Pilot to Blame for Paul Wellstone Plane Crash

Probe: Pilot to Blame for Wellstone Crash
Investigators Say Pilot Error to Blame for Crash That Killed Sen. Wellstone, 7 Others
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON Nov. 18 ?- Pilot error caused the plane crash that killed Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., and seven others just before the 2002 election, federal safety officials said Tuesday. They recommended tighter scrutiny of charter airlines.

The twin-propeller King Air A100 carrying Wellstone, his wife, daughter and three campaign workers stalled when the flight crew slowed it too quickly on its approach to Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport in northern Minnesota on Oct. 25, 2002, investigators told the National Transportation Safety Board. The charter plane lost altitude, veered sharply, sheared off treetops and crashed 2 1/2 miles short of the runway, killing all aboard.

"The flight crew did not monitor and maintain minimum speed," NTSB Aircraft Performance Group Chairman Charlie Pereira told the board.

Interviews conducted after the crash revealed shortcomings in the proficiency of pilot Richard Conry, 55, and co-pilot Michael Guess, 30, investigators said.

During the probe, investigators learned of two instances when co-pilots took the controls from Conry as he flew Wellstone to campaign appearances. Just three days before the fatal crash, Conry activated the wrong switch and caused the plane to pitch downward when it was 300 feet off the ground. The co-pilot corrected his action.

After the presentation by Pereira and other investigators, the NTSB voted unanimously to accept the finding that pilot error was to blame.

The board recommended that Federal Aviation Administration inspectors fly periodically with pilots on small charter planes, as they do for larger commercial airliners. Such inspections are essential to make sure the company's flight operations are safe, the board said.

The board also recommended more training on how flight crews should work together and a study on the feasibility of a system that would alert pilots when a plane's airspeed is too low.

"We're trying to raise the bar to a single level of safety" for both small chartered planes and scheduled flights, NTSB Chairman Ellen Engleman said.

The board also concluded that the charter company did not do enough to make pilots aware of its emergency procedures, including guidance for recovering from a stall, and failed to train pilots how to work as a team in the cockpit.

Jeff Blodgett, Wellstone's campaign manager in his three Senate races, said the NTSB's findings were extremely disturbing.

"It's now crystal clear the crash didn't have to happen and never should have happened," said Blodgett, who spoke for Wellstone's two surviving sons.

Wellstone; his wife, Sheila; their 33-year-old daughter, Marcia Wellstone Markuson; and three campaign workers were traveling to a funeral when the crash occurred on a cold, cloudy day.

Investigators looked at the possibility that iced wings had contributed to the accident, but they discounted that and focused instead on the actions of Conry and Guess.

John Clark, the NTSB's director of aviation safety, said the pilots were flying too fast as they approached the runway and didn't put their landing gear down soon enough. Trying to overcome the mistake, they slowed too much, and the plane went from 190 mph to 87 mph in the final 90 seconds of the flight, Clark said.

No mechanical problems were found, so investigators concluded inattention by the pilots most likely was to blame.

"One of them should have been monitoring the instruments," said Bill Bramble, a human performance investigator for the NTSB.

Toxicology tests revealed neither pilot had been drinking or using drugs.

The accident that killed the senator occurred less than two weeks before Election Day. After Wellstone's death, former Vice President Walter Mondale accepted the Democratic candidacy. He waged a brief campaign, but Republican Norm Coleman won the seat Wellstone had held for nearly 12 years.

Last August, the families of Wellstone and the campaign workers reached a $25 million settlement with Aviation Charter Inc. of Eden Prairie, Minn., which operated the flight. At the time, company attorney Mike Lindberg said the settlement was not an acknowledgment of pilot error or responsibility but was "a way to avoid ongoing litigation."

Messages seeking comment from the company Tuesday were not immediately returned.