Posted on 11/03/2006 12:43:11 PM PST by Ready4Freddy
WASHINGTON - A light wind was cited by federal investigators Friday for blowing a small airplane carrying Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle off course and into a New York City high-rise on Oct. 11.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the wind, coupled with the pilot's inability to turn sharply, forced the aircraft away from its intended path over the East River and into the building.
The airplane, which also carried flight instructor Tyler Stanger, struck the building and fell 30 stories to the street below. Investigators do not say whether they determined who was at the controls of the Cirrus SR20.
The report issued Friday said the airplane was flying along the East River between Manhattan and Queens when it attempted a U-turn with only 1,300 feet of room for the turn. To make a successful turn, the aircraft would have had to bank so steeply that it might have stalled, the NTSB said in an update on the crash.
Lidle and Stanger were making an aerial tour of Manhattan before flying back to California.
Though Stanger was an experienced pilot, Lidle was not.
Investigators found no problem with the propeller and engine, nor did they find any evidence of a fire or other damage while the airplane was in flight.
If the pilot used the full width of the river to turn, he would have had 2,100 feet, the NTSB said. Instead, the pilot was flying closer to the middle of the river, leaving a smaller margin for error, the staff report said.
Two days after the accident, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered small, fixed-wing planes not to fly over the East River unless the pilot is in contact with air traffic controllers.
Small planes could previously fly below 1,100 feet along the river without filing flight plans or checking in with air traffic control. The FAA said the rule change — a temporary one — was made for safety reasons.
The NTSB's update outlined factual information about the crash, but did not conclude what the probable cause of the crash was. The full board will likely vote on a ruling at a later date.
Could also be - Wind blew Lidle little plane off course
Wind or not, the cause was pilot error.
What a shame.
I'm sorry for his family, but because you have enough money does not mean you should fly a plane.
ML/NJ
Weather compounded with pilot error, actually.
Huh?! What happens during 'medium' to 'heavy' winds?
I don't know about the civilian NTSB, but in military safety investigations the weather is never cited as the cause of a mishap. Failure to predict poor weather or to account for it is called human/pilot error.
If it were me, my flight instructor would have been older than 26.
The FAA accepts a lower level of competency from civilian pilots, and they do cite weather as part-cause for accidents (like the microburst that slammed that Delta jet into the ground short of the runway at DFW a couple of decades back).
I agree, if this had been a military flight it would have been listed as pilot error.
The reality is, airplanes are easy to fly, and easier not to crash. But when your time is up, it is up.
Not sure, but as it was a prop plane, perhaps the pilot was attempting to turn with the engine's rotation so as to turn faster? Someone check which way that engine rotates...
Wind blows big planes around as well.....
Apparently standard procedure is to make a left turn--if the winds prevail out of the west (which would be their left flying up the river) it would make more sense to turn left. Plus, if they turned right, they'd end up over whatever land is on the east side of the river, and I think the edge of the river is the controlled airspace boundary.
Basically, they flew into a dead-end canyon and had to turn around, with the "dead end" being the entry to the controlled airspace around Laguardia. Lidle turned left from too far out over the middle of the river, probably one or both pilots realized the screwup when they saw the buildings looming up, yanked it too hard, stalled it, and recovered (the "wing bobble" some witnesses saw), but couldn't turn away from the building.
}:-)4
Very tragic for both families and those injured in the apartment house.
OK, that explains it. So the real problem was that they misjudged how close to the buildings they were when they started the turn and/or how much room the need to safely execute the turn. Maybe this is where the wind came in as a factor.
I don't believe it. This is just too stupid for any NTSB analysis. Light winds do NOT make airplanes fly into buildings.
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