SNOHOMISH — The pilot of a Cessna 177 Cardinal private plane landed late on Harvey Field’s runway before crashing into the fence at the end of the airport property Wednesday, May 28, according to the FAA’s preliminary summary of the incident.
The pilot was not injured. Nobody else was on board.
Flight transponder data of the plane’s final five minutes show the pilot did not descend in a smooth, linear manner. Instead, the pilot began coming down, then rapidly descended, leveled off, then descended again. The plane was approaching from the north to land.
Longtime commercial pilot and flight instructor Robert Katz of Texas, who guided the Tribune in finding this data, gave his analysis of the mistakes.
Katz noted from transponder data that in addition to an erratic descent, the pilot was exceeding normal speeds while approaching, too. Normally this plane should have been slowed to less than 100 knots (115 mph), he said. It was going around 130 knots at some points of descent.
The same transponder data, available on FlightAware.com, shows the pilot was turning to line up with the runway at the opening of the descent. Katz said normal practice is to line up, then descend.
Katz’s larger-picture view is that small airports are incompatible when urban sprawl encroaches.
This crash “goes back to the argument small airports should be closed,” Katz said, as pilot quality is down.
Harvey’s runway is 35 feet wide and officially 2,671 feet long, although the usable part of the runway is about 2,048 feet long because of obstructions on approach and takeoff.
For comparison, Arlington Municipal’s two runways are 75 feet wide by 3,498 feet long, and 100 feet wide by 5,332 feet long respectively. Paine Field’s runways are even wider and longer.
Katz is of the opinion Harvey Field’s runway is too narrow to keep a plane from veering off the asphalt in a crosswind situation.
“No airports built today are that narrow,” Katz said.
Harvey Field’s runway width is about the width of the wingspan of the Cessna which crashed, Katz said.
Harvey Field is actively seeking to expand. It filed papers to the FAA asking for approval to build a 2,400-foot asphalt runway 75 feet wide and expand its airport property footprint to have more unobstructed space at both ends of the runway. To expand, though, Airport Road would be relocated and the proposed plan adds six acres of fill dirt, some of that in a floodwater receiving area.
The current runway is out of FAA compliance.
The federal government is reviewing Harvey Field’s submittal. A U.S. government performance website suggests the federal Environmental Review and Permitting decisions are anticipated to be done by June 30.
The Cessna Cardinal which crashed had flown to Snohomish from Bremerton.
In other news, in Monroe May 26, a hard landing caused a small Cessna 172 to land off the runway of First Air Field, according to authorities. No injuries.
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Edit to story updates full asphalt runway length, which is 2,671 feet, not 2,600 feet as stated.
