Investigation reveals little more on Jensen crash
Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 30/01) - A report by American investigators sheds little light on what caused Bob Jensen's plane to go down.
Jensen, one of Yellowknife's pioneer aviators, died flying solo when his small plane collided with a Washington State mountain March 8.
The Cessna fell apart when it hit dense forest 4,760 feet up Mica Peak, 20 miles east of Spokane.
"On that day the top of the mountain was shrouded in clouds," U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Steve McCreray said in an interview.
"He went into the side of the mountain which was sloped 20 to 30 degrees, heavily forested with Douglas firs and conifers. He went through the trees and into the mountainside about 500 feet below the radar site," McCreray said.
Mica, a tall mountain in the middle of flat terrain, has a big geodesic dome on top which houses a radar to help air traffic controllers.
The next day searchers had little trouble reaching the craft because it was just 30 feet from a service road built for the radar.
"It was easy to get to but it was very difficult to work on because the snow was three to four feet deep and we were sinking all the way up to our hips," McCreray said.
Jensen filed a visual flight rules plan before departing at 11:15 a.m. from a small-town airport at Renton, Washington.
According to the plan, he was supposed to land at Spokane International Airport before moving on to Calgary, the safety board report says.
Just before 2 p.m. Jensen reported from 15 miles south of Spokane that his altitude was 2,700 feet. Less than an hour later, air traffic controllers asked him to send a routine electronic signal that would allow his craft to be picked up on radar. Jensen responded that his transponder unit didn't work. Just before 2 p.m. the veteran pilot radioed a flight plan change -- he would now head for a small airport in Idaho.
The last radio contact was at 2:17 p.m. when Jensen called in his latest position.
Three minutes later "approach control received a brief emergency locator transmission and all further attempts to contact the aircraft were unsuccessful," the report says.
The safety board prepares three reports. The preliminary one released March 22 is the smallest, and a third and final one should be public within a few months.
It will contain witness statements and the plane's history. It will also evaluate the pilot's experience and medical records.
Jim Phillips, a long-time friend of Jensen rules out a heart attack or other health ailment, saying he was fit and had medical checkups every six months.
