NTSB Considers Pilot's Weight In Investigation Of Fatal Crash

Jan. 23, 2014
Investigators with National Transportation Safety Board are looking closely at how the pilot's weight in relation to the size of the aircraft may have played a role in the crash that claimed his life May 9. 2012

Jan. 22--DEFUNIAK SPRINGS -- Investigators with National Transportation Safety Board are looking closely at how the pilot's weight in relation to the size of the aircraft may have played a role in the crash that claimed his life May 9. 2012.

Pablimo Gutierrez, a 77-year-old Fort Walton Beach man, died when his home-built aircraft nose-dived shortly after takeoff from DeFuniak Springs Municipal Airport.

During an earlier medical exam, Gutierrez told the Aviation Medical Examiner that he was having trouble with "longitudinal stability" during test flights and had damaged his plane during forced landings as a result.

He told the AME that his weight gain likely had led to his problems controlling the aircraft, the report said.

"The AME further reported that he had 'advised the pilot, as did other friends, to stop trying to fly this plane and simply get a larger aircraft capable of carrying him,' " the report said.

Gutierrez's medical certificate was issued April 10, 2012, and withdrawn less than a month later because of a change in medication, the report said. A certified letter notifying Gutierrez that his certificate had been withdrawn was delivered to his house May 10, the day after he was killed.

The aircraft, which weighed 333 pounds, could handle a maximum gross weight of only 530 pounds, according to the report.

The takeoff weight, including the pilot and two gallons of fuel, was calculated to be 561 pounds, the report said.

Operating an aircraft above the maximum weight limit "reduces the flight performance of an airplane in almost every respect," according to the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge cited in the report.

Contact Daily News Assignment Editor Wendy Victora at 850-315-4478 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @WendyVnwfdn.

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