Sept. 17--Almost a year after a Piper Aztec went down in waters just south of St. Thomas, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration have issued their final report in the investigation, saying that the accident was essentially a result of bad judgment by the pilot.
Veteran pilot Kirby Hodge's twin-engine Piper Aztec aircraft was reported overdue about 7:50 a.m. Oct. 13. He had delivered a shipment of newspapers to St. Croix and was returning to St. Thomas with three passengers -- Rachel Hamilton and Dawin Carr who drowned in the plane and Valerie Thompson, the sole survivor.
Hodge's body never was recovered and he is presumed dead.
Hodge had been making the daily delivery of The Daily News from St. Thomas to St. Croix for decades.
FAA Aviation Safety Inspector Jorge Echegoyen said in his preliminary report in July that the plane went down eight miles from King Airport but that there was no sign of any impact to the plane before it hit the water.
As part of the investigation, Echegoyen determined that the plane was in compliance and was airworthy, according to its last inspection, and that it was insured.
In the documents made public last week, NTSB and FAA investigators said it is likely that Hodge descended the airplane to remain clear of the lowering clouds and hit the water because of the lack of visual cues.
As a result, the investigators determined that the probable cause of the accident to be that Hodge tried using visual flight rules in marginal visual flight conditions at a time that was before sunrise and was dark.
Because he was over water, Hodge's failure to maintain sufficient altitude resulted in the airplane's controlled flight into water, according to the report. Investigators also cited Hodge's inadequate preflight weather planning as contributing to the accident.
The report stated that King Airport was tower-controlled, but the tower was closed at the time of the accident and that multiple instrument approach procedures were available for the airport; but were not authorized while the tower was closed.
The report states that a caution printed in the plan view of the approach charts states, "CAUTION: Pilots may encounter false illusory indications during night approaches to Runway 10 when using outside visual cues for vertical guidance."
According to the report, the airplane departed over water before sunrise and flew toward St. Thomas at an altitude of about 1,700 feet above the water.
Radar data showed that the airplane began a gradual descent, before it leveled off at 200 feet above the water. The airplane continued at 200 feet above the water for another 18 seconds before its radar target disappeared about 5 miles from the destination airport.
According to the report, Thompson, the only surviving occupant of the plane, said that she had flown with Hodge on this flight many times before. She stated that during the flight, the pilot flew progressively lower to "get under the weather."
Thompson said that she could see lights on the shore near St. Thomas airport, and could see that it was raining. She recalled light turbulence and observed the pilot make his "usual" radio call.
Thompson next remembered the airplane "hitting a wall" and filling with water. She said that the pilot broke the window on his side of the airplane, and that she and the pilot got out through it. Thompson said she did not see any of the other occupants of the airplane after that.
When asked whether she noticed anything unusual with the flight or whether the pilot provided any warning before hitting the water, Thompson said no, and indicated that everything was normal, according to the report.
Thompson told NTSB Investigator Brian Rayner during the investigation that the flight aboard the Piper Aztec N-5553Y had appeared to be normal. She stated that near the time the plane went down, she could see St. Thomas and the light behind Saba Island.
Thompson said she did not have on a seat belt and tried to help her cousin, Hamilton, with her seat belt and that's when the aircraft started to submerge, going down nose first. Thompson suspects that Hodge was able to use the emergency exit on the left side and pulled and pushed her out of the plane.
Thompson told Rayner that Hodge was in the pilot's seat; Carr was in the co-pilot's seat; Hamilton was seated behind Carr; and she was seated behind the pilot, according to the report.
Thompson said she swam toward the lights of the island, against the current, and floated for hours until she was able to strap herself to a buoy in the water and wait to be rescued.
When Thompson was spotted, she had been swimming and struggling to stay afloat in the water without a life vest for close to nine hours.
After more than a week of trying to locate the wreckage, it was found in about 100 feet of water, with the bodies of Hamilton and Carr still inside the plane.
According to Echegoyen's report, the airplane came to rest upside-down on the ocean floor. The right wing was partially separated but still connected to the plane. Both engines were in place and the landing gear was down.
According to the report, the damage to the left wing and skinning to the belly of the plane was consistent with a high-speed, shallow-angle impact with the water and there was no evidence of pre-impact mechanical anomalies.
The report states that weather data and imagery were consistent with Thompson's account of flying beneath outer rain bands associated with a developing tropical storm southeast of the territory at the time of the crash. There was little to no illumination from the moon.
- Contact reporter Fiona Stokes at 714-9149 or email [email protected].
Copyright 2013 - The Virgin Islands Daily News, St. Thomas
