4 May 2007
The American National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is set to issue its report on last October’s crash of a Cirrus into a high rise building in Manhatten (see <a href=’newsfeed.php?artnum=311′ target=’_blank’>here</a> for our news story on this). Baseball star Cory Lidle and his flight instructor died in the crash; three people on the ground were hurt.
The NTSB finds that the probable cause of the crash “was the pilots’ inadequate planning, judgment, and airmanship in the performance of a 180-degree turn maneuver inside of a limited turning space.” There was no evidence of a failure in the aicraft before impact.
The NTSB says that because of the complex accident forces involved in the crash sequence it was not possible to determine which of the two pilots was actually at the time (there was no cockpit voice recorder); however, the two did not aggressively bank the aircraft throughout the turn nor did they use the full available width of the river.
The Board has issued an <a href=’http://www.ntsb.gov/events/2007/Manhattan-NY/AnimationDescription.htm’ target=’_blank’>animated graphic</a> illustrating the crash sequence, as well as other documentary evidence.
It has also repeated its suggestion that the FAA “Permanently prohibit visual flight rules flight operations involving fixed-wing, nonamphibious aircraft in the New York East River class B exclusion area unless those operations are authorized and being controlled by air traffic control”. This ban has actually been in force since shortly after the crash, anyway.
