Preliminary Report of Fatal San Diego County Plane Crash Offers Glimpse of Flight's Final Moments
SAN DIEGO — A preliminary investigative report released this week about a plane crash in the San Diego County city of Santee that killed a pilot and a UPS driver on the ground earlier this month offers a glimpse into the final moments of the doomed flight.
The three-page report from the National Transportation Safety Board highlights communications between the pilot and the airport control tower right before the six-seater Cessna bound for Kearny Mesa went down in a residential neighborhood near Santana High School.
Tuesday's report indicates that moments before the crash, an air-traffic controller repeatedly told the pilot, Dr. Saguta Das, to "climb," or fly the plane higher. The report notes that the controller twice issued a low-altitude alert, essentially an early warning to make a correction.
Audio clips of those radio communications were widely played in local news reports in the hours and days after the crash. In those snippets, the air traffic controller warns: "Climb immediately. Climb the airplane."
The federal NTSB releases preliminary reports 15 days after a crash. The full investigation typically takes well more than a year to complete, and a final report will be issued at that time.
The small plane was headed from Yuma, Arizona, to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in Kearny Mesa, commonly referred to as Montgomery Field, on Oct. 11.
About 12:14 p.m., roughly 11 miles east of its intended destination, the plane crashed into a delivery truck then into two homes at Jeremy and Greencastle streets and caught fire.
Das, the pilot, was a cardiologist with Yuma Regional Medical Center. The delivery driver was Steve Krueger, a San Diego resident who had been a UPS employee for nearly 30 years.
A couple in their 70s was injured and rescued from one of the burning homes. The neighboring house was destroyed, too, but its residents — a newlywed couple — were not home.
According to the NTSB report, Das was flying at an altitude of about 3,900 feet roughly five minutes before the crash. About a minute later, the controller instructed him to descend to 2,800 feet and cleared him to approach a runway at Montgomery.
At 12:11 p.m., the controller said the plane was drifting off course. Das radioed back that he was "correcting."
The controller canceled the approach, issued a low-altitude alert and told Das to climb to 3,000 feet. Das — whose plane was heading northwest at 2,400 feet — acknowledged the order, the report states.
Over the next minute or so, the controller issued more orders for Das to turn or climb the plane, and Das acknowledged the instructions.
At 12:13 p.m. with the plane at 2,500 feet, the controller issued another low-altitude alert and told Das to "expedite the climb to 5,000 feet," the report states.
Despite multiple communications from the controller, there was no further response from the pilot.
The report states that the plane continued to turn right and descend. It was last recorded 1,333 feet north of the crash site, at an altitude of 1,250 feet. The plane hit the ground about 12:14 p.m.
The weather conditions near the accident site indicate the visibility was 10 miles, and there was a layer of broken clouds at 2,700 feet.
The crash left a debris field 400 feet wide and 475 feet long. The major structural parts of the plane were recovered and taken away to be further examined.
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