Crew Apparently Tried To Power Out Of Trouble
Witnesses quoted by the
NTSB in its preliminary report indicate the crew on board a
doomed Lear 35 apparently tried to
power their way out of trouble, but were unable to escape. One
witness told the Board, the sound of the engines spooling up so
close to the ground was “like it was a last-chance
effort.”
The Learjet 35 was on its way to Groton (CT) from Farmington
(NY) on August 4, when it canceled IFR about five miles from the
airport in Groton. The NTSB says that was the last communication
anyone on the ground had with the Lear. The tower at Groton wasn't
staffed at the time of the incident, according to
investigators.
The NTSB's initial report said that about 2 miles northeast of
the airport's runway, the plane made a left turn. About 1.5 miles
from the runway, and south of the extended runway centerline, the
airplane turned left and back toward the right. When the plane was
about an eighth of a mile south of the runway, it made a 60-degree
right turn back toward the runway. The plane crossed the runway at
an altitude of 200 feet, and began a left turn toward the center of
the airport. The turn continued, and the airplane re-entered a left
downwind for the runway, about 1,100 feet south of the runway, at
an altitude of 300 feet. The last radar target was observed at 6:38
a.m. about an eighth of a mile northeast of the runway.
The plane hit the
rooftop of a single-story house about a quarter-mile northeast of
the approach end of runway 23, according to the NTSB, and continued
for about 800 feet through a small line of hardwood and evergreen
trees. It hit a second house, another line of trees, a third house,
went down an embankment, and through a boardwalk, before coming to
rest in the Poquonnock River. Two of the homes, two automobiles,
and five boats moored on the river were destroyed by fire.
A portion of the right wing fuel tank was located in the yard of
the third house with several long scratches that matched marks in
the rooftop flashing of the first house hit. More wreckage was
recovered from yards and the river.
Pilot Jerrod Katt, 33, and co-pilot Kenneth Hutchinson, 56, who
were flying for Air East Management, died in the crash. No one on
the ground was seriously hurt.
The cockpit voice and data recorders are now being analyzed at
the NTSB's lab in Washington (DC).