SAN DIEGO (CNS) — A light airplane that crashed and burst into flames at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport on Labor Day, killing the two men aboard, had been flying 'very erratically' prior to plunging to the ground, according to a preliminary report released today.
Flight instructor Frederic Hewett, 37, and a student of his, Roger Shimizu, 45, were fatally injured when the Cessna 172 went down on a runway at the Serra Mesa general-aviation airport shortly before 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 7.
The two were taking part in an instructional flight at the time and had been airborne for a little over an hour, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
They died at the scene of the accident.
Security-camera video footage captured images of the single-engine four-seat plane being flown through repeated ``go-arounds,'' a maneuver in which pilots begin and then abort a landing attempt on final approach or following touchdown, then circle around the airport to try again, the NTSB report states.
"Witnesses also observed the airplane and described (it) as flying very erratically during multiple go-around maneuvers, pitching upward steeply after the go-around was initiated, flying very slow and stalling before the airplane recovered,'' according to the investigative document.
"On the ninth approach, the airplane can be seen in one of the videos flying low near the ground as it approached the runway, nosing over, pitching up and then nosing
over a second time. ... The airplane entered a steep left descending turn and impacted ... near the runway threshold.''
The resulting fire caused heavy damage to the fuselage, wings and cowling of the Cessna, which was registered to an Idaho resident who founded Fly San Diego, a flight school that employed Hewett.
Examinations of the wreckage at the crash site, however, showed that all primary flight-control equipment in the wrecked aircraft still retained 'continuity' between the cockpit controls and the aerodynamic wing and tail surfaces, the report states.
Likewise, no "anomalies were identified that would have precluded the normal production of engine power," according to the document, which includes no conclusions on what might have caused the accident.
"The engine was examined and the crankshaft was rotated in its normal direction of rotation. ... (C)ompression was obtained on all four cylinders," the analysis states.
"Equal movement of all intake and exhaust rocker arms was observed on all cylinders. The aluminum fixed-pitch two-blade propeller remained attached to the crankshaft propeller flange."
A final NTSB report on the accident will be completed within 12 to 24 months, according to the government agency.
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