Civil Air Patrol pilot was flying too low for conditions, investigators say
DAVID MIRHADI Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Wednesday, February 6, 2008 12:00 am
A pilot's failure to control his single-engine plane amid high winds and turbulence during a search for a missing hiker led to the Aug. 20 crash that killed three members of the Wyoming Civil Air Patrol in the Big Horn Mountains, the National Transportation Safety Board has concluded.
James Henderson, 59, of Cowley was at the controls of a 1981 Cessna 182-R single-engine aircraft when it crashed in mountainous terrain 20 miles west of Dayton in the Bighorn National Forest.
Civil Air Patrol Senior Member James Meyer, 53, of Sheridan, and Capt. Patricia Larson, 52, also of Sheridan, were also killed in the crash.
The members of Wyoming's Civil Air Patrol were searching for a missing 16-year-old boy who was found by search and rescue crews nearly an hour and a half after the 4:30 p.m. crash, according to the final report issued last week by the NTSB.
According to the Civil Air Patrol and the Sheridan County Sheriff's Office, Henderson left Cowley and picked up Meyer and Larson in Sheridan before embarking on the rescue mission.
At the time, winds were gusting to nearly 30 mph and visibility was limited to three to five miles because of smoke generated by the Bone Creek Fire in the forest, according to the NTSB report.
At the time, a report of possible turbulence was issued for areas in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, "including the accident airplane's route of flight," the NTSB report stated - especially below 14,000 feet.
The NTSB report said the pilot who located the initial fire noted there were "high winds and surface friction causing turbulence." The NTSB noted that there was no record of Henderson obtaining a weather briefing from the Federal Aviation Administration before his flight.
Civil Air Patrol policies require pilots to receive weather briefings from the FAA before flying and share it with members of the crew. For every 10 knots (11.5 mph), the pilot should add 1,000 feet to the search altitude. For the wind speed at the time, Henderson should have been flying 2,000 feet above the search altitude.
Witnesses said the plane was flying 400 to 600 feet above the ground when it crashed, according to the NTSB's report.
Stan Skrabut, wing commander for the Wyoming Civil Air Patrol, said Tuesday he had not seen the NTSB's report, though he knew high winds and smoke made the mission difficult on that day.
Henderson had a current pilot's license and had met all of the Civil Air Patrol's standards for flying rescue missions, including 100 hours of "in-command" flight time, Skrabut said. Henderson had also completed monthly "search-and-rescue flyouts," where a pilot flies over a test rescue area once a month.
In order to be the lead pilot on a search-and-rescue mission, a pilot must have at least 25 of these "in-command" flights with a mentor, where the pilot is controlling the flight.
"He was a very experienced pilot," Skrabut said of Henderson.
"I still find that the accident was a tragedy. We train extensively to try not to have these accidents," Skrabut said.