‘Climb the airplane,’ pilot told before California crash
SANTEE >> Before a twin-engine plane nose-dived into a San Diego suburb, an increasingly concerned air traffic controller told the pilot more than a half-dozen times that he needed to gain altitude, a recording that will be among the evidence examined by federal investigators who arrived Tuesday at the crash scene.
The Cessna 340 smashed into a UPS van, killing the driver, and then hit two houses just after noon Monday in Santee, a suburb of 50,000 people east of San Diego. The pilot, Dr. Sugata Das, died and an elderly couple suffered burns when their home went up in flames. No one was inside at the second residence when the crash occurred.
Al Diehl, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said the recording between air traffic control and Das indicates he was trying to deal with a major distraction or significant emergency on his own, breaking a basic rule that aviators should always tell controllers everything.
“The first thing you do when you’re in trouble is call, climb and confess — and he did not do any of the three,” Diehl said. “These are very basic rules that flight instructors tell their students.”
Diehl, who helped design a Cessna cockpit, said the
twin-engine aircraft has a complex system that could lead to deadly mistakes.
Clouds and windy weather may have complicated Das’ ability to handle the aircraft, Diehl said. Investigators also will look at whether there could have been a medical emergency, something an autopsy should help reveal.
Robert Katz, a certified flight instructor, said he believed Das “was totally disoriented.” Katz said the clouds were low enough that the pilot had to use an instrument landing system while approaching.
“In my opinion, he is clearly disoriented at that point,” Katz told CBS8 in
San Diego. “He does not know which way is up.”
An investigator from the NTSB arrived at the crash scene Tuesday morning and will review radar data, weather information, air traffic control communication, airplane maintenance records and the pilot’s medical records, agency spokeswoman Jennifer Gabris said.
Das worked at Yuma Regional Medical Center in Arizona and was flying from there to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in San Diego, where he lived. Shortly before the crash, when the plane was about a half-mile (0.8 kilometers) from the runway,
an air traffic controller alerted Das that the aircraft was too low.
On a recording made by LiveATC, a website that monitors and posts flight communications, the air controller repeatedly warns Das that he needs to climb in altitude. He also cautioned that a C-130, a large military transport plane, was overhead and could cause turbulence.
Das responded he was aware.
The controller later is heard saying, “It looks like you’re drifting right of course, are you correcting?”
“Correcting,” Das responds.