From this afternoon's NTSB brief it appears that the plane had a CVR which was recovered. It did not have an FDR and was not required to have one.
The Lear was shooting the ILS Runway 6, circle to land runway 1.
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Pilots in deadly Teterboro crash wanted to stay in New York instead of Philly
Abbott Koloff , James M. O'Neill and Steve Janoski , NorthJersey Published 6:57 a.m. ET May 16, 2017 | Updated 11 minutes ago
Federal investigators said on Tuesday that they had recovered a cockpit voice recorder from the Learjet that crashed in Carlstadt as it approached Teterboro Airport, killing both crew members, and that wind conditions at the time were difficult.
Jim Silliman, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said at an afternoon press conference that the plane left a debris field that was 440 feet long and 100 feet wide.The crash and resulting fire damaged three buildings and 16 cars, he said, adding that there were cross winds and gusting winds when the plane plunged from the sky at about 3:30 p.m. Monday.
“Airplanes land in cross winds every day,” he said. “Gusts make it harder, and the gusts were high.”
The twin-engine plane, a 1981 Learjet 35, was registered to a company called A&C Big Sky Aviation, of Billings, Mont., according to an FAA database.
The owners of the company are Amy Smith and Chandra Hanson of Billings, according to Montana state records. The owners did not respond to requests for comment on Monday and Tuesday.
The owners, when not using the plane themselves, leased the jet to a charter company, Trans-Pacific Jets, which began operating in 2013 and is based in Honolulu.
A spokesman for the charter company said the pilot, who had been with the company for about a year, and co-pilot had decided to spend the night at a hotel they were familiar with in New York rather than stay overnight in Philadelphia.
They were bringing the plane to Teterboro to reposition it for additional charter flights scheduled for later in the week. He declined to identify the pilot or co-pilot.
The captain, he said, had at least 20 years of experience as a pilot with various charter operators in the western United States, and flew that particular plane quite a bit. The co-pilot had about four years of piloting experience with charter companies that operated mainly in New Mexico and Arizona, the spokesman said.
He said the plane was last inspected in February at a large independent maintenance facility and had been flown without issues. It is a common practice in the industry for private jet owners to lease their planes out to charter companies to generate extra revenue when not using it, he said.
Silliman, who is in charge of the NTSB investigation, said investigators believe they know the identity of the pilots but declined to reveal their identities during the press conference. Bergen County authorities said that Medical Examiner’s Office was still working to make positive identifications.
Surveillance video from local businesses shows the plane’s right wing was at a sharp low angle and the nose was down as it hit the ground, Silliman said.
“The aircraft was out of control,” he said.
He said it appeared that the plane glanced off one building just before crashing into the borough’s DPW parking lot. The last DPW worker left the building and closed the gate to the parking lot just 15 minutes before the crash.
The NTSB is working with the FAA, as well as Bombardier, the plane’s manufacturer, and Honeywell, which made the engines, Silliman said.
On approach while talking to the control tower, the pilots did not express any sense of having an emergency or a problem with the aircraft, Silliman said. They were cleared to land, and then there was no further communication.
Air traffic in the area around Teterboro was moderate and not out of the ordinary at the time of the crash, Silliman said.
However, just minutes before the Learjet plunged from the sky, another pilot taking off from runway 24 reported wind shear to the Teterboro tower after taking off Monday.
Eyewitnesses on Monday said the Learjet appeared to be coming in low and struck power lines before clipping buildings in an industrial area of the borough that often bustles with activity in the afternoon.
The Port Authority had reopened Teterboro Airport for outbound flights by 7 p.m. Monday, and for incoming flights by 8:30 p.m., according to an agency spokesperson.
Pilots in deadly Teterboro crash wanted to stay in New York instead of Philly