Plane crashed into Nashville airport undetected
- 10 years ago
Originally published on October 31, 2013
The crash-landing of a single-engine plane at Nashville International Airport that killed its pilot early Tuesday morning remained undetected for hours.
The pilot, 45-year-old Canadian Michael Callan, rented a Cessna plane from the Windsor Flying Club on Monday, declaring an overnight a trip to Pelee Island on Lake Erie. Callan was not logged to fly to Nashville International Airport and did not contact air traffic controllers there.
David Gillies, president of Windsor Flying Club, said that Nashville airport officials have footage from surveillance cameras of Callan's plane circling the airport before the plane crash-landed at around 2:30 a.m. in the morning, according to CNN.
The burned-out wreckage and the deceased pilot were not discovered until 8:45 a.m. by a taxiing plane.
"Whether it's day or night, when you're approaching an airport of this size and density, you have to start contacting controllers well in advance, usually from about 25 miles out ... to let them know you're arriving," Tom Haueter, former director of the NTSB's Office of Accident Investigation, was quoted as saying in a CNN report.
Haueter suspects that Callan may have been too preoccupied with maneuvering the plane through heavy fog to contact the airport's controllers.
The airport has deferred answering questions about its staffing at the time of the accident until a full investigation has been conducted.
Callan had been a certified flyer since 1989 and was licensed to fly in fair weather and at night, Gillies said.
The crash-landing of a single-engine plane at Nashville International Airport that killed its pilot early Tuesday morning remained undetected for hours.
The pilot, 45-year-old Canadian Michael Callan, rented a Cessna plane from the Windsor Flying Club on Monday, declaring an overnight a trip to Pelee Island on Lake Erie. Callan was not logged to fly to Nashville International Airport and did not contact air traffic controllers there.
David Gillies, president of Windsor Flying Club, said that Nashville airport officials have footage from surveillance cameras of Callan's plane circling the airport before the plane crash-landed at around 2:30 a.m. in the morning, according to CNN.
The burned-out wreckage and the deceased pilot were not discovered until 8:45 a.m. by a taxiing plane.
"Whether it's day or night, when you're approaching an airport of this size and density, you have to start contacting controllers well in advance, usually from about 25 miles out ... to let them know you're arriving," Tom Haueter, former director of the NTSB's Office of Accident Investigation, was quoted as saying in a CNN report.
Haueter suspects that Callan may have been too preoccupied with maneuvering the plane through heavy fog to contact the airport's controllers.
The airport has deferred answering questions about its staffing at the time of the accident until a full investigation has been conducted.
Callan had been a certified flyer since 1989 and was licensed to fly in fair weather and at night, Gillies said.