DEATH CRASH PILOTS ‘SHOULD NOT HAVE HANDED OVER CONTROL’
1 US Pilots 14:26GMT 11JUN03 PAGENFAX-SCOTSMAN
Two US fighter pilots mistakenly handed responsibility for terrain avoidance to RAF air traffic control before their jets crashed into a Highland mountain, the US Air Force announced today.
The news came almost four months after air traffic controller Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Williams was cleared of causing their deaths following the longest court martial in RAF history.
Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Hyvonen, 40, and Captain Kirk Jones, 27, were killed when their F-15s crashed into Ben Macdui in the Cairngorms on March 26, 2001.
The US Air Force Accident Investigation Board found the crash was caused by a “breakdown in terrain avoidance responsibilities between the pilot(s) and air traffic controllers on the ground”.
Lieutenant Colonel Scott Vadnais, who is based at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, said he did not wish to attribute blame for the tragedy and stressed many factors were involved in the accident
But on the issue of avoiding collision, he said: “In the UK the pilot has responsibility for terrain avoidance but the pilot relinquished that responsibility to air traffic control.
“The pilot made the first error as he should not have relinquished that responsibility unless he could see the ground.”
In the US the air traffic controller has responsibility for terrain avoidance but in the UK it lies with the pilot.
But Lt Col Vadnais said he could not speculate on whether confusion over UK air rules caused the crash.
mfl