SEA98FA047

History of flight

On March 19, 1998, at 0918 Pacific standard time, an Aerospatiale SN-601 Corvette, N600RA, owned by R. L. Riemenschneider Enterprises of Redmond, Oregon, and operated by Redmond Flight Center of Redmond, Oregon under contract to the aircraft owner, experienced a loss of control during an attempted takeoff from runway 10L at Portland International Airport, Portland, Oregon, and impacted signs, lights, and terrain on the airport property. The aircraft slid upright for approximately 1/2 mile following initial ground contact and came to rest on airport property southeast of the runway 10L departure end. The airplane, a transport-category aircraft equipped with two Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D-4 turbofan engines and a seating configuration of two flight crew and 10 passenger seats, was substantially damaged in the occurrence. The commercial pilot-in-command and three passengers escaped the aircraft without injury; there was no qualified second-in-command aboard. The pilot reported to an on-scene FAA investigator that the flight was a 14 CFR 91 executive/corporate transport flight, and the flight was proceeding under visual flight rules (VFR) to Redmond, Oregon. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.

Recordings of Portland air traffic control (ATC) tower communications disclosed that the flight originally received an instrument flight rules (IFR) clearance to Hermiston, Oregon. After taxiing out from the parking ramp at Flightcraft, Inc. (a fixed-base operator [FBO] serving Portland International Airport), the pilot called Portland ground control and stated he wanted to return to Flightcraft. The aircraft was cleared to do so and returned to Flightcraft. In a post-accident interview with NTSB investigators on April 3, 1998, the pilot stated he did not know why he returned to Flightcraft after the initial taxi out.

Witnesses at Flightcraft reported that after returning to the Flightcraft ramp, the airplane shut down and opened its main entry door, and that one of the aircraft occupants told Flightcraft ground service personnel the aircraft had an engine problem. Witnesses reported that, at that time, they saw the pilot of the aircraft in the cockpit, talking on a cellular telephone (a cellular phone service record provided by the pilot revealed that a call was placed from his phone to the Redmond Flight Center at 0910; this call took place during a 3 minute and 22 second power interruption to the accident aircraft's cockpit voice recorder.) Flightcraft personnel reported that the pilot did not ask for any assistance from them after returning to the Flightcraft ramp, and that Flightcraft did not provide any assistance to the aircraft at that time. The witnesses reported that after returning to the Flightcraft ramp, the aircraft remained there for approximately 5 minutes, then started back up and taxied back out. In the April 3, 1998 interview with the NTSB, the pilot stated he could not recall what (if anything) was done to resolve the situation for which the airplane returned to Flightcraft. The witnesses stated they could not tell whether or not the airplane started both engines prior to taxiing back out.

After taxiing out from Flightcraft the second time, the pilot canceled his IFR flight plan to Hermiston with ATC, and requested and received a VFR clearance to Redmond, where the accident aircraft was based. In the April 3, 1998 NTSB interview, the pilot stated that the destination changed from Hermiston to Redmond because "something changed", but stated he did not know what changed to cause the change in destination. The Redmond Flight Center employee who took the 0910 cellular phone call from the pilot was contacted and told investigators that during that call, the pilot instructed him to prepare N37HB (a Piper PA-31T Cheyenne twin-engine turboprop airplane also owned by R.L. Riemenschneider Enterprises and operated by the Redmond Flight Center for that company) for flight.

Witnesses who observed the accident sequence from the Flightcraft ramp reported that the airplane's nose lifted off at about taxiway A4 (about 4,100 feet down the 8,000-foot runway), and that the airplane subsequently became airborne with its wings rocking, reaching a maximum altitude of about 5 to 10 feet above the ground. The Flightcraft witnesses, one of whom stated he had seen the accident aircraft operating out of Portland on previous occasions, remarked that the airplane seemed to be going much more slowly than usual at rotation, and seemed much quieter than usual during the takeoff attempt. The witnesses stated the aircraft subsequently settled back to the ground and entered an upright slide. The aircraft struck and demolished the A1 taxiway sign during the event. Immediately following the event, the pilot radioed the Portland tower on the ground control frequency, stating he had experienced an engine failure.

In an initial written statement to the on-scene FAA investigator immediately following the accident, the pilot stated: "[At] V1 started to rotate just lifted off when [right engine] failed causing enough yaw put aircraft back down tried to get control ran off runway surface, tried to keep aircraft as straight as possible, came to stop....Saw a [generator] light come on (R.H.) at time we started to rotate, I think the right [engine] failed at that time. Everything else was a [blur.]" In the April 3, 1998 NTSB interview, the pilot stated that during the takeoff attempt, everything was "going fine" until he pulled back on the wheel at rotation speed, and that the next thing he could recall was sitting in the grass. The pilot stated to NTSB investigators that he was not sure whether or not an engine failed on takeoff. The pilot reported that he used the takeoff flap setting for the takeoff (a modification incorporated to the accident aircraft also allows takeoffs with flaps at 0 degrees.)

One of the passengers was in the copilot's seat during the accident, but stated he did not perform any copilot duties. This passenger holds a private pilot certificate with an airplane single-engine land rating only, and as such did not meet the requirements specified by Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) to act as second-in-command of the accident aircraft, which specify (among other requirements) that the second-in-command must hold appropriate category and class ratings for the aircraft. (The minimum flight crew for the SN-601 is two, consisting of a pilot and copilot.) This passenger, who was interviewed by telephone on March 24, 1998, stated he first noticed about halfway down the takeoff roll that the airplane was to the right of the runway centerline, and that "somewhere during the takeoff roll, we must have lost power on one of the engines." He stated that the airplane subsequently went off the runway into the grass.

The two passengers seated in the rear of the aircraft did not answer requests by the NTSB to provide written statements describing the accident sequence.

The accident aircraft was equipped with a cockpit voice recorder (CVR). The CVR was removed from the accident aircraft and sent to the NTSB CVR Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where a transcript of the CVR recording was prepared. Pertinent details of the CVR transcript are presented in the FLIGHT RECORDERS section below.

The accident occurred during the hours of daylight at approximately 45 degrees 35.2 minutes North and 122 degrees 34.6 minutes West.

Other damage

During the accident sequence, the aircraft struck taxiway lighting, and struck and destroyed the A1 taxiway sign adjacent to Portland International runway 10L.

Personnel information

The pilot-in-command's business card identified him as the director of operations of the Redmond Flight Center (which was a 14 CFR 135 on-demand air taxi certificate holder; however, the accident aircraft was not listed on Redmond Flight Center's 14 CFR 135