Pilot Killed on Airport, Short of Runway

A quick call to Mr. Stephane Bernard, CEO of Socata, in Florida, revised a critical piece of data from the FAA's preliminary report (below): he confirmed local reports that, unfortunately, the pilot was lost in the crash. Mr. Bernard told ANN, "They have removed some of the parts, including the engine; it will take a few weeks before we know what happened. I have dispatched one of my people to assist the NTSB with the investigation."

To sum up, Mr. Bernard continued, "The airplane is burned; there was one fatality. It ended up on the airport grounds, but it missed the runway by a short distance. We will probably know [what happened] in a few weeks."

Calls to Quest Diagnostics, the medical equipment company that owns the fleet of the TBM-700 freighters of which this plane was an example, were not returned by press time.

**   Report created 4/28/2003   Record 25   **
IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 705QD        Make/Model: TBM7      Description: TBM-700
  Date: 04/25/2003     Time: 0112
  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Substantial
LOCATION
  City: MOBILE   State: AL   Country: US
DESCRIPTION
  AIRCRAFT CRASHED ON SHORT FINAL APPROXIMATELY 1500 FEET NORTH OF RUNWAY 18.
INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:  1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   1
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
WEATHER: METAR KBFM 250053Z 15012KT 10SM1BKN027 BKN039 23/19 A2981
OTHER DATA
  Activity: Business      Phase: Landing      Operation: Air Taxi (On Demand)
  Departed: LAWERCEVILLE, GA            Dep Date: 04/25/2003   Dep. Time:
  Destination:                          Flt Plan:              Wx Briefing:
  Last Radio Cont:
  Last Clearance:
  FAA FSDO: BIRMINGHAM, AL  (SO09)                Entry date: 04/28/2003

FMI: www.socata.com; www.questdiagnostics.com