L-188 From United States, joined Jul 1999, 28158 posts, RR: 70 Posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 994 times:
Hey guys, I put up a thread a Wednesday when a L-39 Albatross crashed at the Ketchikan Alaska airport. The crash killed the pilot who ejected, but who's parachute didn't deploy in time to save him. No one on the ground where injured, despite the aircraft ending up in an occupied trailer home that caught fire....the two occupants escaped through a window.
At that time the news was reporting that an NTSB crew was headed down to investigate, and that the FBI also had people headed down....Not A lot of people seemed to pick up on the latter. That came from a radio report I heard, not on the news story I linked.
So fast forward to Thursday, and the news gives a report on the pilot who's name has been released. He was Stephen Freeman a former Marine Corps pilot who flew for the U.S. Customs Service full time and part time for a company called Air USA. On the Thursday report it say that Freeman had been flying an aircraft Air USA was repo'ing from an airline called Security Aviation. This article quotes several witnesses to the crash that suggest that Freeman stayed with the aircraft too long in an attempt to steer it away from people
Now on Friday word comes back from Security Aviation that the aircraft where not reposessed by stolen by Freeman. They had apparently decided to reject the purchase of the four aircraft for numerous technical, documentation reasons. AIr USA was refusing to refund the deposits and sent Freeman and another pilot up to Palmer to reposess them. Of the two aircraft that they where able to get, one was the crash aircraft and the other is currently in Sitka in-op for mechanical reasons.
Security Aviation also claims that Freeman was able to work his way onto their ramp by flashing his US Customs service ID to claimed that he was seizing the aircraft for the customs service.
So the mystery deepens. This one could be an interesting NTSB report when it comes out. I know that some people on Thursday where thinking it might have been a birdstrike, but considering the reports from Security Aviation that their people say the Air USA mechanics who where in charge of re-assembling the crate-shipped aircraft did not have manuals for the aircraft makes you wonder.
[Edited 2006-01-28 21:17:10]
OBAMA-WORST PRESIDENT EVER....Even SKOORB would be better.
L-188 From United States, joined Jul 1999, 28158 posts, RR: 70 Reply 2, posted (2 years 10 months 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 576 times:
Update:
In additon to the thread I started about Security Aviation having their offices raided by 9 different federal agencies on the 2nd. The NTSB has announced some preliminary discoveries.
Among the crash details released.
As firefighters fought the fire caused by the wreckage the rear seat ejection seat "cooked off" from the heat and landed about 100 feet form the wreakage. Luckily it missed all of the firefighters.
The news story claims that a California based mechainc signed a permit allowing the aircraft to be flown out. This doesn't make sense to me since I thought the FAA where the only ones that could issue ferry permits.
He was below glidepath enough that he hit the water 200 yards short of the runway at KTN. He skipped the aircraft accross the water 3 times before coming airborne losing his engine and finally crashing on land.
The NTSB confirmed that the dead pilot had successfully fired the e-seat but it did not complete it's sequence.
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From United States, joined Jul 1999, 28158 posts, 
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