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airplane they normally flew: in-
stead of an attitude indicator in-
strument, it had a flight direc-
tor. Both instruments measure
the same factor — how far up or
down the nose of the airplane is
in degrees as it flies — but the
way the information is displayed
is different.

When the flight left Van-
couver the pilots were given
weather information by Van-
couver air traffic control in the
form of a forecast from 3:30
a.m. It indicated partly obscured
skies with visibility of two miles
in fog and smoke, variable to six
miles in smoke. Ayotte ex-
plained that it was expected that
at times when the fog dissipated
the visibility would go up to six
miles. The smoke was from a
slash. burn on a forest clear cut
near the airport.

They were approaching Ter-
race at 8 a.m. when they re-
ceived a surface weather obser-
vation from the Terrace airport
reporting partly obscured skies
with scattered cloud to 25,000
feet and visibility of five miles in
smoke and fog. To the south of
the airport, however, visibility
had gone down to one mile due
to fog patches.

At 8:14 Skylink 070 ‘got its”

next weather update, much the

-same except that the visibility

south of the airport was now
down to half a mile, In the mean
time the flight had been in-
structed to hold because a Lear
jet coming in ahead of them had
missed its approach and was go-
ing in for another try.

The Lear jet made it, and
from the runway advised 070
that: there was a ‘hole’ over the
localizer — a radio navigation
aid familiar to most Terrace

residents as a bunker-like struc- _

ture next to Highway 37 at the
top of the hill past the airport
turnoff, -

Much of Ayotte’ 5 testimony
was based on information from

the cockpit voice recorder, the |

.. device that records. -.conversa-

-tions between pilot and co-pilot

and also noises inside ‘the
cockpit. He found a number of
procedural flaws in the way 070
approached the airport.

The pilots waited too long to
begin their descent from 15 ,000
feet, he said, making the descent
a hurried affair. The informa-
tion they were getting should
have warned them there were
deteriorating weather and
visibility conditions ahead. Yet
there was no discussion between
the two pilots about what they
would do if they missed the ap-
proach, Their clearance was
changed from runway 33, which

is a straight-in approach with a

left turn onto the runway, to
runway 15, which requires near-
ly a complete circle of the air-
port, but that wasn’t discussed
either. Since they were flying at
more than 140. knots they should
have maintained an altitude of
at least 1,600 feet but instead
they chose to fly an approach at
1,240 feet, the altitude specified
for aircraft flying at less than
140 knots. The altitudes are set
to allow at least 300 feet
clearance. over obstacles around
the airport, and because
airplanes that fly faster require a
wider turning radius, they have
to fly higher to avoid terrain.
The airplane’s altitude alert

cont'd from Ai

system, which emits an audible
signal when the airplane reaches
a pre-set altitude above ground
in order to warn the pilot that
he’s getting too low, was not
engaged.

During the course of the ap-
proach, Ayotte said, the co-pilot
uttered three exclamations
which Ayotte said he believes
were made in regard to the
weather and visibility. The cap-
tain made four remarks during
the approach: ,

“Pye got the ground,”
spoken during the descent to
Minimum Descent Altitude
before the first leg of the. ap-
proach.

‘‘’ve got the button,” avia-
tion jargon for the threshold of
a runway. Ayotte believes Ashe

meant runway 33,-the opposite -

end of. the runway they were
cleared to land on. oe
“]’ve got the button of 27,” a
reference to the end of the run-
way next to the localizer, where
the aircraft would be making a.

turn onto the second leg of its -

circling approach.

“Okay, yours.’’ Ayotte thinks
this was an instruction to the co-.
pilot. “It sounds like a commit-
ment to land,” he said, Shortly
after that full flaps were engaged

-to put the airplane in landing

configuration.

But then Ashe must have -

realized he was in trouble. A
‘missed approach’ procedure
began: the flaps and gear were
retracted and the engines were
given power to initiate a climb.
And the beeping began.

A series of 17 beeps. were

heard on the cockpit"

recorder, an indication... -that
Ashe had engaged the trim tabs
on the airplane. Trim tabs are
small adjustable surfaces inside
the larger control surfaces on an
airplane’s elevators, ailerons
and rudder. They are used by the
pilot to compensate for condi- .
tions that would otherwise cause
him. to strain against the air-

eraft’s controls, conditions like :

flying in a crosswind. Trimming
an airplane out allows it to fly

straight without the pilot having,

to constantly correct its. direc-
tion.

The. acceleration from giving
the engines power would have
caused the Metroliner to climb,
and Ayotte said it would have
been standard procedure for
Ashe to trim the airplane into a
nose-down position to adjust for
the acceleration climb rather

than having to push forward on

the control yoke to keep it at the
proper attitude for climbing.
But the trim remained on much
too long... so long that the
airplane went into a nose-down
attitude and began descending.

Ayotte said the investigators

have concluded that Ashe, hav-
ing lost all visual reference out-
side the airplane, became
disoriented. He said it is a
well-known phenomenon called
among pilots ‘the leans’ in which
the pilot’s sense of what’s up
and down is no longer reliable.

Ashe, he concluded, failed to
refer to his instruments or failed
to believe what his instruments
were telling him about his
airplane’s attitude. He thought
he was climbing when in fact he
was going down. The airplane
was in level flight when it hit the
trees, but by then it was too late.

THE CANADIAN AVIATION SAFETY BOARD investigation into the crash of Skylink fight 070 last
October found nothing of a mechanical nature that might have contributed to the accident. Now a
Terrace coroner's inquest is sorting through the facts-in search of a cause. :

During the Monday afternoon

session of the inquest four
‘lawyers got'a crack at Ayotte..

He was: questioned by two
lawyers representing families of
crash . victims, one. with the

federal Attorney General, and
one representing Skylink

Airlines. The Skylink lawyer
pointed out that. Ashe had the

deepest respect of all. his co--

workers, who considered him a
top-rate professional pilot, he

Chasteauneuf

- gi
acquittal

Hazelton teacher Colin
Chasteauneuf was acquitted on
Wednesday, June 6 in Smithers
County Court by Judge M.E.
Boyd on charges of indecent
assault and gross indecency.

Smithers Crown Counsel said
the Crown has 30 days in which
to appeal the sentence, but
declined to say whether there
would be an appeal.

According to Frank Hamil-
ton, Superintendent of School
District #88, the board has not
received the written judgement.

“The normal procedure in
such a case,” he said, ‘‘is for the
board to review the reasons for

the judgement and to await the

expiration of the appeal period
before taking any action.”’

held an Air ‘Transport Rating

pilot’s license, the highest-rating.

possible, and he held a Class I

Group I instrument rating, the
highest instrument rating at-

tainable. On pilot proficiency
checks, he passed the flying por-
tion in the best form and con-
sistently got 100 percent on writ-
ten examinations. He was
medically fit, lived a healthly life
and drank. very little.

Why is it that a pilot like this ,

ran an’ inadequate approach ~

briefing with his co-pilot, chose
the wrong altitude for approach,
and failed to prepare for

weather problems in spite of |

complete information?. Why
would a ‘pilot with a top instru-
ment rating: and plenty :of ex-

. perience in flying on instruments:

disregard his instruments in: fog
and smoke, and fly the airplane
into the ground?

More on this next week.

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