NTSB report suggests pilot error in Hendrick plane crash
November 6
The Hendrick Motorsports plane that crashed last month and killed all 10 aboard missed the approach to the airport and then failed to immediately climb before crashing into a mountain, according to a preliminary report Friday.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the proper procedure after a missed approach at Blue Ridge Regional Airport in Spencer called for the aircraft to maneuver right and climb to 2,600 feet.
Instead, the report said, the Beech 200 King Air descended to 1,800 feet before crashing into the southeast slope of Bull Mountain at an altitude of 2,450 feet.
The mountain rises more than 3,200 feet above sea level. The cloud ceiling at the airport was 600 feet at the time of the crash, meaning the pilots were above or in the clouds and never saw the airfield.
The son, brother and two nieces of owner Rick Hendrick, patriarch of one of NASCAR's top syndicates, was killed. A pilot for NASCAR star Tony Stewart also was among the dead as was the team's general manager and chief engine builder.
Both pilots were experienced, the report said. It does not draw a conclusion on the cause of the crash but does note the plane's global positioning system was not certified for instrument-only flight and the plane did not have a ground proximity warning system. Witnesses reported the mountain was obscured by clouds and fog.
On the day of the crash, the fog and cloud cover at Spencer were bad enough to cause other pilots to reroute to the nearby Danville airport. But the Hendrick plane's two pilots decided to attempt a landing despite the inclement weather. According to the report, the plane initially arrived at the airport at an approved altitude of 4,000 feet.
The air-traffic controller directed the plane to a holding pattern and told the pilots to expect a 28-minute delay. At 12:24 p.m., the controller approved an approach, and the pilots lined up for a landing at an altitude of 3,900 feet. According to the airport's procedures, the plane was authorized to be as low as 2,600 feet, the optimum altitude for a smooth landing.
During the final part of the approach, the plane descended to 2,600 feet, again higher than the optimum altitude, which was 1,340 feet. Then, the plane flew by the "missed approach point," the point where the plane is unable to land and must return for another attempt.
At that point, the airport's procedures call for a "climbing right turn" to 2,600 feet. The pilots, though, continued straight ahead, and 1 mile past the missed approach point began a descent.
The report does not speculate on why the experienced pilots failed to make the climbing right turn.
The plane continued straight ahead and at 12:30 p.m. was 3 miles beyond the airport at an altitude of 1,800 feet. Three minutes later, one of the pilots called the controller and said, "We're going missed at this time," indicating the plane was belatedly beginning the missed approach maneuver. The controller told the pilots to climb to 4,000 feet.
The controller did not hear back from the pilots. At 12:35 p.m. the plane, flying level, clipped the tops of trees on Bull Mountain and continued for another 95 feet before crashing into the southeast slope.
Witnesses at the airport said they heard the airplane pass overhead but could not see it due to cloud cover. The engine sounded "smooth and continuous with no interruption," according to the NTSB report. (Investigators at the crash site later found that the propeller shafts were fractured on both engines, and the propellers showed the kind of damage indicating they were spinning when the plane hit the ground.)
A couple in a church parking lot several miles southeast of Bull Mountain saw the plane fly past at a low altitude, the report stated. One said the plane flew "flat and level," about 60 to 70 feet above the ground, heading northwest, below the fog.
A senior trooper with the Virginia State Police told investigators that at the time of the accident, the visibility was "zero," with Bull Mountain completely obscured by clouds and fog.
It appears, from the report, that the pilots lost their bearings in the foggy weather, according to Greg Feith, a former NTSB investigator, and Nick Lacey, a former high-ranking FAA administrator. Both men are pilots and now work as aviation safety consultants.
"It certainly appears they thought the airport was three or four miles further out than it actually was," said Lacey. "They were pretty much doing everything four to fives miles late."
Lacey said it's unclear from the report why the Hendrick pilots were off - whether it was their own mistakes, faulty equipment or a combination of both. He believes better technology - either on the plane or at the airport - or intervention by air traffic controllers might have prevented the crash. Authorities said Bull Mountain was completely obscured by clouds and fog when the plane crashed.
The Hendrick plane was not equipped with a ground proximity warning system, which would have let the pilots know they were dangerously close to the mountain, and the airport does not have a precision instrument landing system, which makes it easier for pilots to land in bad weather. "Technology definitely exists that could have prevented this accident," Lacey said.
Feith isn't so sure. He said better technology might have helped, but there is no guarantee it would have prevented the crash. "The pilots are the primary accident prevention tool in that airplane," he said. "Everything else is secondary."
The NTSB report does not make clear whether the controller or the pilots realized the plane was miles past the airport and nearing the mountainside.
Lacey said that the hours flown by pilots Dick Tracy and co-pilot Liz Morrison shows they were experienced. The pilot had 10,600 hours of flight experience and his co-pilot had flown more than 2,000 hours. The two experts agree that air traffic controllers may have missed an opportunity to alert the Hendrick pilots when the plane was over the airport at an unusually high altitude. "Probably due to other demands on their time and attention, they didn't watch it," Lacey said.
He noted that the airport was probably busy with air traffic due to the race.
Hendrick spokesman Chris Haid said the company could not comment Friday because the crash investigation is not complete.
The airplane's passenger area erupted in fire upon impact. NTSB investigators who examined the wreckage said the landing gear had been retracted.
NTSB investigators at the crash site said a final report could take months or up to a year to complete.
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