Begin forwarded message:
Interesting/sad pilot story.
You are really going to roll your eyeballs on this one... It's an absolutely incredible example of 'What in the world were you thinking??!!'
This information is public knowledge.
Friday nite, February 1st, at Augusta, ME. Sleet and freezing rain has been falling for most of the afternoon. The ground crew pulls the Cessna Citation CJ out for the owner to fly to Lincoln, NE.
It sits outside for at least an hour...getting a significant covering of ice.
Pilot (also owner of CJ) and her son arrive. She is big shot entrepreneur from San Francisco.. now living in Steamboat Springs. By her own account, the CJ is her SUV.
The line personnel ask about deicing. (Remember, it's still sleet/freezing rain fairly heavy). She is reported to have declined deicing with an aside that she 'has hot wings'... (yeah right).
So, at around 5:30 pm she is loaded up and taxis out for departure.
Slight problem soon develops as she fails to turn on the airport lights.
(Remember your basic skills... multiple clicks on CTAF and the lights come on!) Soon her shiny little CJ is taxiing over the grass area between the taxiway and the runway. Obviously not sure of where she is going, she manages to taxi into a drainage swail. Well, for most of us this would have been the clincher. But some people are 'driven' (as she has been described..). As we all know.. there is no situation that plenty of POWER can't overcome. That's what she used. Power. Out of the ditch... and pressing onward.
So now that the line guys have clicked the UNICOM radio to turn on the runway/taxi lights, it is suspected that she finally realizes she isn't even close to being where she planned to be. After some additional wandering around on the unpaved surfaces, she makes it onto a runway. Not the runway she was intending to go to, but at least a runway. A little indecision was expressed regarding which runway she would eventually use but remember...she is on a mission.
Somewhere along the way she manages to call for her clearance and release and finally blasts off on runway 17. Oh yeah.. One other 'minor detail' I forgot. All of the transmissions that most of us would be making on the CTAF.. well, those were broadcast on the ATC clearance frequency over the RCO. There is an upside to this, however... Those radio calls were far superior to a cockpit voice recorder.......which this aircraft does not have.
Off the ground and climbing, she contacts ATC. ATC acknowledges and gives her a turn to Syracuse. Shortly after this she comes up on the frequency and declares an emergency because she has an attitude gyro failure.
ATC acknowledges and asks if she would prefer to return to Augusta and direction of turn. The immediate response is that she can't tell which way she is turning...and then nothing. ATC notes a rapid rate of descent. Radar contact lost. Gone.
Ground witnesses said they heard the airplane impact and saw a huge ball of orange fire and black smoke. The impact was in West Gardiner... only a few miles from the Augusta airport. It wasn't pretty. Impact most likely in nose down, wing down (perhaps more that 60 degrees down). Very large crater. Pieces everywhere. Both pilot and passenger fatals. Not pretty.
The aftermath is obviously a hectic scene. Notable, very wealthy business person dies in plane crash...flying her own private jet...single pilot.
Those of us who have paid attention in class and in the cockpit would likely recognize that having to crank in some significant aileron might indicate a problem. (like fuel imbalance or lift issues. But then again... this person DECLINED DEICE with what was likely a significant layer of ice on the entire aircraft!!!) If you have 40 degrees left aileron and the attitude gyro is showing 'wings level', most of us would immediately reference the copilot's panel or the 'peanut gyro'. Remember the phrase.. Trust Your Instruments.. Crosscheck and verify. Unfortunately, we all know where this mess goes...
There is a lot more that was derived during the investigation, but I'll leave that up to official sources. It certainly is interesting to see how her business contemporaries characterize her.
'Driven'..
'She used her plane the way most people would use a car.'
'She was a very good pilot, very well practiced and meticulous,' said Donovan her Director of Marketing. 'We've all flown with her over the years, many times.'
I wonder what her fellow pilots and FBO folks have to say??
Pilot: Jeanette Symons
Aircraft: Cessna Citation CJ N102PT
Location: West Gardiner, ME
Date: February 1, 2008
Stay tuned.
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Tech entrepreneur Jeanette Symons passed away Friday night when a plane she was flying crashed in the woods outside Augusta, Maine, killing Symons and her 10 year old son.