Crash probe is nearly finished

Crash probe is nearly finished

By Bob Driehaus

Post staff reporter

The investigation into the fatal crash of a DHL cargo plane won't be made public until at least next month, a federal National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said Thursday.

The twin-engine turbo-propeller Convair CV-580, owned by Columbus, Ohio-based Air Tahoma, was 1.2 miles short of a Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport runway at 12:50 a.m. on Aug. 13 when it crashed just past the eighth green at the World of Sports golf course in Florence, breaking into pieces.

The plane was headed straight for Runway 36-R before it lost altitude and the pilot reported engine trouble.

A minute later, the plane clipped the top of tall pine trees before it ripped into the ground at an estimated 100 mph, according to Florence police.

Co-pilot Ray Gelwicks, 36, of Southaven, Miss., died when the portion of the cockpit where he was seated crashed into a tree.

The pilot, who has not been named, walked away from the crash when his half of the cockpit sailed past the large tree.

When a Florence police officer got to the scene shortly thereafter, the pilot was sitting on a nearby bench, dazed but conscious.

He was hospitalized for several days, in which time he told investigators he recalled little from the crash.

There were no passengers and no one on the ground was injured.

A DHL spokesman said he could provide no information about the investigation while it was ongoing.

At city-owned World of Sports, the golf course has been nearly restored, Florence Assistant City Coordinator Rick Lunnemann said.

"A lot of the restoration of the plane damage has been completed on the golf course," he said, including removal of contaminated soil and resodding of the course.

"It's nearly completed but the front nine holes won't be reopened until spring 2005. The grass needs to root," Lunnemann said.

He expects the front nine holes to reopen in April or May 2005.

The back-nine holes were not damaged by the crash and are open for business this winter, weather permitting.

Lunnemann said the city is negotiating with Air Tahoma's insurance carrier to recover the cost of restoring the course and the cost of lost revenue.

He declined to comment on what portion of the costs the insurance company would cover.

Publication Date: 12-10-2004

Cargo Plane Crashes Into Golf Course Near Cincinnati Airport

Reported by: Jenell Walton

Web produced by: Stacy Puzo

Photographed by: Dwayne Slavey

Last updated: 8/13/2004 10:01:37 AM

A DHL cargo plane carrying two people crashed Friday morning into the World of Sports golf course near the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

The pilot of the plane was taken to Saint Luke West Hospital and was later transferred to University Hospital in Cincinnati.

The co-pilot of the plane was found dead amongst the rubble.

The names of the pilots have not yet been released.

Airport spokesman Ted Bushelman said the plane crashed around 1 a.m. in Florence,

Kentucky. The crash site is less than a mile from the runway.

The plane broke apart near some trees lining one of the fairways.

Bushelman said the FBI is investigating and told local authorities not to touch anything at the crash scene.

Federal aviation investigators arrived on the scene later Friday morning to begin searching for a cause in the crash.

National Transportation Safety Board members said they may remain on the scene for the next three to five days, but that it could take months to find out what caused the crash.

Stay with WCPO.com and WCPO-TV for updates to this story. Please click "refresh" on your browser to view the most recent version of this story.

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Cargo plane wreckage yields few early clues

Overnight crash on N.Ky. golf course kills co-pilot

By James Pilcher

Enquirer staff writer

FLORENCE - Investigators pored over the wreckage of Air Tahoma Flight 185 Friday, trying to piece together why the decades-old aircraft crashed within sight of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, killing the co-pilot and scattering the plane's cargo across a Florence golf course.

The pilot of the twin-engine Convair 580 is expected to be interviewed this weekend by the National Transportation Safety Board. Neither crew member has been identified.

Flight 185 was on a routine flight from Memphis with a cargo of parcels for DHL and was making its final landing approach shortly before 1 a.m. when the pilot reported engine trouble, officials said.

The aircraft was less than five miles from the airport. The pilot radioed that he thought he could make a safe landing, officials said.

But only a little more than 30 seconds and just over a mile from Runway 36R, the plane clipped a grove of pines at the World of Sports golf course, plowing into a tree across the sixth fairway and breaking into pieces. Its cargo of computer joysticks, audio equipment, documents and acrid-smelling fuel were strewn through the wooded area. It was 12:50 a.m.

The pilot walked away from the crash. Rescuers found him sitting on a bench on the fairway, talking by phone with a company dispatcher and bleeding from his injuries. He was taken to St. Luke Hospital West.

The pilot later was transferred to University Hospital. NTSB member Carol Carmody would not reveal details, but said he is "OK." Both the pilot and co-pilot are believed to be from the Memphis area.

The co-pilot's body was found buried in the gnarled wreckage of the tail section and was removed around noon.

Now, NTSB investigators must go to work trying to piece together the events that over a span of just a few minutes turned a routine flight on a cool, clear night into the first fatal aircraft accident at the busy Cincinnati airport in 21 years.

FATAL CRASHES

Other fatal crashes at CVG airport

Nov. 8, 1965: Fifty-eight people die, four survive when an American Airlines Boeing 727 crashes during landing.

Nov. 20, 1967: A TWA Convair 880 crashes just after take-off. Seventy of the 85 people on board die in the worst air disaster in Greater Cincinnati history.

June 2, 1983: An Air Canada Douglas DC-9 makes an emergency landing after the jet's lavatory caught fire on a flight from Dallas to Toronto. The crew was able to land the plane though it had no working instruments or radio. But once the plane's exits were opened, the outside oxygen caused an explosion. Twenty-three of the 46 people aboard were killed, mostly by toxic smoke from the plane's burning insulation.

"We are not going to speculate on any possibilities," the NTSB's Carmody said Friday afternoon at the golf course, several hours after a nine-member investigation team arrived from Washington.

50-year-old model

Air Tahoma, a small cargo and charter carrier based in Columbus, owned and operated the plane under contract to DHL. Investigators said Air Tahoma acquired the plane July 19 from another company that has not yet been identified. That transfer hasn't been recorded in the federal database, making it difficult for the NTSB to track the plane's maintenance history.

The Convair 580 model first entered service in 1954. Carmody said investigators believe the crashed plane was built in the early 1960s. Air Tahoma owns 13 planes, including at least six Convair 580s.

For seven years, the company has hauled freight from Memphis, Pittsburgh and Cleveland to be processed through DHL's hub here.

Records show the Federal Aviation Administration has cited Air Tahoma three times in the past four years for maintenance problems. The airline settled one case that began 2000 with a $5,000 fine. Appeals on the others are pending.

Its planes also have been involved in two accidents since 1996, including one in October 2003 when a plane's engine caught fire. Another Air Tahoma turboprop lost all oil pressure in one engine while trying to land in Memphis on Jan. 7, but landed safely with one engine.

Air Tahoma officials released a statement saying the company was "deeply saddened by the loss of a valued member of our company, but we are able to take some relief in the fact that another has survived this tragic event."

DHL officials said only that the company contracts with 10 to 15 companies such as Air Tahoma. A DHL spokesman praised Air Tahoma for "an excellent safety and operational record" over the past seven years.

DHL's hub handles more than 250,000 packages a night, and transfers freight from at least 50 flights between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

At the crash site, DHL workers carted off pickup trucks full of cargo to try to salvage some shipments.

Results likely next week

The NTSB on-site investigation is expected to take at least three to four days. Both the flight data and cockpit voice recorders were recovered and sent to Washington to be analyzed. Carmody said results could be available as soon as Monday.

She said the investigation would include representatives from the FAA and local air traffic controllers and Indianapolis-based Allison Engines, a formerly independent company that's now a subsidiary of Rolls Royce, which made the aircraft's engines, plus the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

Kelowna Flightcraft of Kelowna is a British Columbia company that specializes in Convair prop planes and oversees engineering issues for the aircraft. Kelowna president Barry Lapointe said he believes he will be asked to be part of the investigation.

'A wonder it didn't ignite'

Local emergency rescue personnel were on the scene shortly after Flight 185 went down. Boone County Coroner Doug Stith, who was notified of the crash at 1:38 a.m., said the co-pilot was pronounced dead at the scene.

"There was an enormous amount of jet fuel smell,'' Stith said. "It's a wonder it didn't ignite. The fact that it didn't catch fire is probably what saved the pilot's life."

The night stocking-crew working in the Kohl's department store on Houston Road near the crash site heard the plane come down. "It was so close they could smell (the spilled fuel) inside the building," said cashier Phyllis Yates of Florence. The store is less than a quarter-mile from the crash site.

Throughout the day Friday, golfers were turned away from the 65-acre, par 3 World of Sports course.

Norman Peacock, of Birmingham, Ala., arrived at 3 p.m. with clubs in the back of his VW Jetta.

He found a note that said the course wouldn't be open until at least Monday.

"I heard that there was an airplane that crashed on the golf course. I just didn't realize it was this one," Peacock said.

Staff writers Cindy Schroeder, Brenna Kelly and Jim Hannah and the Associated Press contributed. E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Convair 580 crash history

The Convair 580 typically is used to haul freight, although the plane can hold up to 56 passengers.

Convair 580s have been involved in 24 accidents or crashes since 1963 involving 196 fatalities, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

Since 1977, there have been 156 accidents or incidents involving Convair 580s in America, Federal Aviation Administration reports show. Since 2000, there have been 15 service difficulty reports, which indicate a major maintenance issue during a flight, filed with the FAA.

The last fatal crash of a CV580 was in October 2003 in New Zealand. The Air Freight NZ flight was carrying mail from Christchurch to Palmerston North on a rainy night. People reported engine noises, a bang and objects falling from the sky.

Two crewmembers were killed.

The last fatal crash in the United States of a Convair 580 was in November 1985, when a U.S. Navy-owned plane crashed on takeoff from Dothan, Ala., when the plane's elevators locked. Three crewmembers were killed.

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Father-son airline flies for major cargo firms

Columbus-based outfit operates 13 turboprops

By James Pilcher

Enquirer staff writer

Founded by a father-and-son team, Columbus-based cargo and charter airline Air Tahoma was looking to get bigger.

Instead, it faces a major investigation in the wake of Friday's crash of one of its planes in Florence near the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Noel Rude founded the company in 1996, and it is based out of Rickenbacker Airport, according to the company's Web site.

Air Tahoma is a spin-off from Cool Air Inc., which was founded in 1986 by Rude and his father, Bud Rude, who is a veteran of the airline industry and who founded the parent company that originally flew firefighting missions in Washington.

Officials would not comment Friday on the crash or on the company's past safety performance.

But its Web site and a filing earlier this year with the Department of Transportation for certification to operate larger airplanes said that it has contracts with several major freight carriers, including DHL and FedEx.

Three of those contracts include flights between Memphis, Pittsburgh and Cleveland to DHL's Cincinnati hub.

DHL's local operation is due to close in September 2005 as the company moves its domestic operations to another hub in Wilmington, 50 miles northeast of Cincinnati.

Many freight carriers contract with airlines such as Air Tahoma to fly to cities without enough traffic to support a larger jet.

Air Tahoma operates 13 planes, all of them small, twin-engine turboprop Convairs (either the 580 or the 240), while the main local carrier for DHL - Astar Air Cargo - operates much larger Boeing 727s, DC-8s and Airbus 300s.

Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Mosley said Friday the application was being reviewed after regulators asked for more clarification on what the airline was seeking.

Air Tahoma has had several safety and maintenance issues, federal records show.

The company acknowledged in its Transportation Department filing that the Federal Aviation Administration cited Air Tahoma for maintenance problems three times in the past four years. It paid $5,000 to settle one case that began in 2000 for a citation for unspecified problems with providing an airworthy aircraft.

It also said that the claims were based on fraudulent accusations by former employees and that it settled because it would cost less than fighting the charges.

Appeals on the other citations are still pending and FAA officials would not provide further details on those.

Air Tahoma's planes also have been involved in two official accidents or incidents since 1996.

One was Jan. 7, when an Air Tahoma turboprop lost all oil pressure in one engine while trying to land in Memphis on Jan. 7, but landed safely with the other engine.

And another plane flown by the company had its engine catch fire upon landing in Pittsburgh in October 2003.

No one was hurt.

E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com

Feds probe crash cause

By Courtney Kinney

Post staff reporter

Federal investigators will travel to Columbus today to interview officials at Air Tahoma, the cargo carrier whose plane carrying DHL parcels crashed into a golf course in Florence, Ky., Friday, killing the co-pilot.

Investigators will talk to the company's chief pilot and mechanics and review company records, Paul Schlamm, spokesman for the NTSB, said Sunday.

Crash site

• The plane crashed on the World of Sports golf course, one of a few open spaces amid Florence homes and businesses.

The propellers and engines of the Convair 580 turboprop will be sent to their manufacturers for detailed examination and the fuselage will be moved to a space at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Federal officials also will continue interviewing air traffic controllers today and examine wreckage to determine the probable cause of the crash.

"That's going to take several months," Schlamm said.

He said NTSB investigators planned to finish most of the work on the site today and be out of the area by Tuesday.

Florence police Lt. Tim Chesser, whose agency is providing security for the scene, said DHL was at the World of Sports golf course Sunday collecting the packages and parcels that were aboard the Convair. Air Tahoma operates flights under contract to DHL.

Air Tahoma Flight 185, which originated in Memphis, Tenn., crashed about 1.2 miles short of the runway at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport at 12:50 a.m. Friday. Schlamm said the plane's flight recorder caught some discussion about low power in one engine, then the other. The last radar contact with the plane showed it was moving at a normal landing speed.

The twin-engine plane broke in half.

Co-pilot Michael Ray Gelwicks, 36, of Southaven, Miss., was thrown from the cockpit into the fuselage, where his body was found entangled in wreckage. The pilot, whose name has not been released, was thrown forward from the wreckage. Florence police found him sitting on a bench at the golf course with cuts and bruises.

The pilot was released from University Hospital Sunday.

The president of Air Tahoma, an eight-year-old company that purchased the circa-1967 Convair aircraft on July 19, could not be reached for comment Sunday. DHL officials could be reached for comment Sunday.

Local authorities said the crash scene hasn't been much of a disruption. Ted Bushelman, spokesman for Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, said the airport is not active in the operations of the investigation and the investigation has not had an impact on operations at the airport.

"Everything's running smoothly," he said.

Chesser said the department has been providing round-the-clock security at the scene, but has had little problem other than keeping people a respectable distance from the crash site.

"It's gone actually pretty calmly, pretty smoothly," he said.

"We were very fortunate -- It was an unfortunate situation, but it could have been worse."

Publication Date: 08-16-2004

Cincinnati crash of Memphis cargo plane kills co-pilot

By Associated Press

August 13, 2004

FLORENCE, Ky. — A cargo plane from Memphis crashed at a golf course early today, less than a mile from its planned landing site at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, killing the co-pilot, authorities said.

The pilot, the only other person on board, walked away from the crash and was taken to a hospital, airport spokesman Ted Bushelman said. The co-pilot's body was found after daybreak, several hours after the crash at about 1 a.m., Bushelman said.

Authorities had not identified either person.

The twin-engine turboprop Convair 580 owned by Air Tahoma took off Thursday night from Memphis, Bushelman said.

The pilot was doing OK and was at University Hospital in Cincinnati for observation, said Chris Trott, spokesman for Air Tahoma. Both people are from the Memphis area, he said. The hospital refused to give the pilot's condition.

The wreckage was against a group of trees that separates the golf course from a road.

"It's in pieces. The tail section with DHL on it is intact," Bushelman said.

Air Tahoma, based at Rickenbacker Airport in central Ohio, is a contractor for Plantation, Fla.-based DHL air cargo company and owns 13 other planes, Trott said.

Bushelman wouldn't comment on any conversation the pilot may have had with air traffic controllers, saying the National Transportation Safety Board was investigating.

The FBI told local authorities not to touch anything at the crash scene, Bushelman said. NTSB investigators were expected to arrive later Friday.

Bushelman wasn't aware of any delays to commercial flights at the airport, which closed the runway where the plane was to land for four hours after the crash. The airport, which has three runways, mostly handles cargo flights at that time of morning.