Pilot error was responsible for a small plane crash that killed five people in Melbourne last year, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has found. See story on my blog
https://madaboutplanes.blogspot.com/search?q=plane+crashes+into+shopping+centre
Pilot Max Quartermain and four American tourists died when a Beechcraft B200 Super King plane crashed into the DFO shopping centre at Essendon shortly after take-off, in February 2017. Today, the ATSB ruled the aircraft's rudder trim was left in the wrong position, causing the aircraft to turn — or "yaw" — sharply to the left after take off. It also prevented the aircraft from climbing.The report said the pilot had five opportunities to pick up the error. ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood said the crash could have been prevented if the pilot had have used a checklist prior to take-off.
"In this particular tragic accident there were opportunities in the checklist that existed for the pilot to ensure the rudder trim was set to neutral." Mr Quartermain made a distress call shortly after taking off from Essendon airport, repeating the word "mayday" seven times. The flight was bound for King Island, Tasmania, and was one of Victoria's worst civil aviation crashes. Paul Henderson, a lawyer acting on behalf of the wives of the passengers killed in the crash, is advising them to take legal action against the pilot's insurance agency and his estate. "Considering the cause of the accident, we hope that the insurers of the carrier and pilot will take a conciliatory approach and seek to resolve these claims as soon as possible to avoid any further trauma to all families involved in this tragedy," he said.
"All up [damages] for this group of people, it will be in the millions." In a statement, the pilot's widow Cilla Quartermain said her husband loved to be a pilot and always cared about the passengers he was flying. The report found the pilot also failed to identify that the cockpit voice recorder was not operational before the plane took off and meant investigators had no further information about what occurred in the plane immediately prior to the crash. The ATSB found the location of the Essendon DFO shopping centre did not contribute to the crash. In a statement, the chief executive of Essendon Fields, which operates the shopping centre, welcomed the release of the finding that the building's location didn't increase the severity or consequences of the crash. "The ATSB is conducting a separate investigation into the approval process of two other buildings at Essendon Fields DFO," Steve Dabkowski said. "We note those buildings were approved by CASA before construction."
Story sourced from here
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