Federal investigators are continuing the long process of determining what caused a private business jet to crash into an Akron apartment last month, killing all nine people on board.
The National Transportation Safety Board is keeping the wreckage in an undisclosed, “secure location” somewhere in Ohio, spokesman Terry Williams said.
Federal officials say the entire investigation likely will take a year.
Meanwhile, documents recently obtained by the Akron Beacon Journal and reviewed by aviation experts show the British Aerospace Hawker 127-700 jet had routine maintenance and repairs since it first flew in 1979.
Records filed with the Federal Aviation Administration from 1979 through 2010 show the small jet regularly received routine maintenance, repairs and had other modifications to keep its air worthiness rating over that period.
In addition to the newspaper’s review, a local pilot and flight instructor who flies piston and jet engine aircraft and an employee of a school that teaches aircraft maintenance looked at the records at the request of the Beacon Journal. The pilot and the school employee said they did not see anything unusual in the documents.
“Everything I saw there was pretty normal,” said Tim Lanigan, a 37-year-old flight instructor based in Wadsworth. “It seems fairly standard stuff for an airplane of its age.”
The jet crashed shortly before 3 p.m. Nov. 10 in Akron’s Ellet neighborhood, hitting a small apartment building off Mogadore Road on its way to land at Akron Fulton International Airport.
The jet exploded on impact, killing all seven passengers, the pilot and copilot in Akron’s deadliest crash in history; no one on the ground was hurt. The Hawker was flying to Akron Fulton from Dayton; the flight originated the day before in Florida and was carrying employees of a real estate firm that had property in Akron.
Equipment updated
The FAA records show the Hawker had computers and other electronic equipment replaced and updated over the years.
But there was nothing in the records that showed a history of problems or questionable airworthiness.
The FAA reports did not include private airframe and powerplant logbooks that aircraft owners keep, Lanigan said. The logbooks would show such things as whether the equipment on board, such as a ground proximity system, was working properly or awaiting repair, he said.
For instance, the Hawker jet did have a ground proximity warning system that, if working properly, would tell the crew if the jet was too close to the ground. A logbook would show if the warning system was working or if it needed repair, Lanigan said.
Aircraft can still be safely flown if the ground proximity warning system was not working, he said.
An employee at the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics who reviewed the Hawker’s FAA records also called them “routine” and did not see anything amiss. The jet’s logbooks likely would have better information on the state of the aircraft’s equipment, he said.
NTSB investigators will look at the logbooks. The documents eventually will become part of the investigation’s public docket, the federal agency said last week.
Pieces of the investigation will become part of the public docket as they are completed, said Williams, the NTSB spokesman. That is “several months down the road.” The NTSB has refused to speculate on what caused the crash.
Logbooks valuable
In addition to their usefulness in a crash investigation, logbooks are considered highly valuable, key records, Lanigan said. The loss of a logbook can lop off as much as three-quarters of the value of an aircraft.
The NTSB recently issued a preliminary report that noted the small jet was attempting to land at Akron Fulton airport in poor visibility, with light rain, fog and a low cloud ceiling.
Investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder. In the poor quality recording, the two pilots discuss the upcoming landing and the low visibility weather before the sounds of the impact.
In addition, the two engines were sent to manufacturer Honeywell for analysis.
When investigators are finished with the wreckage, it will be turned over to the aircraft owner’s insurance company, Williams said.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him @JimMackinnonABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/JimMackinnonABJ. His stories can be found at www.ohio.com/writers/jim-mackinnon.