Former NTSB Investigator Calls Focus "Unusual"
A former National Transportation Safety Board
(NTSB) investigator says the search for facts in the plane crash
that killed Sen. Paul Wellstone includes early, unusually strong
attention on the qualifications of the two pilots.
"It makes you wonder how it will be worked in when the board
determines probable cause," says Chuck Leonard, a retired senior
investigator who worked on more than 200 NTSB investigations, in an
interview with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
The NTSB reports both pilots on the fatal flight were properly
licensed. In fact, the captain, Richard Conry, had passed a
proficiency test just two days before the crash, Oct. 25 . But the
safety board on Friday also paid close attention, in its first
major report on the accident, to what it indicated were the cockpit
crew's professional shortcomings.
Some pilots interviewed by the NTSB questioned the skill levels
of Conry and copilot Michael Guess, 30, of St. Paul. In addition,
the NTSB found problems in Conry's past that included an
undisclosed felony fraud conviction, logbook inconsistencies and
falsification of a medical form.

"Very Unusual Reports" From Fellow Pilots
Leonard said the negative reports from fellow pilots of Conry
and Guess were "very unusual" because "most pilots will only say
great things" or at least "hesitate to bash" colleagues who die in
crashes.
The retired investigator said the last time a major NTSB report
included athis kind of attention to the background of a flight crew
was in the mid-1990s when a commuter plane crashed in North
Carolina. In that case, Leonard said, investigators found pilot
error as the probable cause. The pilot had reportedly been fired by
previous employers for problems with his performance, Leonard
said.
Conry and Guess died in the Wellstone crash along with all six
passengers.
Leonard told the Star-Tribune the NTSB report is
still missing important pieces in its investigation, including
information about that specific King Air's airworthiness and
performance. The safety board says "months of work" remain before
fact-gathering is complete.
St. Paul lawyer Michael Padden, who represents Guess' family,
said he expects wrongful death litigation no matter what the Board
finds.
Padden said he thinks Conry was at the flight controls when the
chartered King Air A100 nosed into swampy terrain 2 miles southeast
of the Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport. The plane had been
lilned up for landing 9 miles from the runway with no apparent
problems, before it drifted off course for some reason and crashed.
There was never a distress call from the cockpit crew.
Patten said lawyers representing the families of those on board
the plane undoubtedly will ask a judge to let them pursue unlimited
punitive damages against the charter firm, Eden Prairie-based
Aviation Charter Inc. Padden said the plaintiffs' lawyers will
probably claim the company didn't properly monitor or train its
pilots.