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Monroe Crash Kills Pilot and Three Passengers


On January 24, 2013, a Central Flying Services Inc Beechcraft A36 Bonanza en route from Beaumont Municipal to Monroe Regional Airport was on approach to Monroe when it crashed for unknown reasons. Four minutes before the crash, the pilot told ATC of problems with the plane’s landing gear. ATC lost contact with the plane at 1:49 p.m. The plane crashed eight miles from the airport. Witnesses saw the plane circle and nosedive into the woods.

The plane impacted behind Ouachita Correctional Center in Richwood. The manifest says Dean Hart Sr. of West Monroe, owner of Hart Commercial Investments, and Max Larche of Bastrop, engineer with Lazenby & Associates in West Monroe and Don Thompson of Monroe were passengers aboard the flight. The three businessmen were returning from a business trip to Beaumont.

The pilot was also a fatality.

Emergency services included police and fire firefighters, firefighters on ATV. Firefighters relied on fire extinguishers to put out the blaze.

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Small plane crash kills Rockefeller

The weather in White Plains was foggy and rainy when a Piper Meridian single-engine turbo prop missed a residence and crashed on a horse farm near Westchester County Airport, killing the pilot, Richard Rockefeller. Rockefeller was a doctor who had just celebrated his father’s 99th birthday. Weather may have been responsible for the accident. Rockefeller did not report a mayday.

There was no one else aboard.

The debris field covered a hundred feet. Rockefeller was 64 years old, and leaves behind two adult children and a wife.

The FAA and NTSB are investigating. The crash occurred on Friday June 13th.

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Co-Pilots to the Rescue

Capt. Lee Collins of the Coalition of Airline Pilots Association said pilots are prepared for emergencies in the air. The pilot of a transatlantic flight died over the Atlantic Ocean, but the jet landed safely.

What: Continental Airlines Boeing 777-200 en route from Brussels Belgium to Newark, NJ
Where: en route
When: June 18th 2009
Who: 247 passengers and 3 flight crew
Why: Four hours into the flight, while over the Atlantic, the captain died. The two first officers took over and landed the plane safely in Newark.

A doctor on board was called to the cockpit, and the on board defibrillator failed to revive the captain who apparently had died of a heart attack.

George’s Point of View

It’s a small world.

Recently I’d been in a conversation with someone about the Colgan flight.

Remember the Colgan flight? The one that crashed in Buffalo? The wings iced over, the captain was ill-trained, and the co-pilot was too inexperienced and too exhausted to know how to respond to the particular emergency. The combination resulted in disaster for everyone on board.

So, I was in this conversation with someone about the Colgan flight, and the question came up about the value of the co-pilot’s experience. The rate of the co-pilot’s pay was released, ($11.00/hr) and that provoked me to write about co-pilots needing “professional” pay. What would happen, we speculated (in this conversation) if the pilot died? The copilot becomes the de facto pilot.

Then, lo and behold, today a pilot dies of a heart attack. Luckily for Continental and everyone on board, there were two co-pilots on hand, and both of them apparently qualified enough to handle the flight. (Apparently so, since they did manage to finish the flight.)

I just wasn’t expecting that speculative question to manifest itself in a headline today.

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Aborted Crash


Airbus A320-200 Lufthansa nearly crashes during a crosswind approach on the runway 23 at the Hamburg International Airport (EDDH) on 1st march 2008 in Germany.

Left wing touched the runway during extreme turbulance. Left wing destroyed. Plane lands safely.

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FAA and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Reach Agreement on Airport Safety Violations

WASHINGTON – The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) have reached a settlement agreement about aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) violations from December 2010 to June 2012 at four New York area airports owned and operated by the PANYNJ — John F. Kennedy, Teterboro, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty International.

“We expect all airports to comply with our safety regulations and to correct any deficiencies immediately,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “These violations were egregious, and they will not be tolerated.”

Under the agreement, the PANYNJ agrees to pay a $3.5 million fine within 30 days. If there is a violation of the settlement agreement, the FAA will impose an additional fine of $1.5 million and will assess an additional $27,500 daily for each violation. In addition to the fine, the PANYNJ has agreed to take the following actions, with FAA approval, to address the underlying problems that led to systemic noncompliance with ARFF requirements at the four airports:

  • The Port Authority will create a dedicated ARFF force to carry out airport-related ARFF functions with no collateral police officer duties.
  • The staff will report directly to the Department of Aviation and be operational no later than March 31, 2014.
  • The Port Authority will hire an ARFF fire chief and facility captains as soon as possible, but no later than March 31, 2014.
  • The Port Authority will submit a curriculum for training to the FAA on or before December 31, 2013, which includes at least 75 hours of initial ARFF training and 40 hours of annual recurrent firefighting training in addition to Part 139 training, pertaining to an airport’s operational and safety standards and providing for such things as firefighting and rescue.
  • The ARFF personnel will work a 12-hour shift.
  • The Port Authority will amend the airport certification manuals for the four airports to include: an organizational chart; a process to maintain ARFF training records; and a description of ARFF operations, including shift assignments, personnel training records management, and Department of Aviation oversight.
  • The Port Authority will conduct monthly internal audits of ARFF training and shift assignments and annual external audits to ensure that all ARFF personnel assigned to a shift are trained.

“We expect the Port Authority to have trained safety personnel to ensure the safety of the travelling public and airport personnel, just like we have at all airports in the United States,” said FAA Administrator Michael P. Huerta.

The FAA became aware of ARFF violations as a result of an annual airport certification safety inspection of JFK in December 2011. The FAA also discovered similar violations at Teterboro, which prompted a full review of training at LaGuardia, Newark Liberty International, and Stewart International Airports. The review of ARFF training revealed violations at LaGuardia and Newark, with no violations at Stewart.

The FAA believes the settlement agreement provides the best long-term solution to ensure ARFF compliance, given the systemic nature of the PANYNJ airport problems.

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