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Pilot in deadly
California crash repeatedly warned to climb
A recording shows
that the pilot of a twin-engine plane was repeatedly warned to fly
straight and to climb before he crashed into a San Diego suburb, killing
himself and someone on the ground
The air traffic
controller repeated the warnings to the pilot more than a half-dozen times.
Stop drifting, keep on course and a chilling, urgent plea: “Low altitude
alert, climb immediately, climb the airplane.”
Instead, the
twin-engine plane plowed into a San Diego suburb, killing the pilot and a
delivery driver on the ground and burning homes. Now, federal investigators
must try to figure out what caused the crash that left a shocked and
damaged neighborhood.
The Cessna 340
nose-dived and clipped a UPS van in Santee after noon Monday as it was
preparing to land at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in San Diego.
An elderly couple
suffered burns when their home went up in flames. Neighbors helped the
woman out of a window. Nearly a dozen other homes in the eastern San Diego
suburb were damaged.
The plane was
owned and piloted by Dr. Sugata Das, a cardiologist who worked in Yuma,
Arizona, and commuted to his home in San Diego, according to the website
for a non-profit charity group he directed called the Power of Love
Foundation.
On a recording
made by LiveATC, a website that monitors and posts flight communications,
an air traffic controller repeatedly warns Das that he needs to climb in
altitude. He also cautioned that a C-130, a large military transport plane,
was overhead and could cause turbulence.
Das responded he
was aware.
The controller
later is heard saying, “It looks like you’re drifting right of course, are
you correcting?”
“Correcting,” Das
responds.
Das asks if he has
been cleared for the runway. The controller says “I need you to fly,”
warning him that he is coming in too low.
Das tells him he
is climbing. The controller urges him to climb again, and Das says he is
ascending.
“Ok. It looks like
you’re descending sir. I need to make sure you are climbing, not
descending,” the controller says.
Then the
controller speaks with more urgency.
“Low altitude
alert, climb immediately, climb the airplane,” he says. “Climb the airplane
please.”
The controller
repeatedly urged the plane to climb to 5,000 feet (1,524 meters), and when
it remained at 1,500 feet (457 meters), the controller warned: “You appear
to be descending again, sir.”
There is no
response.
An investigator
from the NTSB arrived at the crash scene Tuesday morning and will review
radar data, weather information, air traffic control communication,
airplane maintenance records and the pilot’s medical records, agency
spokeswoman Jennifer Gabris said.
Al Diehl, a former
National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said the recording
indicates the pilot was trying to deal with a major distraction or
significant emergency on his own — breaking a basic rule that aviators
should always tell controllers everything.
“The first thing
you do when you’re in trouble is call, climb and confess — and he did not
do any of the three,” Diehl said. “These are very basic rules that flight
instructors tell their students.”
Diehl, who helped
design a Cessna cockpit, said the aircraft has a complex system that could
lead to deadly mistakes.
Clouds and windy
weather may have complicated Das’ ability to handle the aircraft, Diehl
said. Investigators also will look at whether there could have been a
medical emergency, something an autopsy should help reveal.
Diehl noted the
plane at the last minute made a sweeping turn to the right as if trying to
switch back to another airport that was closer because something was wrong.
Das didn’t mention that to air traffic control.
Robert Katz, a
certified flight instructor, said he believed Das “was totally
disoriented.” Katz said the clouds were low enough that the pilot had to
use an instrument landing system while approaching.
“He does not know
which way is up,” Katz told CBS8 in San Diego.
Das grew up on the
western coast of India and earned a medical degree from the University of
Pune. He went to Yuma in 2004 and established a cardiovascular practice,
according to the Power of Love Foundation. He leaves a wife and two sons.
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United States of America
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