Cape Air Pilot in 2002 Incident Had Diabetes, Criminal Record

In the latest example of Federal authorities getting tough with pilots who fib on their medicals, Ronald Newton Crews, 53, of Centerville, Massachusetts, has been indicted in Federal District Court in Boston with four felony counts of Making False Statements. Aero-News has previously reported the indictment but we have uncovered further significant details: Crews allegedly concealed diabetes and a criminal record for drug trafficking and gun violations from the FAA, as well as from the airline that employed him, seasonal/commuter airline Cape Air.

The investigation that brought Crews before the court began on the night of February 8, 2002, when Crews was the sole qualified pilot of a scheduled Cape Air Cessna 402 (file photos of type, below) service from Martha's Vineyard to mainland Hyannis. Crews became disoriented and passed out during the flight, to the alarm and consternation of all on board.

Cape Air security trainer Melanie Oswalt, then 24 and a 50-hour student pilot, took control of the unfamiliar plane and called for help as passengers tried to raise Cape Air dispatch through their cell phones. Oswalt had trouble getting the headset from Crews, according to passengers who spoke to the media at the time.

As the plane flew past its destination, the 15-minute island-hop became an hour-long waking nightmare, with Crews periodically stirring to insist he was headed to Hyannis and grapple for the controls as the plane wandered all over the sky.

Another pilot, hearing Oswalt's distress, turned on the pilot-controlled lighting at Provincetown, and Oswalt brought the plane in to a safe and successful gear-up landing.

Melanie Oswalt was hailed as a heroine for her safe landing. Had she not been present, the outcome might have been far worse. She has indicated that she does not want to speak to the media, and we at Aero-News respect that. But it's unfortunate to note that, according to the FAA database, this young lady who displayed the "Right Stuff" under extreme pressure, never renewed her student pilot ticket.

Most of the information about the flight came from statements by other passengers to the press. A dramatic account of the flight is available here at the website of the local paper, the Provincetown Banner.

Emergency services responded quickly to the unattended airfield after the belly landing. Crews was taken from the airport in a gurney and neck brace and tested for drugs, alcohol, and neurological impairments, but his problem was determined to be something completely different: diabetes. His medical was (and remains) revoked, as his pilot certificate later would be.

It is probable that Crews knew of the disease. Crews had previously been grounded for some months, after voluntarily removing himself from a plane he was about to fly in the spring of 2001. He resumed flying in early January, 2002, after getting a fresh FAA medical and a separate physical that the airline demanded. But it is apparently the documents from this FAA medical that the US Attorney has called into question.

(We say "apparently," because the Public Affairs office is closed for the weekend, but their press release said that Crews "filed four such certificates containing false statements from December 7, 2001, until November 9, 2001." The backwards dates are in the original document).

Crews's criminal history includes an air-to-air high-speed chase with US Customs in 1984, after he blew by a Customs checkpoint in South Florida. When Customs ran him to ground, his plane was packed with cocaine, and he had a large amount of cash and a gun. Sentenced to over four years in prison, Crews was released after 11 months in a local jail.

Crews came to Cape Air's Massachusetts operation from its Florida and Caribbean operations, where he was employed beginning in 1997 (Some of Cape Air's pilots follow its seasonal traffic north and south). At the time he lived in St. Thomas, USVI. The airline has said that it had no idea of Crews's diabetes, nor of his criminal history, nor of a 1985 pilot's licence revocation for transporting drugs in an airplane. The airline conducts a records check, but it only goes back ten years, not far enough to catch Crews's drug conviction and sentence.

The line had restored him to flight status in January, 2002 after the FAA issued him a medical certificate and a private medical examination also cleared him to fly. After the inflight incapacitation, Cape Air ruled out any further flying job for Crews.

But now, the US Attorney has charged that the reason Crews was able to pass those medical examinations was simple: he lied.

FMI: www.capeair.com