These engines do fail because of turbine blade failures whether the failure itself is due to poor maintenance, faulty parts, corrosion or metal fatigue, they do fail. Until the tear down report is released (I suspect Fuddy’s brother’s lawyer may have a copy) we won’t know.
I use the planes registration number from the aviation safety net report to search the NTSB database.
Look at this crash from November, 2012.
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/GenPDF.aspx?id=CEN13FA049&rpt=p
Still no final report. Sometimes the NTSB is just slow.
FAA would not release any of the findings of their compliance investigation because the NTSB wasn’t done with their investigation yet and they were supposedly worried that somebody like me could alter records that the NTSB might eventually need for their investigation. If in the same pre-final-report situation the NTSB itself released records to Fuddy who could actually be motivated to alter records in order to gain financially, I call foul.
HDOT claims it won’t release ANY airport records as long as there is ANY investigation going on. Not to anybody. Ever. Of course, that was a week after the same guy told me I was being given a runaround because that whole excuse was a load of crock...
They have Finally come out with an Investigative Report: (http://dms.ntsb.gov/pubdms/search/hitlist.cfm?docketID=58552&CFID=461373&CFTOKEN=21723a869be2ce0a-C5CCE339-0127-C28E-16F5D6B3B54AFF74) and it at best is a thorough piece of obfuscation.
What is interesting is the P&W(Pratt & Whitney) Engineering report concerning the engine: pictures were taken, and a “white powder substance” was recorded. It was identified as “magnesium sulfate” and it coated the CT Hub where the turbine blades are located. Of course, seawater and magnesium can create this compound, but it exhibited a ‘fine coating’ over the entire assembly. Magnesium has a high flashpoint and burns “white hot” as it’s ignited. It merely took out the turbine blades which resulted in an immediate stall. The propeller didn’t seize(although later when the gearbox was corroded it did), and the fuel system didn’t ignite-which could have caused a ‘catastrophic’ explosion and scattered the aircraft in a zillion pieces.
Of course, the “obvious” was that it was staged; they ‘practiced’ with another plane of a different carrier in Hawaii 2 mos. prior, (http://dms.ntsb.gov/pubdms/search/hitlist.cfm?docketID=57831&CFID=461373&CFTOKEN=21723a869be2ce0a-C5CCE339-0127-C28E-16F5D6B3B54AFF74) and in this incident, the same plane w/the same engine with the same set of circumstances had the same occurrence; this time the pilots landed it with no fatalities.(in Hawaii)
The same white “glaze” showed up-they attributed it to ‘aggressive glass beading’ of the CT Vanes w/the turbine blades installed. The Aircraft Repair Vendor refuted P&W’s Engineering Report saying that they would “never do such a thing” and I agree with them. The blades are ‘loose’, and when the turbine is initially rotated, you can hear them ‘move position’. This would cause material to blow all over and migrate to further stages. But the “glaze” is unmistakable; suggesting “both” engines were subjected to the same treatment.
My suspicion was that the pilot, Clyde Kawasaki, was involved in it. If the ‘igniter’ was used again after initial climb, you could ‘pinpoint’ your crash, ensuring rapid rescue, and with a “hot”/vs cold magnesium ribbon taped inside the turbine next to the igniter, the pilot could simply ‘turn on’ the igniter again, this time with a hot engine and the magnesium would “vaporize”, taking out the turbine blades but not causing a catastrophic ‘explosion’ which would destroy the aircraft. There would be no ‘detonator’, wires or equipment that would have to be destroyed, or leave a tell-tale fingerprint; there’s plenty of magnesium in aircraft engines
to remove suspicion.
Of course, this plane was never meant to be ‘found’ once it sank, but the owner of Makani Air had it salvaged, finding it in 70’ of water. The pilots of both crashes were wayyyy overqualified for Cessna 208B’s; Clyde Kawasaki had many hours and instructor ratings in multi-engine, commercial aircraft. With both 208B’s crashing(a plane and an engine w/an impeccable record) within 2 months-in Hawaii????, and the circumstances of their failures remarkably similar, the single ‘clue’ in each crash was the “coating” identified as magnesium oxide over the CT Hub and blade area. I believe the glass beading in the 1st crash was ‘planted’ in an attempt to cover the coating.