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.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov