2000 — Aug 9, US Navy Patuxent Air Charter & Private Plane Collide, Burlington, NJ– 11

—  11  NTSB. Factual Report, Aviation.  NTSB ID: DCA00MA080A, 08-09-2000.

—  11  Planecrashinfo.com. “2000. Accident Details. Patuxent Airways/Private…Burlington NJ.”

 

Narrative Information

 

NTSB: “On August 9, 2000, at 0752 eastern daylight time (all times in this brief are eastern daylight time based on a 24-hour clock), a Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain, N27944, operated by Patuxent Airways, Inc., and a Piper PA-44-180 Seminole, N2225G, operated by Hortman Aviation Services, Inc., collided in flight over Burlington Township, New Jersey.

 

“The captain, first officer, and seven passengers aboard the Chieftain were killed, as were the flight instructor and the certificated private pilot aboard the Seminole. Both airplanes were destroyed.

 

“The Chieftain was operating under 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 135 as a visual flight rules (VFR) charter flight for Department of the Navy personnel. The Seminole was operating under 14 CFR Part 91 as a local, multiengine airplane instructional flight. Day visual meteorological conditions existed at the time of the collision.

 

“The Chieftain was en route from Trenton Mercer County Airport (TTN), Trenton, New Jersey, to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. TTN air traffic control cleared the Chieftain for takeoff at 0746. At 0748, the tower controller cleared the crew to change to radio frequency 123.8 MHz (a Philadelphia Approach Control frequency), which the crew acknowledged. No further transmissions were heard from the airplane on any frequency. Impact and fire damage prevented investigators from determining the radio frequencies that had been selected by the Chieftain crew.

 

“The Seminole departed Northeast Philadelphia Airport (PNE), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under VFR, from runway 24, at 0745. (PNE is located 14.5 nautical miles [nm] southwest of TTN.) Shortly after takeoff, the tower controller stated, “two five golf frequency change approved,” and a crewmember responded, “two five golf.” No further transmissions were heard from the airplane on any frequency.  Investigators found that the Seminole’s radio transmitter had been set to the COMM 2 (“communications radio 2″) position. The COMM 1 switch was in the ON position, and the frequency was set to 121.70. The COMM 2 switch was in the TEST position, and the frequency was set to 126.90. PNE’s ground control frequency was 121.70, and the tower frequency was 126.90….

 

“The recorded radar data indicate that shortly before the collision, the Seminole was flying generally northeast, and the Chieftain was flying generally south. Both airplanes were flying at about 3,000 feet. About a minute before the collision, the Seminole started a gradual left turn toward the north-northeast. The last secondary radar return before the collision was received from the Seminole at 0752:37.68 at an altitude of 3,000 feet, less than .4 nm southwest of the Chieftain’s last radar return….”  (NTSB ID: DCA00MA080A, pp. 1a-1b)

 

“The wreckage was spread between two main debris fields. The wreckage path began with the collocation of the outboard section of the Seminole’s right wing and the Chieftain’s rudder trim tab and ended with the Chieftain’s right engine.  Most of the Seminole wreckage was spread out in a soybean field located in Florence, New Jersey, and most of the Chieftain wreckage was located in the attached garage of a residential home in Burlington, New Jersey. Postcrash fire destroyed most of the Chieftain wreckage.”  (NTSB ID: DCA00MA080A, p. 1c)

 

“According to a Department of the Air Force, Headquarters Air Mobility Command, biennial survey, conducted on February 17 and 18, 2000, Patuxent Airways, Inc., began operations as a Part 135, on-demand air carrier in 1989. Approximately 90 percent of Patuxent’s charter flights were conducted in support of a Department of Defense (DoD) contract. The company, located in Hollywood, Maryland, operated four Navajo Chieftains under the terms of the contract….”  (NTSB ID: DCA00MA080A, p. 1d)

 

“According to the AIM, paragraph 5-5-8, ‘When meteorological conditions permit, regardless of type of flight plan or whether or not under control of a radar facility, the pilot is responsible to see and avoid other traffic, terrain, or obstacles’.” (NTSB ID: DCA00MA080A, p. 1e.)

 

Planecrashinfo.com: “The two aircraft collided over a central New Jersey subdivision, scattering debris over a wide area. The Navajo had taken off from Lakehurst Naval Air Station and the Seminole from Northeast Philadelphia Airport. The Navajo crashed into a two-story house while the Seminole fell into a soybean field. Two pilots and seven passenger were killed on the Navajo as were a pilot instructor and his student on the Seminole. Failure of the pilots of the two airplanes to see and avoid each other and maintain proper airspace separation during visual flight rules.”

 

Sources

 

National Transportation Safety Board. Factual Report, Aviation. NTSB ID: DCA00MA080A, 08-09-2000. Accessed at: http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=DCA00MA080A&rpt=fa

 

Planecrashinfo.com. “2000. Accident Details. Patuxent Airways/Private…Burlington Township, NJ, Aug 9, 2000.” Accessed at:  http://www.planecrashinfo.com/2000/2000-51.htm