Report details pilot’s actions, search efforts

Cause of crash not listed; low cloud ‘ceiling’ noted

Jake Harrell wasn’t supposed to take flight Jan. 31.


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But the part-time Arkansas Forestry Commission pilot agreed to do so after the pilot scheduled to fly a fire-detection route canceled because of sickness.

Harrell, 33, got to the Malvern Municipal Airport about noon that day to check the weather and prepare the Forestry Commission’s Cessna 210, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report released Wednesday.

That was the last anyone saw of Harrell, who died after his plane crashed that afternoon. An exhaustive 11-day ground and aerial search that was hampered by winter weather ensued.

On Jan. 31, Harrell filed a visual flight rules plan, which guides search and rescue operations should the pilot not return.

He then took off from the Malvern Airport about 12:40 p.m. on a routine Forestry Commission fire-detection flight over Ouachita National Forest. About 13 minutes later, Harrell reported crossing the eastern boundary of the forest district, the report states.

Five minutes later, Harrell reported to his second checkpoint at Mount Ida, according to the report, then turned north toward his first checkpoint north of Danville. At the same time, weather officials reported visibility at 10 miles and a cloud ceiling - which measures the distance between the bottom of the clouds to the ground - at 1,200 feet.

At 1:03 p.m., the pilot told Forestry Commission dispatchers that he was 20 nautical miles from the first checkpoint “and he was turning back due to low ceilings,” the report states. At 1:11 p.m., he reported he was 3 nautical miles west of Oden, some 16 miles southwest of his last reported spot.

No one heard from him afterward.

Forestry Commission pilots normally check in with dispatchers by radio every 30 minutes. When Harrell didn’t check in again, dispatchers tried to reach him to no avail.

By 2 p.m., the Forestry Commission mobilized its troops, called ground personnel to see if they knew Harrell’s whereabouts and messaged rangers and foresters to check small, local airports.

Commission officials quickly set up a command center at a U.S. Forest Service ranger station in Mena.

Joined by local, state and federal authorities, the Forestry Commission began what became one of the state’s largest searches ever while one winter storm after another blasted the terrain.

Day after day, ground and aerial crews combed through areas where they believed Harrell could be found. Some days, the weather prevented searchers from going out. Authorities still updated maps where they had already searched by foot and helicopter and Harrell’s possible flight path.

On Feb. 11, the first clear day after the search began, an Arkansas Civil Air Patrol crew spotted the orange stripes on the Forestry Commission’s fixed-wing, single-engine plane. State police then circled the area, confirming the sighting, and an Arkansas National Guardsman was dropped to the ground.

“The airplane impacted trees on a ridgeline, which had an elevation of 1,473 feet,” the report states. “The outboard section of the left wing was found on top of the ridge line.”

The main wreckage was found a little more than a quarter-mile south of the ridgeline, the report states.

The report didn’t list a cause for the crash. But throughout the report, Transportation Safety Board investigator Jim Sullivan stated the cloud “ceiling” lowered from Hot Springs to Mount Ida to Mena.

“Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed in the area near the accident site at the time of the accident,” the investigator wrote.

Instrument flights are more controlled and monitored than visual flight plans.

“When you look in the panel of an aircraft, [along with an] altimeter and a speed indicator, there is an instrument that can tell you if the plane is flying level or not,” Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said. “There are also other radio and GPS navigation aids that allow you to basically know where you are, even though you can’t see out the window.”

On clear days, pilots can fly under visual flight rules and without having to rely on those instruments, he said.

“If you get a cloudy day with low clouds, rain and poor visibility, the risk goes up because you can’t see where you’re going,” he said. “Those aircraft should be specially equipped and pilots specifically trained on how to operate safely.”

It is unclear how Harrell’s Forestry Commission plane was equipped. Spokesman Adriane Barnes did not immediately return a call Thursday.

The National Transportation Safety Board will continue to investigate what caused the crash, Sullivan said by phone Thursday.

Harrell, who was also a technical sergeant in the 188th Fighter Wing for the Arkansas Air National Guard, had an instrument airplane rating on his pilot’s license, according to the FAA.

The pilot was deployed overseas three times with the Air National Guard and was also an officer at the North Little Rock Police Department.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/28/2014

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