Says Separation From Departing DHC-8 Wasn't Adequate; NTSB Disagrees

Excel-Jet, Ltd. tipped ANN Wednesday to the planemaker's forthcoming legal action against the FAA, regarding the June 22, 2006 crash of the company's single-engine Sport-Jet.

As ANN reported last year, the prototype VLJ was extensively damaged during a takeoff accident in Colorado Springs, CO. In the company's words, the aircraft "suffered a violent un-commanded roll immediately after liftoff and crashed." The two men onboard were taken to the hospital as a precaution; both were released soon afterward.

"Test pilots James Stewart and Ron McElroy had accumulated 24 hours of virtually flawless flight testing," said Excel-Jet President Bob Bornhofen. "The Sport-Jet had explored the majority of its flight envelope without problems."

Following a 15-month investigation by the company, Excel-Jet maintains ATC cleared the aircraft for takeoff too closely behind a DeHavilland DHC-8 turboprop, in violation of mandatory separation requirements -- leading to the Sport Jet's unfortunate encounter with wake turbulence off the larger plane.

That conclusion contradicts the findings of the National Transportation Safety Board, however. In its Probable Cause report on the crash, the NTSB says the Sport-Jet was cleared for takeoff approximately 90 seconds after the Dash-8... sufficient time for any wake vortices from the larger plane to disperse, the Board said, given weather conditions at the time.

"A wake turbulence study conducted by an NTSB aircraft performance engineer concluded that even slight movement in the atmosphere would have caused the circulation of the vortices near the accident site to decay to zero within two minutes, that is, before the time accident jet would have encountered the wake from the DH-8," the NTSB says.

"Furthermore, easterly surface winds would have blown the wake vortices well to the west of the runway by the time of the accident," the Board adds. "Consequently, while in smooth air the wake vortices from the DH-8 that preceded Sport-Jet off of the runway may have retained enough circulation after two minutes to produce rolling moments on Sport-Jet on the order of the rolling moment available from the Sport-Jet's ailerons, it is most likely that the wake vortices were neither strong enough nor close enough to the Sport-Jet to cause the violent roll to the left reported by the pilot and witnesses to the accident."

However, the NTSB also notes no discrepancies were found with the Sport Jet's control systems... and investigators could not determine why the Sport-Jet lost control.

Excel-Jet has retained the law firms of Coppola & Marlin and Schaden Katzman Lampert & McClune -- both of which are quite familiar with aviation litigation, the company notes. (Richard Schaden -- an aeronautical engineer, air transport pilot, and founder of Schaden Katzman Lampert & McClune -- was instrumental in identifying a problem with the rudder on Boeing 737s, which led to the 1991 crash of a United Airlines 737-200 in Colorado Springs.)

The litigation will focus on ATC procedures & operations, and wake turbulence, according to Excel-Jet.

FMI: www.exceljetair.com, Read The NTSB Probable Cause Report