Here’s what led to a fiery 2022 jet crash in Tri-Cities. NTSB report just released

A recently released report into a plane crash two years ago in Pasco gives the clearest picture to date of why the private jet slammed into the tarmac at the Tri-Cities Airport.

The small Cessna was carrying a team of surgical technicians and a registered nurse for the Pacific Cataract and Laser Institute.

When the landing gear failed and the plane skidded on its belly and burst into flames. Still, the pilot and nine passengers managed to escape unharmed.

The plane was destroyed.

The National Transportation Safety Board report just released to the Tri-City Herald says the investigation shows the pilot activated the landing equipment but the wheels never came down.

There’s nothing in the report that concludes whether the landing gear problem was mechanical or a pilot error.

The pilot, who is not named in the report, said he activated the landing gear system but admitted he didn’t check visually to see if it was in place.

The Citation line Cessna passenger jet is equipped with a warning system to let a flight crew know when the landing gear is not engaged. However, the warning alarm did not sound when the Pacific Cataract team’s plane landed at 7 a.m. on Sept. 20, 2022.

The NTSB report concludes the alarm didn’t trigger a warning because the plane was going too fast and the flaps were at the wrong angle.

Investigators said the pilot could have activated the landing gear manually, but he didn’t check to see if it had come down.

2022 Tri-Cities plane crash

The jet was one of three operated by the Pacific Cataract Laser Institute and was carrying staff from the company’s headquarters in Chehalis to the Tri-Cities, the company’s manager said at the time.

The pilot told officials that the flight wasn’t eventful. After asking to land, he reported that he started to lower the landing gear and adjust the flaps. The flaps are the panels on the plane’s wings that help with taking off and landings.

The flaps were set at 15 degrees, making for a sharp descent into the airport.

The pilot told investigators that he didn’t remember visually checking whether the landing gear was down. Planes with retractable landing gear are designed to allow pilots to see if the equipment has extended.

Two witnesses saw the plane landing. One was the tower controller who spotted with binoculars that the landing gear wasn’t down properly, but didn’t have time to warn the pilot, said the report.

The other person also was working at the airport and noticed that the jet was coming in faster than he had seen before, he saw that the landing gear was still up.

The plane was traveling about 143 knots as it got to the runway. That’s about 13 knots too fast for the warning system in the jet to signal the pilot that the landing gear had not engaged, said the report.

In addition, the angle of the flaps was too sharp to allow the warning system to sound, it said.

The pilot realized too late the wheels were not down and the plane hit the runway, started sliding and erupted into flames.

Ben Shearer, Pasco fire’s public information officer, said at the time that it was the first time in the 30 years since the construction of the fire station at the airport that there’s been this type of crash.

When Federal Aviation Administration investigators looked at the wreckage, they found that the locks on the landing gear had been released, said the report.

Investigators didn’t find any problems with the landing gear handle or circuit boards.

The NTSB’s initial report came out about a month after the crash, but the final report took about two years to complete.

While the report concludes there were some pilot mistakes, the board does not issue fines or sanctions.

Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration last week would not say if the pilot was sanctioned and would not release the results of its investigation into the pilot’s actions without a formal public records request.

It’s unclear if the pilot is still licensed to fly.

Pacific Cataract, which still flies employees to the Tri-Cities, declined to talk about the findings of the report.

This story was originally published December 16, 2024 at 5:00 AM.