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Spar being looked at in T-34 Crash

Posted by B Darnell on Mon Nov 24, 2003 09:16:12 AM

Metal fatigue on wing investigated as cause of plane crash that killed 2
By TERRY KLIEWER
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
WILLIS -- Accident investigators are focusing on metal fatigue as the likely cause of an air crash near Lake Conroe that killed two people when their T-34 trainer's right wing broke off during aerobatic-type maneuvers.

Alex Lemishko, lead investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said Thursday he found signs of a possible stress fracture in one part of the forward spar of the plane's right wing.

He said he would examine the maintenance records for the plane, leased and operated by Texas Air Aces, to determine whether federally mandated inspection and repair procedures for the aircraft had been followed.

Killed in Wednesday's crash were Don Wylie, president of Texas Air Aces and a decorated Vietnam War fighter pilot, and William J. Eisenhauer Jr., an Airborne Express pilot from Ohio.

Lemishko said it appears that Wylie was at the controls of the plane in the aft seat of the two-person cockpit, and Eisenhauer occupied the front seat, which also is equipped with controls.

He said he had found no evidence that the plane had collided with another Texas Air Aces T-34 that was engaged in the same type of extreme flight maneuvers.

Company spokesman Ed Johnson said Texas Air Aces had complied fully with the Federal Aviation Administration's "airworthiness directive" regarding metal fatigue in the spars of T-34 wings.

However, he declined to say what measures the company had taken for the plane that slammed into a forest on the west side of Lake Conroe Wednesday morning.

The plane, built in 1965, is from the first generation of the Beech-manufactured military trainer, Lemishko said. He said 467 such T-34-A45s are in service across the nation.

Lemishko said T-34s are strong and capable of extreme maneuvers, which is why they are deemed suitable for all kinds of military and civilian applications, from flight training to aerobatics.

He said he was concentrating on the crashed plane's wing spars because of a previous accident involving a T-34 wing separation.

He described the spars as beamlike components that extend the length of the wing to give it the combination of rigidity and flexibility it needs to handle the aerodynamic stresses of flight. The spars are made of aluminum and secured to the fuselage by rivets, he said.

He said he found evidence of metal fatigue on the forward spar, which runs roughly parallel to the wing's leading edge. He also said evidence suggests that the wing tore away from the fuselage in an upward and backward movement.

Lemishko expected to review the plane's maintenance records today to determine if inspections and repairs, if needed, had been done to satisfy the FAA directive.

The airworthiness directive was issued by the FAA after its investigation of a T-34 crash in Georgia in 1999, when a plane lost a wing due to metal fatigue in a wing spar.

Lemishko said all steps in the process are required to be documented, and Johnson, the Texas Air Aces spokesman, said those records had been turned over to the FAA and the safety board.

Johnson said the company had complied with the federal safety directive by inspecting all of its original six T-34s, and it was taking steps to fix any problems. He said one aircraft was undergoing wing spar replacement by a contractor, but he was unsure of the status of the others.

He would not say what steps had been taken for the plane that crashed. Lemishko said he could not confirm what had been done on the crashed plane or any of the others until he saw the records.

In Wednesday's crash, the plane's right wing separated from the fuselage at an estimated 7,000 feet about 10 a.m. as Wylie and Eisenhauer were doing dives and turns, Lemishko said.

It remains unclear exactly what maneuvers the plane was executing when the wing snapped away, he said.

The second plane returned safely to its base at Hooks Memorial Airport near Tomball after the accident. An FAA official interviewed the pilot and passenger Thursday, but neither was made available to reporters.

Wylie was president of Texas Air Aces and its newest division, called Aviation Safety Training. The two businesses shared the company's T-34 fleet, with Texas Air Aces providing aerial combat simulation sessions for thrill-seeking customers and Aviation Safety Training providing demonstrations of advanced flight techniques to experienced pilots.

The company kept its doors closed Thursday as a "pause" to honor Wylie, said Johnson. He said he expected the company to resume normal operations next week.

Through the day, survivors of the deceased, company officials, lawyers, insurance representatives and federal investigators met in the offices overlooking the hangar floor where the second T-34 was parked, Johnson said.

Wylie, who lived near Montgomery, was a decorated combat pilot in the Vietnam War and had more than 8,500 hours of flying time as an instructor, the company said in a statement. He began Texas Air Aces in 1992, but the training services, added later, now make up the bulk of the company's activities, according to the statement.

The statement said Wylie was engaged in a "upset recovery training course," which is designed to demonstrate advanced pilot skills needed for "upsets" caused by such factors as wake turbulence, wind shear, icing, control malfunctions and high G-load situations, like spins.

Lemishko said no official action will be taken to ground T-34s or to require additional inspections or fixes until the national safety board issues its final report, perhaps as soon as January.

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