Investigators blame pilot error for Wellstone crash
NTSB votes to accept the finding
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Wellstone was one of eight people killed in an October 25, 2002 plane crash.
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pilot error caused the plane crash that killed Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minnesota, and seven others just before the 2002 election, federal investigators said Tuesday.
The twin-propeller King Air A100 stalled when the flight crew slowed it too quickly while approaching Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport in northern Minnesota on Oct. 25, 2002, investigators told the National Transportation Safety Board. The plane lost altitude, veered sharply, sheared off treetops and crashed 21/2 miles short of the runway.
"The flight crew did not monitor and maintain minimum speed," NTSB Aircraft Performance Group Chairman Charlie Pereira told the board.
Interviews conducted after the crash revealed shortcomings in the proficiency of both pilots, investigators said.
After the presentation by Pereira and other investigators, the NTSB voted unanimously to accept the finding that pilot error was to blame.
Wellstone; his wife, Sheila; their 33-year-old daughter, Marcia Wellstone Markuson; three campaign workers and the pilot and co-pilot died in the crash. They were traveling to a funeral.
The accident occurred less than two weeks before Election Day. Following Wellstone's death, former Vice President Walter Mondale accepted the Democratic candidacy. After a brief campaign, Republican Norm Coleman won the seat Wellstone had held for nearly 12 years.
Jeff Blodgett, Wellstone's campaign manager in his three Senate races, said the NTSB's findings were "extremely disturbing."
"It's now crystal clear the crash didn't have to happen and never should have happened," said Blodgett, who spoke for Wellstone's two surviving sons. "Those two pilots should have never been allowed to fly people in that plane, and I hope the people who allowed those pilots to fly with such precious cargo are held responsible."
It was cloudy and cold the day of the crash. Investigators looked at the possibility that icing on the wings contributed to the accident, but discounted it and focused instead on pilot Richard Conry, 55, and co-pilot Michael Guess, 30.
John Clark, the NTSB's director of aviation safety, said Conry and Guess were flying too high and too fast as they began their approach. They slowed down too much as they tried to make up for the mistake, he said. The plane went from 190 mph to 87 mph in the final 90 seconds of the flight.
No mechanical problems were found, so investigators concluded inattention by the pilots most likely was to blame.
"One of them should have been monitoring the instruments," said Bill Bramble, a human performance investigator for the NTSB.
During the course of the probe, investigators learned of two instances when co-pilots took the controls away from Conry as he flew Wellstone to appearances. Just three days before the fatal crash, Conry activated the wrong switch and caused the plane to pitch downward during the climb. The co-pilot corrected his action.
When the plane landed, Wellstone jokingly told Conry to "get some sleep."
Last August, the families of Wellstone and the campaign workers reached a $25 million settlement with Aviation Charter Inc. of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, which operated the flight. At the time, company attorney Mike Lindberg said the settlement was not an acknowledgment of pilot error or responsibility by company management but "a way to avoid ongoing litigation."
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