Negligence Found in Gov. Carnahan Crash

Guardian.co.uk ^ | Jan 17, 2004 | Margaret Stafford

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I don't even know where to start on this one.

[Paul Atreides]

The real question is, where will Bush's fault come in.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

This is unbelieveable.
When the plaintiff's bar is done, private aviation will be done for.

[Stonewall Jackson]

The Dems are already trying to think up an answer for that one.

[RckyRaCoCo]

Another 33 1/3 for his/her campaign contributers

BTW, I worked for Parker Aerospace years ago.

[Cicero]

Haven't we had enough of the widow Carnahan? She needs a $4 million award on top of a free senate seat just to make her feel good?

[billhilly]

Did this article say anything about Chris Sifford's settlement, the "long time aide to Carnahan?" I'm shouting here. Anyone?

[giznort]

If it would have been my sorry ass on this plane, my family would have seen zip dot zilch. What a bunch of crap.

[rond]

Did this article say anything about Chris Sifford's settlement, the "long time aide to Carnahan?" I'm shouting here. Anyone?

No, and as someone who was lucky enough to know Chris, I'm wondering if his life was deemed worthless. Pity, that.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

From what I know about this, the pilot shouldn't have been flying in weather that bad. But they had to make their Gore fund raiser ( should be a special Darwin Award category just for things like this ). Lucky pilots who live through a flight like that write a "there I was..." story for various flying magazines and have a new respect for bad weather by not flying in it again.

My family wouldn't have seen a dime out of something like this either.

[VOA]

Haven't we had enough of the widow Carnahan? She needs a $4 million award on top of a
free senate seat just to make her feel good?

If the Widder Carnahan was sad after the crash...I guaran-darn-tee ya' that she's
in real mouring at not getting the $100 MILLION that her lawyer asked for.

I wonder if similar lawsuits are in the works to fund a Paul Wellstone Memorial
Legal Settlement And Democratic Slush Fund...

[expatpat]

Losing the AI (also known as the artificial horizon) when in bad IFR conditions is just about the worst thing to happen, made worse because the gyro compass goes too if the vacuum pump fails.

You have to use altimeter changes to keep the plane level, and the whiskey compass (which bobbles around a lot) and/or an electric turn/bank to keep the wings level. Its tough enough to keep it straight and level, let alone to try a fly an approach down to the airport in soup. It's part of the IFR training though.

[MonroeDNA]

How many engineers were on the jury?

My guess is zero.

Oprah wins.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Chris Sifford was slightly mentioned in this other article;

Jury orders $4M payment in Carnahan case
http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2004/01/12/daily61.html

snip-
"Randy Carnahan was piloting the Cessna 335 that crashed on Oct. 16, 2000, in southeast Missouri, killing himself, his father and an aide, Chris Sifford."

more snip-
" Family members blamed the crash on a pair of Parker Hannifin vacuum pumps, which they said failed and killed power to several key navigational instruments. In radio transmissions with air traffic controllers in St. Louis, Randy Carnahan reported a malfunctioning primary altitude indicator, or artificial horizon, which is powered by the pumps."

Can any of our pilots help me pout on this one? I thought most planes have a back up indicator that isn't powered by pumps. Correct me if I'm wrong.

snippy about it-"
The company has argued that there was no evidence of its pumps failing in Carnahan's plane, relying on a report from the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB said in its investigation that the pumps probably were operating at the time of the crash.

Sounds like pilot error was not an option in this case.

[Marie Antoinette]

Ping for my fave pilot :-)

[IncPen]

Cripes.

They got a Senate seat out of it.

Friggin' ingrates.

[billhilly]

Rond, I am sorry for Chris, but I also know the political game. If a politican falters, an often they do, it is never their fault, but that of a chosen member of their staff, who is expected to take the fall for them. Disgusting? Yes.

There is no other profession on earth with the promise of riches promised and received by elected officials.

[Criminal Number 18F]

The greedhead widow says: My son was found not responsible for the death of my husband.'

OK, everybody, read the official NTSB Report.

"The pilot's failure to control the airplane while maneuvering because of spatial disorientation."

Basically, his partial-panel skills were not up to flying safely when his attitude indicator failed. He had alternative instruments but he failed to use them properly. If you go into the in-depth narrative, or download the complete PDF, you learn:

The pilot indicated to ATC several times that he was having problems with the airplane's primary attitude indicator. He also told ATC that he was trying to use the right-side attitude indicator, which indicates that the airplane did not experience a total vacuum system failure. Examination of the wreckage revealed rotational marks in the left and right engine vacuum pumps, which indicates that they were most likely functioning at the time of impact. Further, one of the vacuum gage system failure indicator buttons exhibited evidence of having been in almost the fully retracted position (the other indicator button was found in the partially retracted position), which indicates that adequate vacuum existed for the airplane's instruments to operate.

In other words, the vacuum pumps, which were the subject of this bit of trial lawyers' extortion, reported above, were working fine when the plane hit the ground. The failure was in one attitude instrument. The pilot failed to use a spare he had (which, by the way, is a luxury; you learn to keep the shiny side up on needle, ball and airspeed if you lose the attitide indicator). The pilot failed to notice that airspeed had climbed to 300+ knots. The pilot failed to notice the vario unwinding. The pilot just plain failed.

Then there's the whole question of whether he had done the training he said he had. He didn't enter anything in his logbook in the last five months of his life. Hot tip: careless, lackadaisical people make lousy pilots.

Bottom line -- you can always pay lawyers to bamboozle people into saying anything, but any pilot who reads the report can see that Roger Carnahan was tested and was found fatally wanting. It might make the greedy widow dance to be able to slough it off on some hapless company. Let's quote another line from that report:

Radar data, ATC transmissions, and other evidence indicate that the pilot lost control of the airplane at 7,700 feet as he was making a climbing right turn.

That company's product was working perfectly until it ceased to function because incompetent Roger slammed it through a stand of trees into the cold, cold, hard rocky ground at "a velocity of over 300 knots." Just because she can pay some lawyers to lie about it, and fool a jury -- which is not given access to the NTSB report -- into believing them, doesn't change the facts.

This wasn't an aviation accident. This was murder-suicide. By means of incompetence.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Criminal Number 18F]

Losing the AI (also known as the artificial horizon) when in bad IFR conditions is just about the worst thing to happen, made worse because the gyro compass goes too if the vacuum pump fails.

1. He had a backup AI on the right side of the panel. He might have gotten a coriolis illusion going back and forth. But he had a backup AI, and...
2. The vacuum pumps didn't fail. If you're familiar with crash investigation the details in NTSB would be interesting. They both showed the sort of damage you see in a pump that's running at impact time.

And like you say, it's part of training. When the guy lost it, he was supposed to be straight and level, not on an approach. His airspeed gage indicated 300+, that should have been a clue.

No sympathy for this schmuck... I feel sorry for the pax that trusted him, and the companies that have their reputation smeared to give him an undeserved, posthumous social promotion and give the widow a warm fuzzy.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Criminal Number 18F]

How many engineers were on the jury?

Two words: "peremptory challenge"

Oprah wins.

Amen.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F