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Winds blamed for crash of biplane last fall in Jaffrey
By STEPHEN SEITZ
Union Leader Correspondent
JAFFREY — The National Transportation Safety Board cited high winds as the likely cause of a small plane accident that brought down a vintage World War II biplane last fall.
Mont Vernon resident Rand Peck and his passenger William Hughes, of Rindge, were taking a scenic flight from Jaffrey's Silver Ranch airport on the afternoon of Oct. 9 when a heavy down draft forced the plane from the sky after it reached about 350 feet in altitude. It landed in a field just north of the Kimball Farms restaurant on Route 124.
"The pilot's inadvertent encounter with a down draft wind condition and the airplane's inability to climb resulted in a forced landing," the agency noted in its report, which was posted on its Web site this morning. "A factor related to the accident was the down draft wind conditions."
Peck and Hughes received minor injuries in the accident.
According to the NTSB summary, Peck "taxied to runway 16 and attempted to take off, but had trouble keeping the right wing down. He aborted the takeoff and decided from the position of the windsock that it would be the better to takeoff from runway 34.
"As the airplane neared the departure end of the runway, he observed another airplane approaching to land on runway 16, which subsequently initiated a go-around. The pilot then positioned the airplane onto the runway, and began his takeoff roll. At an altitude of approximately 300 to 350 feet, after passing the departure end of the runway, the airplane started to descend.
"The pilot recognized this as wind shear and prepared for a forced landing. In an effort to avoid trees and a residential area ahead, the pilot turned the airplane to the right, and performed a forced landing to a field. Upon touching down hard in the field, the airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted."
Peck and Hughes were transported to Monadnock Community Hospital in Peterborough. Helicopters were summoned as a precaution, but were turned back.
This was the second airplane accident in Jaffrey in 2004. On July 7, Michael Meagher, flying out of Jaffrey to go to Massachusetts, went down in the woods just about 150 yards from the Silver Ranch airstrip. He was conscious and talking when rescuers arrived, and was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Worcester, Mass. The NTSB has yet to issue a probable cause report for that accident.
The full report on the Peck accident can be found on the aviation page at
www.NTSB.gov
The story can be found at:
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_ ... icle=48975
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