The Mitsubishi MU2B twin-engine turboprop airplane that crashed Saturday in Copake, New York, had taken off from Westchester County Airport and was en route to Columbia County Airport at Hudson, New York, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). All six people on the plane were killed in the crash. The airplane was registered to a limited liability company in Weston, Massachusetts. The airplane was being operated as a personal flight under Part 91 of federal aviation regulations.
The accident occurred at about 12:06 p.m. as the airplane was making a second approach to Columbia County Airport. The airplane was flying in instrument meteorological conditions, requiring the pilot to use the airplane’s instruments to maintain situational awareness rather than being able to look out the window and see the horizon and ground.
NTSB Board Member Todd Inman said that 14 NTSB investigators were on the scene and he expected that they would remain on-scene for about a week. He said additional people at NTSB headquarters in Washington were working on the investigation and that outside parties that have been invited to participate included the aircraft manufacturer Mitsubishi, engine manufacturer Honeywell, and the air traffic controllers’ union. He said that the crash site was about 10 miles from the airport near State Route 23 and Two Town Road.
“We have obtained at this point a video of the actual crash in the final seconds,” Inman said. “The video … appears to show that the aircraft was intact and crashed at a high rate of descent into the ground.”
The investigator-in-charge for this investigation, Albert Nixon, said, “During the approach at Columbia County Airport, the pilot reported a missed approach. He requested vectors (from air traffic control) for another approach and as he was being vectored the radar indicated a low altitude alert The ATC (air traffic control) controller attempted to relay this low altitude alert to the pilot and also tried to contact him three additional times. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful. There was no response from the pilot and there was no distress call.”
Inman said that the purpose of the flight from Westchester to Columbia County Airport was so that the people on the plane could visit with family members who lived in the Columbia County area. The NTSB did not release the identities of those on board.
Inman asked for any members of the public who had videos, photos or other information that might be important for the investigation to contact the NTSB. He said that a preliminary report should be ready in about 30 days and that it likely would take from 12 to 24 months to complete the investigation and determine the probable cause of the accident.
“The ceiling (height of the bottom of the cloud layer) was starting to deteriorate. Weather is something … we’ll look at,” Inman said. “We have an entire meteorological team. We’re pulling local information. We do know there was snow on the ground at the time it occurred. A lot of that snow is gone now. It is one factor we’ll look at along with many others.”
