Family Sees Link To February 2 Small Plane Crash
The FAA will turn on the
entire approach light system at New Bedford (MA) Regional Airport's
(EWB) Runway 5 early next week, according to FAA spokesman Jim
Peters.
The agency told South Coast Today it expects the last
of the lights to be restored as soon as Tuesday, the same day the
NTSB is expected to release a report on the February 2 plane of a
small turboprop near the airport that killed three people.
"Because of work that was begun yesterday and completed today we
were able to restore those center lights," Peters said Friday.
The FAA had turned off the entire approach light system (ALS)
last August because its 2,600- by 400-foot area at the end of
Runway 5 had become overgrown; the actual runway lights had
remained on.
The ALS is a configuration of signal lights starting at the
landing threshold and extending into the approach area a distance
of 2400-3000 feet for precision instrument runways, and 1400-1500
feet for non-precision instrument runways.
The system's absence is being looked at as a possible factor in
the February 2 crash. The brother of one of the passengers claimed
the lack of the auxiliary lights may have been a factor in the
accident. No conclusive link has been made, however.
City workers and crews from the Bristol County, MA House of
Correction began clearing brush after the crash.
The FAA turned on the "medium intensity approach light system"
-- a series of seven large poles with multiple lights mounted on
them -- on Thursday.
Many of the lights turned back on Thursday help illuminate the
center line of the runway for pilots approaching at a distance; the
only remaining unlighted components of the system are the five
strobe-like "runway alignment indicator lights" that cover 1,000
feet of wetlands leading to Runway 5.
The city has to remove reeds and trees that are blocking the
strobes, Peters said. "These were out because the trees had grown
to such a height that they were obscured from pilots' views."
As reported by ANN last week,
the six-seat Socata TBM-700 (file photo of type, below) missed its
first approach while trying to make an instruments-only landing in
foggy weather. The plane crashed on the second approach.
Peters asserts that the runway was safe, and that the
runway edge lighting and centerline lights were on and
operational at the time of the crash.
He said pilots were notified in a NOTAM that the additional
approach lights, located in the center of the runway and about 40
feet off both edges, were not in service.
The plane left Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown,
PA, at about 2 pm February 2, flew into Boston, and departed Logan
International Airport at 7:17 pm for New Bedford. The crash
occurred at about 7:45 pm.
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to issue a
preliminary report on the accident next week.
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