A preliminary investigation of the Feb. 14 plane crash that took the life of pilot 75-year-old Thomas Harvey in western Flagler County reveals that the plane had followed a normal flight path until it suddenly began to drop rapidly, at more than 200 feet per second before impact. There was no evidence of a fire on board and “no indications of a flight control anomaly were discovered,” according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report.
The incident is still under investigation, so the findings may yet change. But the NTSB’s five-page report is the most detailed account yet of the hours and moments that led to the crash as Harvey, an experienced pilot with 9,000 hours of flight experience, was piloting the plane to Palatka to ready it for skydiving flights the next day. The report does not refer to an autopsy. Absent findings of mechanical failure, attention will turn to Harvey’s physical and medical condition at the time of the crash, raising questions of a possible medical episode.
“The preliminary report still leaves the accident a mystery,” says Les Abend, a Flagler County resident, a pilot of long date and CNN’s aviation analyst. “Although it sometimes takes a while, nothing in regard to toxicology was in the report, nor was any background info regarding the pilot’s activities or medical history prior to the accident indicated–this data may still be progressing as part of the field investigation phase.”
Harvey was the only person aboard the Cessna 208 (tail number N40EA), one of several planes in Illinois-based Eagle Air Transport’s fleet. The company specializes in skydiving flights. Harvey had left Sebastian Municipal Airport at 5:52 p.m. that Friday, en route to Palatka Municipal Airport some 125 miles to the northwest. Based on FAA data, Harvey initially flew north for 50 miles along I-95, at 1,700 feet. He then turned left, or west, flying over DeLand as he rose to 3,100 feet. Once past the city, he turned back east as he flew over Lake Woodruff, climbing to 3,300 feet. By then he was about 30 miles south of Palatka.
Weather and light were not an issue. It was dusk. There were “scattered and overcast clouds between 2,700 and 3,300 feet” and 7 to 10 miles visibility, the report states, and few clouds in Palatka. But about 25 miles from Palatka, the plane started losing altitude steadily. The plane’s “vertical speed oscillated between positive and negative values” as it slowed down. The plane then banked 180 degrees to the right and started falling precipitously, exceeding speeds of 12,000 feet per minute “until the data ended,” the NTSB report states.
“The flight control cables had signs of ‘tensile overload,'” Abend said, citing the report, “which could have been a result of the controls themselves being stressed from a spiraling dive, or stressed as a result of pilot input attempting to recover from entering a spiraling dive.”
An Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS–B), a surveillance technology that tracks planes, last recorded the plane at 370 feet above ground level as it was falling. Then came impact as the plane sheared through the tops of 65-foot trees before the propeller and engine assembly crashed on the ground at huge velocity, creating a 30-inch-deep crater and burying the propeller assembly into the ground. The debris field was 75 yards long.
“While walking the debris field, the cockpit and passenger compartment of the plane were unidentifiable and apparent that the plane lost control and landed in a cluster of trees,” a Flagler County sheriff’s deputy reported. “No signs of life were observed, and it was noted that the pilot had no means of ejection.”
“The main body of the wreckage consisting of the fuselage and cockpit was discovered wrapped around trees,” the report states. “Both wings and the empennage,” meaning the tail assembly, “separated during impact and the debris field contained severely fragmented parts consistent with a high energy impact. The accident site and debris field was covered in 2 ft deep water, mud, and densely populated palmetto trees.” Responders and investigators found a strong odor of jet fuel and a fuel slick in the water, but no indications of fire before or after impact.
Though both wings broke off the plane and were fragmented, investigators recovered 90 percent of the plane, including all flight-control surfaces and major components. A description of the condition of the propeller is indicative of the speed at impact: “Two of the three propeller blades were discovered in the primary impact crater and both blades completely separated from the hub. The blades were severely deformed with s-bending and exhibited chordwise scraping and gouges on the upper camber of the blades. Both propeller blades were fractured and missing about 10 inches of the tips. An extensive search was conducted, for the missing blade but it was not located.”
The cockpit was destroyed as were all instruments except for the throttle, which was damaged but preserved. In a further indication that the pilot had been following a normal flight course at leas until the incident began, “The emergency power lever was at the mid travel setting,” investigators found, “the power lever was about 55% and the propeller control was about 70% forward. The fuel condition lever was full forward.”
It had been a VFR flight–Visual Flight Rules–that did not rely on instruments, “typical and perfectly legal,” Abend said. “But I noticed that the temperature dew point spread reported was 0 degrees 20/20 Centigrade, which is indicative of fog formation or lowering visibility. The flight was approaching the dusk hour and the combination of poor visibility may have induced momentarily disorientation, causing vertigo. Even veteran pilots experience vertigo, but are usually able to adjust by trusting their instruments as per years of training.”
Harvey, who would have been 76 on May 15, was a resident of Hidden Creek Drive in Jacksonville and a retired U.S. Air Force crew chief and master sergeant.
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