Fatal Turboprop Crash in New Bedford, Massachusetts

A Pennsylvania trial lawyer, his wife, and a third person were killed in
tragedy last night when their Socata TBM turboprob crashed during a
second approach to New Bedford Regional in southeastern Massachusetts.
Weather conditions weren't great, with a mix of rain and snow, low
ceilings (around 200'), very low freezing levels, and reduced ground
visibility.

Also, the runway 5 ILS has been NOTAMed out of service, and there has
been a NOTAM that the approach lights to rwy 5 have been out of service
since about August due to a vegetation issue.

The Boston Globe had a detailed article about the crash, but the
discussion about the lighting system is very confusing.

"Norman Komich , a retired US Airways pilot, said airline pilots were
not allowed to land if ILS runway edge lights are not operating."
[who knows what the reporter told him about the crash to get that
quote about "edge lights."]
.....
"Lang confirmed that the runway lights that were part of New Bedford
Regional's ILS were off at the time of the crash. The lights extend from
the end of the runway 2,400 feet down each side of the strip."

[My impression is that approach lighting systems are part of the ILS,
but runway edge lights are not. There is no indication that there were
any NOTAMs for runway edge lights being inoperative, so perhaps the
2,400 ft is beyond the runway threshold, and the reporter misinterpreted
that as "down each side the strip."

(Boston Globe is owned by New York Times Co. so that may explain any
misreporting).


Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...ash/?page=full

Allentown Morning Call
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-...l=all-news-hed

On Sat, 03 Feb 2007 13:08:48 -0500, Owen Rogers
wrote:

A Pennsylvania trial lawyer, his wife, and a third person were killed in
tragedy last night when their Socata TBM turboprob crashed during a
second approach to New Bedford Regional in southeastern Massachusetts.
Weather conditions weren't great, with a mix of rain and snow, low
ceilings (around 200'), very low freezing levels, and reduced ground
visibility.

Also, the runway 5 ILS has been NOTAMed out of service, and there has
been a NOTAM that the approach lights to rwy 5 have been out of service
since about August due to a vegetation issue.

Darn.

PVD is minutes away.

PVD is minutes away.

Mother nature and the laws of physics do not care if you are a hot
shot trial lawyer, apparently...

What will cause lawsuits in this case is leaving the ILS transmitter
on when notamed out of service...

denny

In article .com,
"Denny" wrote:

What will cause lawsuits in this case is leaving the ILS transmitter
on when notamed out of service...

Any such lawsuit should be immediately dismissed unless the OTS
system was transmitting a valid ident.

How many instrument-rated pilots remember that any navaid can be
on when OTS? How many instrument-rated pilots remember what the
ident will be in such a situation?

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...
:
: Any such lawsuit should be immediately dismissed unless the OTS
: system was transmitting a valid ident.
:
: How many instrument-rated pilots remember that any navaid can be
: on when OTS? How many instrument-rated pilots remember what the
: ident will be in such a situation?
:
: --
: Bob Noel
: Looking for a sig the
: lawyers will hate
:


-. ...-

Blueskies wrote:
"Bob Noel" wrote in message



-. ...-


Very nice Blueskies. You pass the TEST.

KC

On Sun, 04 Feb 2007 07:59:59 -0500, Bob Noel
wrote:

In article .com,
"Denny" wrote:

What will cause lawsuits in this case is leaving the ILS transmitter
on when notamed out of service...

Any such lawsuit should be immediately dismissed unless the OTS
system was transmitting a valid ident.

How many instrument-rated pilots remember that any navaid can be
on when OTS? How many instrument-rated pilots remember what the
ident will be in such a situation?

How many should care? If the morse ident or self-identing (a-la
G1000) is anything other than the ident printed on the chart it's not
right and one needs to go missed (if you somehow got that far into the
approach before figuring it out) and determine why before attempting
to fly the approach. Could have tuned the wrong frequency or
something.

I haven't heard any ATC tapes or anything, but I wonder what happened
on the first approach that led the pilot to believe he'd get in the
second time around.

"Denny" wrote:
What will cause lawsuits in this case is leaving the ILS transmitter
on when notamed out of service...
Bob Noel wrote:
Any such lawsuit should be immediately dismissed unless the OTS
system was transmitting a valid ident.
How many instrument-rated pilots remember that any navaid can be
on when OTS? How many instrument-rated pilots remember what the
ident will be in such a situation?

If only the glideslope portion is not working correctly, would not the
approach revert to a localizer approach with the accompanying increase
in criteria? (Hence no need to turn the system off.) As others have
posted, if you do not receive the propper identifier, don't use the
signal.

Bob Noel asked
... How many instrument-rated pilots remember that any navaid can be
on when OTS? How many instrument-rated pilots remember what the
ident will be in such a situation?

I do! I do!

Never mind. Blueskies beat me to it.

Reminds me of a Ron Machado joke. He'd learned to copy Morse code so he
could verify idents without looking at a chart. On a flight once his
instructor asked why he hadn't identified a navaid. Ron said he had. The
instructor said he saw Ron hadn't looked at the chart. Ron explained that he
could copy Morse code. The instructor tested him by tuning in another navaid
and challenging him to identify it. "What did that say?" "Dah-di-di-dit
di-dah-dah-dah dah-di-dah-dit," Ron replied. I'm still waiting for the
chance to try this gag.

Jon

On 4 Feb 2007 04:53:49 -0800, "Denny" wrote:

PVD is minutes away.

Mother nature and the laws of physics do not care if you are a hot
shot trial lawyer, apparently...

What will cause lawsuits in this case is leaving the ILS transmitter
on when notamed out of service...

After I thought about it more, you'd think Providence Approach would
have known about the NOTAM.