Family Sees Link To February 2 Small Plane Crash

The FAA will turn on the entire approach light system at New Bedford (MA) Regional Airport's (EWB) Runway 5 early next week, according to FAA spokesman Jim Peters.

The agency told South Coast Today it expects the last of the lights to be restored as soon as Tuesday, the same day the NTSB is expected to release a report on the February 2 plane of a small turboprop near the airport that killed three people.

"Because of work that was begun yesterday and completed today we were able to restore those center lights," Peters said Friday.

The FAA had turned off the entire approach light system (ALS) last August because its 2,600- by 400-foot area at the end of Runway 5 had become overgrown; the actual runway lights had remained on.

The ALS is a configuration of signal lights starting at the landing threshold and extending into the approach area a distance of 2400-3000 feet for precision instrument runways, and 1400-1500 feet for non-precision instrument runways.

The system's absence is being looked at as a possible factor in the February 2 crash. The brother of one of the passengers claimed the lack of the auxiliary lights may have been a factor in the accident. No conclusive link has been made, however.

City workers and crews from the Bristol County, MA House of Correction began clearing brush after the crash.

The FAA turned on the "medium intensity approach light system" -- a series of seven large poles with multiple lights mounted on them -- on Thursday.

Many of the lights turned back on Thursday help illuminate the center line of the runway for pilots approaching at a distance; the only remaining unlighted components of the system are the five strobe-like "runway alignment indicator lights" that cover 1,000 feet of wetlands leading to Runway 5.

The city has to remove reeds and trees that are blocking the strobes, Peters said. "These were out because the trees had grown to such a height that they were obscured from pilots' views."

As reported by ANN last week, the six-seat Socata TBM-700 (file photo of type, below) missed its first approach while trying to make an instruments-only landing in foggy weather. The plane crashed on the second approach.

Peters asserts that the runway was safe, and that the runway edge lighting and centerline lights were on and operational at the time of the crash.

He said pilots were notified in a NOTAM that the additional approach lights, located in the center of the runway and about 40 feet off both edges, were not in service.

The plane left Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, PA, at about 2 pm February 2, flew into Boston, and departed Logan International Airport at 7:17 pm for New Bedford. The crash occurred at about 7:45 pm.

The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to issue a preliminary report on the accident next week.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov