Clicking on the runway lights at a small airport.

[lenbrazil]

I’m researching a crash of King Air as it approached a small airport (Eveleth, MN), there were no survivors or black boxes. The plane crashed a few minutes after its last radio communication with the control tower (Duluth), there was no distress call. It was also reported that one of the pilots “clicked onâ€￾ the runway lights by keying the mike switch twice.

I know very little about aviation so please bear with what might seem like obvious questions and don’t presume I understand any terminology I don’t use.

1) Is it normal to turn on the runway lights for a daytime landing with decent visibility (4 -5 miles below the 700ft agl cloud cover)?

2) At what stage in a flight would a pilot normally turn the lights on, before of after spotting the runway? Might a pilot turn on the lights if they were having difficulty locating the airport (the pilot had only flown to that airport 3 or 4 times, there were problems with the VOR and the plane was about 7 degrees off track).

3) I assume that in order to “click onâ€￾ the runway lights at Eveleth Airport one of the pilots would have to have switched the radio which had previously been set for the Duluth tower to Eveleth’s frequency, is that correct?

Thanks in advance,

Len

 

[lovedandlost]

1. Vis was 3 miles in snow per NTSB, seems like an okay idea to turn on lights, couldn't hurt, sometimes helpful on snow covered runway, though I don't know what the condition of the runway was. It doesn't strike me as a bad idea, I really don't know how much help they'd be during the daylight, albeit IMC. I have flight time comparable to the PIC (but vast majority to tower controlled airports).

2. Would turn them on before spotting runway. Could help to find runway, though again, I'm not sure if they'd do any good during the day, albeit IFR. Would do it on final 5 miles out or so, but the thought could pop into my head anytime thereafter and I'd do it.

3. Should have been on Eveleth "CTAF" (common traffic advisory freq) already. Somewhere, perhaps 6 or 7 miles out on final, Duluth Approach would have told them to switch to Eveleth CTAF. This would allow them to coordinate with traffice operating at Eveleth. They may have had 2 radios and monitored both freqs, but in any case they should have already been on Eveleth CTAF significantly before the accident. They would have activated the lights on the Eveleth CTAF freq. Should not have created a distraction, if that's where you're going.

 

[Kev3188]

Was this the Sen. Wellstone crash?

 

[lenbrazil]

Was this the Sen. Wellstone crash?

Yes

 

[lenbrazil]

1. Vis was 3 miles in snow per NTSB, seems like an okay idea to turn on lights, couldn't hurt, sometimes helpful on snow covered runway, though I don't know what the condition of the runway was. It doesn't strike me as a bad idea, I really don't know how much help they'd be during the daylight, albeit IMC. I have flight time comparable to the PIC (but vast majority to tower controlled airports).

2. Would turn them on before spotting runway. Could help to find runway, though again, I'm not sure if they'd do any good during the day, albeit IFR. Would do it on final 5 miles out or so, but the thought could pop into my head anytime thereafter and I'd do it.

3. Should have been on Eveleth "CTAF" (common traffic advisory freq) already. Somewhere, perhaps 6 or 7 miles out on final, Duluth Approach would have told them to switch to Eveleth CTAF. This would allow them to coordinate with traffice operating at Eveleth. They may have had 2 radios and monitored both freqs, but in any case they should have already been on Eveleth CTAF significantly before the accident. They would have activated the lights on the Eveleth CTAF freq. Should not have created a distraction, if that's where you're going.

No that’s not where I’m going. A CTist who wrote about the crash made a big deal about the lack of a distress call. I believe it’s unlikely one was ever made. The plane was at 440 ft. AGL how much time would they have had 10 – 20 seconds?
It turns out the only person working EVM stepped outside for a few minutes so I though even if they made a SOS call no one would have heard it. But then I discovered 9 other airports in the state have the same CTAF/Unicom frequency 122.700. I’m a bit confused. Were these other airports in range of the King Air? If so why didn't their "clicking the mic" turn on the lights at the other airports? Wouldn't this cause confusion if planes wanted to land at few of these airports at the same time? How likely is it that no one would have heard the pilots’ SOS IF they made one?

Len

1. KBRD BRAINERD LAKES RGNL BRAINERD MN
2. KDYT SKY HARBOR DULUTH MN
3. KAUM AUSTIN MUNI AUSTIN MN
4. KD41 STEPHEN MUNI STEPHEN MN
5. KOWA OWATONNA DEGNER RGNL OWATONNA MN
6. KCKN CROOKSTON MUNI KIRKWOOD FLD CROOKSTON MN
7. KLYV QUENTIN AANENSON FIELD LUVERNE MN
8. KMKT MANKATO REGIONAL MANKATO MN
9. KSGS SOUTH ST. PAUL MUN.-FLEMING SOUTH ST

 

[BoeingBoy]

len,

VHF radio reception is line-of-sight, like FM radio or TV stations except that aircraft radios have only a fraction of the power of commercial radio stations. That limits the range of reception, especially at low altitude.

Reception distance does increase fairly dramatically if the transmitter and receiver are both airborne, however. Of course, if a distress call was made, another plane would have to be on the same frequency at that time and within reception distance, to hear it and if I remember correctly the weather wasn't very good that day so there probably weren't a lot of planes out flying at uncontrolled airports (using that common frequency). So no one apparently hearing a distress call doesn't necessarily mean one wasn't made.

If one had been made on the local CTAF frequency, it's entirely possible that no one on the ground at one of the other airports sharing that frequency would have heard it from that low an altitude - that line-of-sight thing. In my flying, we have a similiar situation - our operations people have VHF radios so we can call them and within regions share a common frequency. It's normal when airborne to hear planes calling other stations some distance away but not to be able to hear the "ground" side of the conversation - only the other plane's transmissions.

By the way, the line-of-sight limitations and transmitter power output also answer your question about multiple airport's lights coming on when a pilot "clicks on" the lights at one.

Jim

 

[lenbrazil]

Jim/others,

The closest airport to EVM with the same frequency is Sky Harbor which is 6 miles SE of dowtown Duluth it's about 60 miles by car so let's say about 45 miles in a straight line. That's out of range I imagine.

The plane was at 1800 ft - 440 agl just before the stall, the elevation of Sky Harbor is 610. It might have been snowing lightly at the time.

I imagine they space the airport to be out of range of each other to avoid problems.

Are the radioson the planes directional. As a layman it seems to me it would be far more important to communicate with an airport you are arriving at than one you'd just left.

Len

 

[BoeingBoy]

Len,

Reception over 50 or so miles would be possible in another airborne plane (assuming more than just barely off the ground) but not on the ground at that distance from that altitude.

In cases such as this - a controller at one airport handling airplanes going into another somewhat distant airport on an IFR clearance - the controller will usually tell the pilot to cancel the flight plan airborne if possible or give them a phone number to call after landing. This is because reception is improbably or impossible from that distance when the plane gets to a point on the approach where the landing is pretty much assured and the IFR flight plan can be cancelled.

The aircraft radios (and the ATC radios) aren't directional - they're just low powered versions of any commercial radio station. In the olden days you had to have a radio station license from the FCC to operate radios in a plane, but I believe that requirement was finally dropped.

Your point about which airport you want to talk to makes some sense, but you have to remember that the airports that use the common CTAF frequency (used to be called unicom) are generally low volume non-commercial airports with no ATC facilities - one of the FBO's (assuming there's actually more than one) will provide and man the radio. It's there for pilots to advise other planes operating in/out of their intentions ("Taking runway XX for departure", etc) or to call ahead before landing to arrange fuel, etc. On a good weather day - especially weekends - these frequencies can get pretty congested in parts of the country with more small airports.

Jim