A small twin-engine aircraft on a training flight that crashed on May 5 at the North Little Rock Municipal Airport, killing one of its two occupants, apparently lost power in an engine shortly after takeoff and was returning to the airport when the accident happened, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report released Monday.
Agency investigators have been unable to speak to the survivor, who is hospitalized for his injuries, but they based the account on statements he gave North Little Rock firefighters who responded to the crash scene, according to the report.
Preliminary performance calculations, based on available radar data and released as part of the report, appear to support his account.
The crash of the twin-engine Cessna 310F happened during a "check ride" required to be administered as part of the requirements for an air transport license, the highest-level pilot license under the Federal Aviation Administration and required for airline pilots.
Doyle Reynolds, 56, a designated flight examiner for the FAA, died in the crash. He had logged more than 12,000 hours in the cockpit and held an air transport license with ratings to fly single-engine land-based aircraft, single-engine sea-based aircraft and multi-engine aircraft, and to fly using only instruments, according the report. He also was certified to instruct in single-engine and multi-engine aircraft and to teach pilots how to fly using only instruments.
Daniel Shure, 30, identified in the report as the airline transport pilot applicant, suffered serious injuries. Shure, who is from Washington state, is a Nevada-based Air National Guard pilot who flew a Lockheed C-130 Hercules, a four-engine military transport. He listed a total of 950 hours of flight time on his application for an air transport pilot license, the report said. He also was licensed as a commercial pilot and had single-engine, multi-engine and instrument ratings.
According to information Shure provided the firefighters, he initially was piloting the aircraft. But following the loss of power in the left engine, Reynolds "took over airplane control and was attempting to fly the airplane back to the airport when the accident occurred," the report said.
Based on available radar tracks investigators reviewed, the Cessna appeared on radar at 1:29 p.m., shortly after departing Runway 5 and, according to the report, never climbed above an altitude of 800 feet mean sea level, or less than 300 feet above the ground. The airport is listed at 545 feet mean sea level. Mean sea level, which is the average height of the sea at all levels of tide, is used as a universal reference to altitude in aviation.
The airplane continued on a northeast heading for approximately 24 seconds before it entered a left turn to a southwest direction, the report said. The left turn took about 29 seconds to complete and had a turn radius of about a third of a mile. After completing the left turn, the airplane continued to the southwest on a ground track toward runway 17, while maintaining 800 feet mean sea level, until the final recorded radar point just before 1:31 p.m. The final radar data point was located about a third of a mile northeast of Runway 17.
The preliminary performance calculations also showed the speed of the aircraft decreasing throughout the short flight.
The Cessna initially maintained a calculated airspeed of between 98 mph and 110 mph during the climb out from Runway 5. But the speed decreased from 110 mph to 97 mph during the left turn, the report said. During the final 20 seconds of recorded radar data, the calculated airspeed further decreased to 91 mph.
According to airplane manufacturer documentation, the minimum controllable airspeed for the Cessna 310 is 80 mph, the best angle of climb on one engine is 95 mph, and the the best rate of climb on one engine is 111 mph.
Metro on 05/17/2016