Thu, Oct 11, 2007
Looking Into Possibility Of Icing
Sunday's accident involving a Cessna
Caravan 208B which claimed 10 lives in Washington
state will get the attention of the National
Transportation Safety Board's senior investigator.
The Everett (WA) Daily Herald reports Howard Plagens was en
route to the accident scene Wednesday morning with a team including
two to three investigators from the FAA and two from Cessna
Aircraft.
Other investigators in Washington DC will study radar logs and
weather factors. The FAA will reportedly submit results of its own
investigation to the NTSB.
An area of interest to investigators will be weather conditions
over the Cascades at the time of the accident -- including the
possibility of airframe icing, a past issue on Caravans.
As ANN reported last year,
the NTSB urgently recommended the FAA prohibit operation of
Caravans in conditions more severe than light icing, and that
pilots maintain at least 120 knots airspeed when encountering icing
conditions of any kind in the C-208 series.
Carl Cerniglia, a meteorologist with the National Weather
Service, tells CBS News the temperature at White Pass was 33
degrees at 5,800 feet at the time of the accident, with overcast
skies and light precipitation.
"It was not ideal flying weather, by any means," Cerniglia told
The Associated Press. "Temperatures were cool enough and moisture
was high enough where [icing] could have been a possibility."
NTSB says the wreckage will be reassembled off-site, probably at
a location in King County. Plagens is expected to write a
preliminary report in the next four to five days.
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