Robertson plane ‘going so slow’ just before crash
U.S. agency investigating deaths of Niagara couple, daughter, releases early report
Witnesses saw a plane carrying three Niagara residents flying low and going far too slow just before it crashed last month, according to a report by the U.S.-based National Transportation Safety Board.
The crash on July 30 killed well-known Niagara philanthropists Joe and Anita Robertson, both 58, and their 24-year-old daughter, Laura, outside the small town of Greenville, Maine, about 450 kilometres east of Montreal.
After leaving Pembroke, Ont., that morning bound for Prince Edward Island, where the family had a cottage, Joe Robertson, the pilot, reported to air traffic control he was losing power as he approached Greenville.
In a preliminary report on its investigation, NTSB said two witnesses at the Greenville Municipal Airport watched the plane approach a runway about 120 metres off the ground.
The witnesses watched the plane, a Piper Smith-Aerostar light aircraft, attempt a shallow left turn but said the nose appeared “high” and, one witness said, the plane was “going so slow.”
Neither witness reported seeing any smoke trail and the landing gear was retracted before the plane crashed shortly before 11 a.m.
“It was like it almost stopped in the air” just before the left wing dropped and the plane dove nose first toward the ground about 90 metres from the runway approach, one witness said.
There was no fire after the crash, NTSB reported, but the force of the impact drove the two engines partially into the ground.
NTSB reported Robertson’s logbook showed he had 590 hours of flight time experience prior to that day, including 136 hours in that plane. Conditions were clear, without clouds.
There was no date offered for when NTSB would issue its final report on the crash.
During a memorial service for the family earlier this month at
Brock University — where Joe Robertson chaired the board of trustees from 2012 to 2014 and was founding chair of the Niagara Jazz Festival — the three were remembered for their impact on the community.
Joe and Anita Robertson were major financial donors to Niagara Health and First Ontario Performing Arts Centre, where Robertson Theatre is named to honour their $500,000 donation. As well, they had led campaigns for United Way of St. Catharines and District.
Joe Robertson was a partner, president and CEO of Amax Health and had previously been a partner in Arcona Health Inc.
Laura Robertson had recently been hired to work in Brock’s kinesiology department and was a volunteer firefighter in Niagara-on-the-Lake, where the family lived.
The Robertsons are survived by two sons, Taylor and Clark.
Gord.Howard@niagaradailies.com 905-225-1645 | @gordhoward