The Business Journals reviewed a recording of communications between the pilot of the Beech A36 Bonanza that crashed near Westchester County Airport on Jan. 19 and FAA Air Traffic Control. The single-engine airplane carried two people from the Cleveland, Ohio, area. Both were killed in the accident.
The airplane had departed John F. Kennedy International Airport on an instrument flight plan to Cuyahoga County Airport outside of Cleveland. The Beechcraft pilot contacted a controller at New York Departure and was instructed to climb to 8,000 feet rather than 6,000 feet as originally planned.
“Can we stop our climb at 6,000 (feet)?,” the pilot asked the controller.
“You can for now but IÂ have to climb you to eight along this route so if you want to level off at six for a minute to accelerate or do something that’s fine but I am going to keep you climbing to eight in about 10 to 15 miles.”
The pilot replied in a calm voice, “We’re not getting the performance we’re expecting and I’m not certain why.”
“Are you unable 8,000? I can get you an alternate route up over Huguenot probably that will keep you down low,” the controller radioed. Huguenot is a radio navigation station located in Orange County.
“I don’t understand why we’re only climbing at about 200 feet per minute,” the pilot said. “Eight thousand is going to take a long time to get to.” An expected climb rate for a Beech Bonanza with an engine producing normal power is around 1,000 feet per minute.
The controller then asked whether the pilot was having an issue. The pilot said he wasn’t seeing anything on the instrumentation. The controller then advised that the Westchester County Airport was just off the airplane’s right wing if the pilot wanted to land and check it out.
The pilot then told the controller that the airplane’s engine had a dead cylinder and they would like to go to Westchester and he asked the controller to provide vectors to direct them toward the airport. The controller told the pilot to turn the aircraft right headed 340 degrees on the compass and to maintain 5,000 feet altitude. The controller acknowledged the instructions. The controller told the pilot to prepare for an instrument approach to Runway 16 at Westchester.
The controller asked the pilot if he was declaring an emergency and the pilot replied, “Not at this time.”
The controller then reminded the pilot to turn to a heading of 340 degrees.
“I am declaring an emergency,” the pilot said and repeated, “We are going to declare emergency. We are losing oil pressure.”
The controller acknowledged and asked the pilot if he could turn left heading 070 degrees to be lined up with the instrument approach path for Westchester.
“Understand you are losing oil pressure,” the controller said. The pilot replied still in a calm voice, “Yes, we are losing oil pressure, this is an emergency.” The controller advised that he was taking the plane directly over the Westchester airport onto a path for it to fly parallel to Runway 16. The airplane was descended to 3,000 feet and the pilot was told that the cloud bases were at 300 feet.
The pilot said that he had flown the instrument approach into Westchester a few weeks ago. Within seconds, the pilot transmitted the distress call, “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday.”
The controller gave directions to get the plane closer to the airport and cleared the pilot to land on Runway 16. He continued issuing advisories to guide the airplane toward the runway. When the airplane was less than a mile from the runway, the controller radioed that radar contact with the airplane was lost.
The airplane crashed in a wooded area adjacent to Rye Lake near the airport. The victims were identified as 45-year-old Benjamin Chafetz and 40-year-old Boruch Taub.
The recording of pilot and controller communications was provided by LiveATC.
