Plane Turned Back To Starting Point After ADIZ
Encroachment
The circumstances surrounding the fatal downing of a modified
Piper PA-46 (file photo, below) Thursday near Maryland's Tipton
Airport have raised eyebrows in the aviation community... and many
pilots are questioning the role the Air Defense Identification Zone
(ADIZ) enveloping the area may have played in the accident.
According to published accounts, shortly after the modified
Jetprop took off from Tipton on the afternoon of October 19, an air
traffic controller radioed the pilot he was flying in the
restricted airspace without proper clearance. The pilot was
squawking 1200 -- VFR -- and not a code assigned by ATC, as is
required for all traffic flying through the ADIZ.
Transcripts indicate the controller told the pilot -- believed
to be Daniel L. Eberhardt -- he would have to land back at Tipton,
and give the proper authorities a call. The pilot told the
controller he would comply.
"30-November, I’m too busy to give you that phone number,"
the controller told the pilot a short time later. "Maybe
you’ll get away. Just turn it off and land and call us on the
phone for your clearance." Again, the pilot responded in the
affirmative.
The ADIZ incursion might have resulted in a steep fine, and even
the loss of the pilot's license. We'll never know how heavily that
possibility weighed on the pilot's mind, however. As it neared the
airport, the modified Malibu turbo-prop clipped a tree and crashed
a half-mile away from the airport... killing Eberhardt, 57, and
56-year-old passenger Bobbi Getz.
A source of frustration for pilots for the past three-and-a-half
years, the DC ADIZ was set up as an ostensibly temporary precaution
around Washington prior to the invasion of Iraq. To date, there
have been over 2,000 violations of restricted airspace -- all of
them accidental.
Chris Dancy, Media Relations Director for the Aircraft Owners
and Pilots Association, said the group would withhold comment on
the accident until the FAA and NTSB investigations showed what
impact, if any, the ADIZ may have had. But the group's position on
the controversial security zone remains unchanged.
"It places a significant burden on both pilots and air traffic
controllers," Dancy told Aero-News. "[P]enalties for even the
smallest of infractions are extremely harsh (the equivalent of
having your driver's license suspended for a rolling stop at a stop
sign); and it needs, at the very least, to be made more
operationally efficient. To that end, AOPA has made several
recommendations which thus far have not been acted upon."
** Report created 10/23/2006 Record
1
***************************************
IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 9130N
Make/Model: PA46 Description: PA-46
Malibu, Malibu Mirage
Date: 10/19/2006 Time: 1945
Event Type: Accident Highest Injury:
Fatal Mid Air: N Missing:
N
Damage: Destroyed
LOCATION
City: FORT MEADE State: MD Country:
US
DESCRIPTION
AIRCRAFT CRASHED INTO A WOODED AREA 1/4 MILE FROM DEPARTURE
END OF RUNWAY
23 SHORTLY AFTER TAKE OFF FROM TIPTON AIRPORT, FORT MEADE,
MD
INJURY DATA Total
Fatal: 2
# Crew: 1 Fat:
1 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
# Pass: 1 Fat:
1 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
# Grnd:
Fat: 0 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
WEATHER: KFME 1036Z WIND CALM, VISIBILITY 5 SM, CEILING 1,200
OVERCAST, TEMPERATURE
20 DEWPOINT 17
ALTIMETER 29.81
OTHER DATA
Departed:
FME
Dep Date: Dep.
Time:
Destination:
LL22
Flt Plan: UNK
Wx Briefing:
Last Radio Cont:
Last Clearance:
FAA FSDO: BALTIMORE, MD
(EA07)
Entry date: 10/20/2006
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