Agency slams 'copter control

Friday, Jan. 23, 2009

At one point during the Sept. 27 flight through murky skies, a Mount Vernon, Va.-area air traffic controller gave pilot Stephen H. Bunker an hours-old weather report. And minutes later, a different controller reported her training wasn't current to provide a type of landing Bunker requested, reported the documents, which were made public earlier this month.

A statement of facts released by the NTSB doesn't blame the controllers for the wreck or give any other definitive explanation of the crash that killed four people and severely injured a Waldorf teen.

However, the performance of air traffic controllers still garnered criticism. One air traffic supervisor told crash investigators he was "surprised" by the Mount Vernon area controller's actions the night of Sept. 27, and the NTSB papers indicated the controller was reassigned to administrative duties after the accident. In addition, a letter written by a Federal Aviation Administration manager pointed to the disapproval of NTSB crash investigators.

"According to the NTSB in the outbriefing, the operations were casual and sloppy at all three facilities involved," wrote David Maddox, an air traffic manager.

The helicopter contacted the Mount Vernon air traffic control after changing course from Prince George's Hospital Center to Andrews Air Force Base. Bunker was trying to fly two teenage girls from the scene of a Waldorf car accident to the Prince George's County hospital. However, the cloudy weather prevented Bunker from landing at the hospital, and he decided to change course.

The Mount Vernon controller began to coordinate Bunker's arrival at the Air Force base, but eventually referred him to the control tower at Andrews.

A few minutes later, Bunker told the Andrews controller he wasn't receiving the glide-slope he needed to land.

"Trooper 2, uh, it's showing green on the panel, but, uh, you're the only aircraft we've had in a long time, so I don't know if it's working or not," the controller said.

Bunker asked for an alternate landing, but the controller said she wasn't trained to provide it. His request was the final transmission from Trooper 2, according to the NTSB documents.

A little before 2 a.m. Sept. 28, searchers discovered the helicopter wreckage in Walker Mill Regional Park in District Heights. Bunker, 59, of Waldorf died in the crash, along with flight paramedic Mickey C. Lippy, 34, of Westminster, emergency medical technician Tonya M. Mallard, 38, of Waldorf and Ashley J. Younger, 17, of Waldorf. Jordan A. Wells, 18, of Waldorf was the accident's only survivor and spent weeks in the hospital recovering from her injuries.

In his memorandum to air traffic controllers, Maddox offered a plan for improved air traffic control.

"While the operation here was overall satisfactory and so far not considered contributory to the accident, the investigation shed light on areas we can all improve on so that in the rare event an accident or incident should occur again, we are better prepared," Maddox wrote in the memo to air traffic controllers. "We do a great job here overall, and rather than changing things all that is necessary is to review and refine our existing procedures to bring them in line with how the agency expects them to be done, and ensure that they are consistently applied."

Maddox referenced several incidents from the Trooper 2 flight, such as the five-hour-old weather report the Mount Vernon controller gave Bunker, the fogged-up windows that obscured the vision of the Andrews Air Force Base controller and the same controller's lack of up-to-date training in a type of landing.

brodgers@somdnews.com