RUNAWAY JET

	October 26, 1999
	Ray Suarez follows up on Monday's strange air crash.

RAY SUAREZ: Early today, state and federal investigators returned to the site where a jet carrying golf champion Payne Stewart and at least four others crashed into a cow pasture in South Dakota after four hours of unexplained, uncontrolled flight. ROBERT FRANCIS, Vice Chairman, National Transportation Safety Board: We're in the initial stages now of the investigation here. We have a full team here, but I would emphasize that what we have here is only part of the investigation. We are obviously investigating the wreckage and the on-site, but concurrent with what we are doing here, we also have teams in Florida who are dealing with air traffic control issues, dealing with issues of ownership, maintenance, and records of the aircraft. So that we will be looking at that; we will be looking at records from Learjet, we'll be looking at records from FAA, and NTSB, and we'll be integrating all that during the course of the investigation. RAY SUAREZ: The twin-engine Learjet 35, which can carry eight passengers and a crew of two, left Orlando International Airport shortly after 9:00 yesterday morning. It was supposed to be a routine trip from Orlando to Dallas, but the pilots stopped responding to controllers soon after heading out. The jet's last radio contact came 25 minutes later, when the plane was just northwest of Gainesville, Florida. The FAA asked for help from the military. An Air Force F-16 was first to reach the jet, just after 11:00 AM. Although no contact had been established and the F-16 pilot reported no movement in the jet's cockpit, the aircraft continued its path, reaching over 48,000 feet at close to 1:00 PM. Less than 30 minutes later, after running out of fuel, the plane crashed just outside of Mina, South Dakota. Today the National Traffic Safety Board stressed how comprehensive and how difficult the investigation will be. ROBERT FRANCIS: The primary wreckage came in and I would judge that we are talking about an area 30 to 40 feet, or something like that. The depth to the top of the hole in the earth is about ten feet, but there is a lot of wreckage in there. The earth is quite soft out here, so that for us to deal with how we approach the recovery of the wreckage is a fairly complicated issue. The total wreckage sort of dispersion I would say is probably another 150 feet from the central impact area. We are very interested in finding the cockpit voice recorder. We thought that we saw it when we first went out there this morning, and it turned out that that wasn't it, that there was another orange box. It clearly is buried in the mud and wreckage, and, again, the recovery of that will be a function of the systematic recovery of the wreckage of the aircraft. As many of you know, the cockpit voice recorder runs on a cycle of a half an hour, so given what happened during this flight, I think it's unlikely that we will be getting voice information from this CVR. We can hope maybe in some it will be recoverable, but as it records over, the chances are we will not get that. RAY SUAREZ: With us to discuss the crash are James Burnett, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board-- he is now a transportation consultant based in Arkansas-- and James McKenna, transport and safety editor at Aviation Week and Space Technology, a magazine that covers the aerospace industry. James Burnett, some of the more obvious tools -- the plane is in a couple of thousand pieces. As you heard, the tape isn't going to be of very much help. Even the special investigator said the bodies can't be tested for death from lack of oxygen. This is a steep hill to climb for an investigator. JAMES BURNETT, Former Chairman, National Transportation Safety Board: Yes, it is a very difficult. Learjet accidents have been very tough to investigate because they're typically from very high altitudes. The plane is relatively small but even when you pack it into a 30 by 30 by 10 area, it's quite a bit of devastation. However, I think the investigators will be looking very closely, and in this case they have some tips. They can look for the valves that operate the aircraft pressurization system. They can try to examine seals if they have not been destroyed by fire so those things will be priorities with them. RAY SUAREZ: Is time crucial at this point, or the fact that the crash scene is exact and most of the substance in that hole, is that kind of working in your favor? JAMES BURNETT: Well, I think it probably gets into some sifting jobs when you have an aircraft compacted the way you do. You don't know where to look for things. Therefore they will have to be examining it almost like archeology in this case. RAY SUAREZ: James McKenna, the image of something as big as a Learjet flying halfway across America by itself is a pretty striking image. How does this happen? JAMES McKENNA, Aviation Week: It happens simply because the airplane is equipped to fly on its own. Most modern jets are. And if for some reason the pilots become incapacitated, there's nothing to stop that airplane from continuing its flight until it runs out of fuel. RAY SUAREZ: Given the way auto pilot works the original course was for Texas. It ended up in the northern plains. Did the plane fly itself there, or was this a possibly declining pilot setting it in that direction? JAMES McKENNA: The plane most likely flew itself there. Flying a course on auto pilot is a sequential activity. You program in specific compass headings and altitudes and then activate them for the auto pilot to fly. The heading that this airplane was on, which was about 320 degrees on a compass heading, is probably the compass heading from Orlando up to the Panhandle of Florida. It appears at that point clearly that the pilots are incapacitated so the airplane continued on that heading. RAY SUAREZ: And, James Burnett, let's talk a little bit about what the choices are for people on the ground. It seemed like they weren't very good. JAMES BURNETT: You mean once they knew that this plane was a run-away airplane? RAY SUAREZ: Absolutely. JAMES BURNETT: Well, there really were not any choices. Some of the things that can be done if, for instance, the pilots might have been not alert for some reason, sometimes a plane can get their attention, maybe help them arouse from something that may have distracted them. But that's a faint hope in a situation like this. RAY SUAREZ: This plane apparently had been rising and falling during this flight quite precipitously. I think it's called dolphining. JAMES BURNETT: Or porpoising. The auto pilot was maintaining its air speed and direction but it was not a consistent flight level. RAY SUAREZ: James McKenna, there have been some reports that this plane had gotten the attention of regulators in the past because of problems with maintaining cabin pressure, and that owners were notified to pay special attention to this. JAMES McKENNA: That's true. As the St. Petersburg Times reported today, the FAA four years ago ordered Lear 35 operators to replace what is called the outflow valve, and that's the prime valve on the airplane that is used to regulate the cabin pressure. It's just a big, old valve the size of a coffee can or a large soup can that moves in and out of a hole of about the same size in the fuselage of the airplane, thus allowing a measured amount of air to escape or... in the full-close position plugging it up and allowing the engine air to pressurize the cabin. If that fails, you lose the ability to pressurize the cabin and the ability to safely climb above about 12,000 feet. RAY SUAREZ: And, James Burnett in a plane this size, if there were pressure problems, they would manifest themselves very quickly. There would be very little reaction time? JAMES BURNETT: Yes the reaction time is short. I think one of the things that may have to be considered for the Learjet, perhaps some other aircraft, is the possibility that one of the crew members should fly on oxygen at all times. RAY SUAREZ: Are these planes equipped with the kind of masks that if you fly a commercial jetliner the flight attendant may show you at the beginning while you're waiting to take off? JAMES BURNETT: Yes, they are. RAY SUAREZ: And do they engage in much the same way? JAMES BURNETT: Well, I don't know exactly the differences in the system but they are a similar concept. RAY SUAREZ: Is it quite possible, James McKenna that we'll never really know what happened because of the particular story behind this crash? JAMES McKENNA: It's very possible. We may never know. Let me say before I touch on that, the pilots have a different type of mask which is designed to force oxygen into their lungs as opposed to the ones that we would see on an airliner, which is simply just the supply of oxygen without any pressure directed into our lungs. So the pilots of... naturally we want them to be able to fly the airplane so they have a system more capable of keeping them alert. RAY SUAREZ: But, are they required to wear those masks? JAMES McKENNA: They're not required to wear them but they're required to have them at hand within a arm's reach. And they are clipped-on masks. It's reach over, pull the mask and put it on and the oxygen begins to flow. A preflight check item is always to check whether that functions. One of the areas of focus for the investigators will clearly be when was the last time that system was serviced? Is it clear that it was working properly? Did the pilots routinely check the oxygen system before they departed? Did they in fact turn the oxygen system on before they departed? It would do the pilots little good if they put the masks on after a loss of cabin pressure only to have no oxygen coming out. And, as we've seen, it's really a matter of seconds between doing that and discovering the error and you discover the error essentially by passing out. RAY SUAREZ: James Burnett, is that going to bedevil the investigators, just this circumstance that Mr. McKenna described? JAMES BURNETT: Yes. I think the only break that they have in this situation is that they know there was an incapacity of the pilot and passengers, and it appears that there was no external damage to the aircraft. And those are clues that in some accidents we would not have but we do have in this situation. I think the evidence is strongly suggestive, from what they have now, strongly suggestive of a decompression problem but not conclusive of that. And, certainly they will also have to consider the possibility of some sort of environmental contamination. RAY SUAREZ: James Burnett, James McKenna, thank you both. JAMES BURNETT: Thank you. JAMES McKENNA: Thank you.

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