Kelly I'll explain you have a heavy to
extreme cell at your 1 to 2 o'clock
reports the pilot of the plane may have
been doing aerial acrobatics justify no
stretch of the imagination are we healed
and we may never be
it's the afternoon of December 16 2012
on the ground at the Summerville South
Carolina Airport the pilot of November 5
7 1 for whiskey a Piper Cherokee 160 is
preparing to depart for Fayetteville
North Carolina 135 nautical miles to the
northeast the 63 year old pilot is a
former Army physician and current Chief
of Surgery at Fayetteville Medical
Center he holds a private certificate
and instrument rating though he's
accumulated roughly a thousand hours
total flight time in the past nine years
he's logged only four hours under the
hood and 16 hours in actual IMC limited
as it is that experience will be helpful
during today's flight the Duat s--
weather briefing makes it clear that
Fayetteville is IFR with ceilings
between 300 and 1000 feet visibility is
expected to vary between three and six
miles with rain showers in the area and
route the situation is better the area
forecast calls for clear air between
roughly 2500 and 8000 MSL likewise
ceilings and visibilities east of the
route are expected to be somewhat better
and the pilot chooses Columbus County
Airport 45 miles southeast of
Fayetteville as his alternate it's just
after 2:00 p.m. when the Cherokee
carrying over four hours of fuel departs
on the 75 minute flight the aircraft is
soon established in crews at 5,000 MSL
and all communications are routine 45
minutes later though things start to
slip the pilot seems distracted after
being handed off to Fayetteville
approach in one case failing to respond
to an instruction it's 3 o 4 p.m. when
the controller clears him to descend
onto the initial segment of the ILS
runway 4 approach therefore 1/4 whiskey
to center maintain 2300 verify
established cells of 360 little quarter
circle kids came on and it's a human
Tatsuo posilutely points affirmative
a few minutes later the pilot advises
the controller that he's established on
the localizer though he appears to be
having difficulty tracking it precisely
shortly thereafter he's handed off to
Fayetteville tower and cleared to land
but the aircraft's path down the final
approach course has become erratic and
ATC takes notice
remorseful was he receiving the
localizer number one for whiskey Roger
maintain 2,000 suggest heading zero to
zero to join the localizer to zero over
the next few minutes things continue to
deteriorate oh please level all four
we're still checking the drifting around
of course I did you hit it remember one
for whiskey did you ever receive the
gospel the more for whiskey rise you
want to come back out for another first
okay if it looks something you remember
one for whiskey I can't really tell what
with you're ready to descend if you want
to start that descent and execute a
localizer only approach the cleared ILS
Russian localizer runway for probably
thirty seconds later with the aircraft
at roughly 1100 AGL and a mile from the
runway the controller makes a decision
number one for whiskey approach
clearance cancel clown 19 2005 runway
heading copy quater world were hitting
offices up
in hindsight it seems likely that the
pilots troubles began around the time he
was handed off to Fayetteville approach
probably while operating in visual
conditions post crash analysis showed
that his statement about losing some
gyros was correct the aircraft's vacuum
pump was inoperative at the time of the
accident and had almost certainly failed
or at least begun to fail by the time of
the initial approach the casual response
to this problem on both his and the
controllers parts suggests that neither
understood the true gravity of the
situation in IMC a vacuum pump failure
and attendant loss of attitude and
heading indicators is an emergency
situation partial panel flying is
challenging few pilots stay fully
proficient in it and in real world
flying many fail to recognize that
there's even a problem until it's too
late given that and given the weather
and fuel situation there was simply no
good reason for the pilot to initiate an
approach much less press on when things
were obviously going poorly
it's now 3:15 p.m. and the controller
asks the pilot if he'd like to try again
we're still showing overcast here at 500
and you're just coming out of 1,200 feet
there half a mile out so we're just
going to do this again that's all right
okay final question the tower controller
coordinates the second approach and
hands 1/4 whiskey back over to approach
control before briefing the controller
relieving him on the situation he's
having a lot of problems holding the
steady heading to watch him real hard
when he does this next approach
meanwhile the pilot continues to
struggle with directional control waffle
whiskey what heading are you going huh
Fidel currently 3 1 0 & 1 4 we see Roger
you still defying up at 2:00 Tuesday are
you happy this is your reflection and
one for Co you haven't promised the
airplane came off I hope you heading
tail off Oh charlie Oh char oh I'll take
statistics to a crime a little bit it
goes all for self ourselves
I want for with you can you navigate to
own little airports that you have no
gyro oh sure I can
1 1 4 with you wait for you wanna go
there co-op supervisor voice Roger
Cherokee one for with the food reckless
County Airport on 19 3000 the pilot
however fails to acknowledge the
clearance over the next 30 seconds the
aircraft is clearly not under positive
control there are five Sarah one for
whiskey fair approach and I'll appears
that young you're out to change
radically he's going up to 1,800 down to
1809 up to 2,300 are you okay oh no oh
hell does here is no do you want to come
into Fayetteville first place that
thought goes unfinished and soon the
controller queries the pilot about his
experience with no gyro procedures I
want for what he can do on gyro non
gyros 90 turn effect so we are
all right one for whiskey I'm Caroline
posing suck turn oh yeah I want the
liske you didn't let that altar
despite this the controller tells the
pilot to expect another ILS approach to
runway four at Fayetteville and soon
things seem to be going much better as
the controller spends the next few
minutes vectoring one for whiskey for
the approach the pilot is able to fly
headings and altitudes with only minimal
deviations I want four whiskey for must
on post brakes turn right heading north
panel at zero one zero maintain 2,000
2,000 localizer cleared ILS rapport
approach
by the time ATC cleared the pilot of 1/4
whiskey for a second ILS approach to
Fayetteville two things should have been
clear to all involved first the pilot
was having serious trouble controlling
the aircraft in IMC second his control
problems abruptly disappeared for
several minutes prior to the second
approach the reason was simple the
aircraft temporarily entered visual
conditions to be fair the pilot never
pointed this out to ATC though it's also
fair to say that the controller should
have observed the situation and drawn
appropriate conclusions given those
simple facts diverting to the alternate
Airport as the pilot had requested and
was briefly cleared to do was plainly
the correct choice the weather was
generally better to the southeast and
Columbus was solid VFR with 10 miles
visibility and a 5,500 foot ceiling
unfortunately the pilots control
difficulties around this time seemed to
have persuaded ATC that the best course
of action was a second approach to
Fayetteville still IFR under 500 foot
ceilings even more unfortunately the
pilot obviously busy with the aircraft
and apparently reluctant to press
matters with ATC accepted the suggestion
even after entering VMC that compound
error sealed his fate
I want for whiskey for my son so sprigs
TURN RIGHT heading north Donald at zero
one zero
maintain 2,000 2,000 Eliezer clear ILS
rapport approach you copy
are you here to get sewer one one zero
they say themselves their career fruit
in the cockpit the pilot turns to the
specified heading and just over a minute
later is contacted by ATC I want focus
you pick it up the localizer or are you
going to start your descent you starting
your decent on the two together
1 4 cm 18 mm when you thousand are
localized to establish that's total of
gloves are you picking at the glass so
take it off o'clock it's the last anyone
will hear from Cherokee 1/4 whiskey on
the controller's radar scope the
aircraft has already begun a descending
right turn off the localizer course on
the ground
witnesses hear a loud engine noise and
see smoke rising from a wooded area
and one full whiskey you watch er United
when I look lies anymore
one full whiskey maintain three thousand
five seven one full whiskey fair
approach how do you hear me you can hear
me out in hey you see the aircraft out
there at all negative I think that
aircraft money went down about five
miles the crash of cherokee one for
whiskey holds a number of lessons for
both pilots and air traffic controllers
most obviously it highlights the need
for pilots flying IFR with vacuum power
gyros to understand their systems
vulnerabilities and install backup
instrumentation or power sources partial
panel training and no gyro approaches
are stopgap measures for worst-case
scenarios not the first line of defense
equally important
pilots and controllers both need to
understand that as with the loss of any
primary system a vacuum failure an IMC
is an emergency situation had the pilot
of Cherokee one for whiskey declared an
emergency and made it clear that he
needed to remain VFR he'd almost
certainly be alive today
stepping back a bit it should also be
said that given his limited experience
in IMC the decision to undertake a solo
flight to an airport with ceilings
barely above ILS minimums was
questionable that's not to place all the
blame on the pilot indeed the NTSB in
it's probable cause pointed broadly to
ATC's deficient training in emergency
procedures and specifically to the
Fayetteville controllers inadequate
assistance as contributing factors be
that as it may however as pilots the
buck still stops with us controllers
have a difficult job and more than ever
they do it without the benefit of
personal flying experience a fact worth
remembering if we fail to make our own
decisions we risk having them made for
us
and as this tragic unnecessary accident
shows a positive outcome is by no means
guaranteed
you