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Aircraft Mechanic: Ercoupe Was Fine

Gary Pinnell/Highlands Today

The light airplane flown by missionary pilot James Weener erupted in a black cloud. The white tail section landed among group of trees beside Golf Hammock's 10th fairway.

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: January 14, 2009

SEBRING - On Dec. 13, one witness was outside talking with a neighbor when he saw an Ercoupe 415-D flying southwest.

The plane, tail number N99154, dipped and turned to the right, the witness told National Transportation Safety Board investigator Dennis Diaz.

"Then the airplane pulled up severely and started turning to the left," said the witness, who was quoted but not named in the preliminary report filed by Diaz.

"As the airplane continued upward and banked to the left, something shiny exited from the tail area of the airplane," Diaz wrote. "The witness remarked to his neighbor, 'What the heck is he dumping?' and the airplane then began to break apart."

Although other witnesses heard popping noises and saw black or gray smoke, Diaz's witness added he heard no explosion and did not observe smoke or fire.

What is undisputed and what most pilots can barely fathom is that the Ercoupe broke up on a clear, slightly windy Saturday afternoon and crashed into the Golf Hammock golf course.

The certificated commercial pilot, 70-year-old James Weener, was thanking a passenger, James Ricker, 46, for his service to the local missionary village. Both fell from the swiftly disintegrating aircraft and died.

Weener's most recent FAA medical certificate was issued June 2, 2008. According to his most recent logbook, which began on May 3, 2001, he had 7,126 hours of flight experience - 12 hours in the accident airplane's make and model.

The 62-year-old plane, which had accumulated 2,588 hours in the air when the airplane's most recent annual inspection was completed on May 9, 2008, departed Avon Park Executive Airport (AVO) about 11:15 a.m. The accident happened about 12:06 p.m.

Ercoupe pilots, by the way, insist the plane has an excellent safety record.

"According to a friend of the accident pilot, who was also a certificated aircraft mechanic, he and the pilot flew together in the accident airplane immediately prior to the accident flight," Diaz wrote. "The friend did not note any abnormalities with the performance of either the airplane or the pilot during their flight, and upon returning to AVO, the friend disembarked the airplane and the accident passenger boarded," Diaz wrote.

"Another witness, who was also a certificated airline transport pilot, stated that while outside working on his house he observed the accident airplane flying overhead," Diaz wrote. "He estimated that the airplane was flying at an altitude of about 1,200 feet above ground level, and did not note anything abnormal about its flight path. About 45 minutes after first seeing the airplane, he heard an abnormal engine sound that diverted his attention again back to it."

It sounded as if the engine was being "over-sped," the second unnamed witness told Diaz. It was as if the engine was at full power, and the airplane was in a high-speed dive. When the witness looked up, he saw the airplane pitching up and rolling into a steep left bank, and initially thought that the pilot was attempting to perform a "barrel-roll or a slow roll."

The Breakup

No, friends of Weener say. He wasn't the type to thrill passengers with aerobatics.

From the second witness's position, he could see both ailerons - the hinged flaps on the control surfaces attached to the wing's trailing edge - fluttering at a high frequency.

"Flutter of a control surface is a catastrophic, and very, very rare thing," said Ed Burkhead, who manages the Ercoupe Technical forum on the Internet. "The vibrations from control surface flutter can destroy an aircraft."

The bank angle increased to almost 90 degrees, the left wing folded back, and separated from the fuselage. Then the plane pivoted, and the right wing separated along with a portion of the cabin, Diaz wrote. Another portion of the cabin continued forward and down to the ground.

The second witness also reported to Diaz that during the breakup, the airplane released what looked like confetti, which he later determined to be painted chips from the airplane's fabric-covered wings. At Bartow Municipal Airport, 24 nautical miles west, the wind was blowing about 10 mph, and gusting to 16 mph.

Portions of wreckage were found along a north-northeast 3,100 feet long path. Both aft cabin windows were found at the southern end of the wreckage path. Paint chips, inspection panels, and personal effects from inside the airplane were located further along.

The right wing was about 2,000 feet from the windows, largely intact, lodged perpendicular to the ground. The left wing was 900 feet beyond the left wing.

The inboard portions of both wing spars were forwarded to the National Transportation Safety Board Materials Laboratory for further examination, Diaz wrote. Wing spars are the main structural members of the wing, running widthways at right angles across the span of the wing to the fuselage.

The main portion of wreckage came to rest about 200 feet beyond the left wing. The nose, cabin, and aft portion of fuselage were crushed, with both occupants still inside.

Reaction

"The first things that came off the plane were the cockpit back windows, which popped out, we'd guess, from vibration or distortion of their frame," said Burkhead, who viewed the NTSB report with fellow Ercoupe pilots.

Inspection panels - aluminum discs - started popping from the bottom of the wings and were strewn along the remaining flight path.

"Vibration could pop these off the plane," said Burkhead. But, he added, "None of these things would have anything to do with the airplane coming apart."

"What part of the structure broke first may never be known," Burkhead said."But some phenomenal force was needed to break the structure of this kind of plane. Perhaps it was aileron flutter and, if so, we really want to know the cause of that. The Ercoupe and Aircoupe owners will be closely watching the final report on this accident."

Highlands Today senior reporter Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863-386-5828

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