Houston Chronicle by Dug Begley July 14, 2020
NTSB: Co-pilot may have hit wrong switch then panicked before Trinity Bay plane crash that killed 3
Federal investigators say the co-pilot on a cargo plane that plunged into Trinity Bay last year, killing three, inadvertently activated a form of autopilot then panicked as he wrongly believed the plane was stalling.
Summarizing more than 3,000 pages of the investigation report, officials with the National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday said problems in the past training of First Officer Conrad Jules Aska of Antigua should have been a red flag to Atlas Air, the cargo carrier that operated the flight.
“As difficult as this is to acknowledge, the first officer’s training record was, bluntly, terrible,†said Bruce Landsberg, vice-chairman of the NTSB.
So was the inability of federal aviation regulators and airlines to document and then limit his time in the cockpit, officials said. Members of the safety board called for a long-delayed Federal Aviation Administration database system that compiles pilot training and information so airlines are not relying on incomplete or inaccurate information and can detail problems so they are more visible to prospective employers.
“If the FAA had done their job, this pilot would not have been employed by Atlas Airlines and, therefore, this crash would not have happened,†NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said.
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/transportation/article/ntsb-deadly-co-pilot-plane-crash-wrong-switch-15407268.php
