Out-of-control plane hit runway at 200mph
PILOT REPORTED PITCH CONTROL FAULT BEFORE FATAL CRASH
WHY an aircraft lost control and crashed at high speed on the runway of a North Wales airport killing its experienced pilot remains a mystery.
The Piper PA31 Navajo aircraft was en route from Cheshire to Dublin when the pilot, John Edwin Backhouse, reported a fault with the pitch control to air traffic controllers.
The 62-year-old pilot decided to divert to Caernarfon Airport where the six-seater aircraft was seen to approach “fast and low” with its undercarriage up and the flaps retracted.
An inquest into Mr Backhouse’s death at Caernarfon heard the aircraft struck the runway at a speed of about 200mph before bouncing back into the air for a few seconds and flipped, almost 360 degrees to the right, landing back down on the runway.
Pathologist Dr Brian Rodgers found Mr Backhouse suffered multiple injuries and would have died instantly.
During the hour long hearing Air Accident investigators gave a presentation as to the possible reasons why the aircraft crashed on September 6, 2017.
Operations inspector Emma Truswell said one possible scenario for the control problem was the electrically-driven elevator trim, which keeps the aircraft in balance during flight, had failed.
Despite the extensive damage to the aircraft the investigators found the trim tab on the elevator, which is found on the rear tailplane, was in a “significantly nose down position”.
She said this is not the normal position for take-off or landing and “whilst the reason for this could not be determined it is likely it would have caused the pilot considerable difficulty in maintaining control”.
Principal inspector John McMillan said the pilot would have had to use considerable force on the control column to maintain the aircraft in level flight.
He added reducing speed or lowering the undercarriage would have made the problem worse.
Research of aviation databases found other instances of “runaway elevator trim” the inquest heard and Ms Truswell summarised the results of specialised flight tests carried out with a similar Navajo aircraft.
“A possible scenario is a trim runaway, and both the CAA and the EASA are taking safety action to promote awareness for trim runaways as a result of this accident,” she said.
Concluding Mr Backhouse died as a result of an accident the coroner said: “We do not have a proper answer to what caused the aircraft to lose control. We can say when and where he died but how is not clear from the evidence.”
Mr Backhouse, 62, of Antrobus in Cheshire, had owned the aircraft for 15 years. He was described by North wales senior coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones as “highly experienced”.
He was also said to be familiar with Caernarfon Airport having flown into the airfield in the same aircraft just days before.
Mr Backhouse was planning to fly to Ireland and Jonathan Knight had pulled the aircraft from the hangar and prepared it for flight. He told the hearing the pilot made normal pre-flight checks and take-off was normal.
The flight operated normally with the pilot contacting air traffic controllers in Liverpool and London.
About 20 minutes into the flight he radioed the London Information controller and said he was having problems with the elevator and was going to divert to Caernarfon “as a precaution”. He did not declare an emergency.
Although closed at the time of the crash the emergency services were alerted immediately and fire crews were at the scene within minutes.
Before his death the Liverpool-born businessman had forged a successful career as a director of numerous property, aviation and finance firms.
He also spent time as a politician, being one of the last Tories to sit on Liverpool City Council, losing his seat in 1996.