happy, "organized," "motivated," and "eager to learn."
Take two nice guys who can't quite fly confidently, add one senator and a staff, shake, and fry on the side of a mountain: instant conspiracy theory, but as you see, it isn't such a mystery at all. "In spite of what you may have heard, the plane was exceptional, the pilots well-qualified..." Jim Fetzer, the philosophy professor and conspiracy buff from U of Minnesota-Duluth writes. I guess he considers a pilot who is happy and organized, but can't land the plane, "well qualified." Isn't it a good thing he is lost in the philosophy department up there at that noted hotbed of philosophical thought, Snowshoe U, and not, say, an FAA Examiner? "Well, we missed the runway and we're kind of on fire here, but you have an honest face so I'll sign you off for your ATP!"
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F