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Wellstone crash analyzed
By Nyssa Dahlberg
Published:
Monday, October 27, 2003
Media Credit: Blair Schlichte
Paul Wellstone came to St. Cloud State for a rally last year just before he died in a plane crash. To commemorate his death, his accident was analyzed in the Miller Center last week.
Eight people, including U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, died in a plane crash Oct. 24, 2002.
To mark the one year anniversary of Wellstone's death, SCSU aviation professor Jeffrey Johnson presented a slide show containing an accident analysis of what went wrong the day of the crash.
Johnson is a former employee for the Nebraska Republican party and has flown several political candidates and politicians. Some include Nebraska's attorney general, lieutenant governor and a U.S. senator.
Johnson first became interested in flying positions after going on a vacation to Maine and meeting former President Bush. Prior to that trip, Johnson wasn't even interested in politics.
"During the heavy campaign season, a pilot must fly about 10 different places in a day," Johnson said. "We would land at the airport, be there approximately 20 minutes and then get back into the plane preparing for the next stop."
On top of that, Johnson said that pilots may encounter difficulties while in flight. "External factors that can exasperate flying are weather conditions, mechanical error and unfamiliar pilots," he said. "Also, some places do not have control towers. Instead, they use computers, and if the computers are wrong, the pilot can encounter quite a suprise."
In the Wellstone crash, pilot error was the most conclusive explanation for the deaths of eight people.
The crash was analyzed by the "Go Team." The team is a group of specialists with certain areas of expertise.
"The last recorded radar was at 10:21:42 and showed there was nothing wrong with the landing pattern or weather conditions," Johnson said.
The "Go Team" also concluded that nothing catastrophic went wrong with the plane so the only possible explanation was pilot error.
Normally, charter companies hire pilots based on a certain number of pre-determined flight hours. To be hired by a charter company, a pilot must have at least 1,200 hours of air time. Sometimes charter companies will only hire pilots with 2,400 hours of flight time.
"So why did the safety pilot on the Wellstone plane have less than 700 hours of flight time?" Johnson asked. "There was also a question about the qualifications of the captain. He said that he worked for American Eagle."
They looked into that and apparently he made it through ground school, but never continued as a pilot, Johnson said.
After the slide show was over, students were allowed to ask questions.
SCSU student Jeana Mattson knew one of the pilots personally.
"I knew Richard (one of Wellstone's pilots) myself and I thought he was really good," she said. "I know Richard was very calming during stressful times (and) bad weather. He would say calming words. Paul Wellstone probably requested him because he was able to calm him down."
The nation may never know what exactly happened that day on the Wellstone aircraft.
"An accident does not result from one single mistake. An accident results from a series of mistakes. We may never know exactly what happened," Johnson said.
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Living in Duluth I am reminded daily abo... (10/28/03)
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