Owner of Jet Blames Air Controllers in Fatal Crash

The owner of an executive jet that crashed into Otay Mountain last year killing seven members of country singer Reba McEntire’s band said Wednesday that air traffic controllers failed to warn the pilot that the mountain was in the plane’s flight path.

The crash occurred within three minutes of takeoff, killing everyone on board--McEntire’s tour manager, seven of her nine band members, the pilot and the co-pilot.

Joseph Duncan, owner of Duncan Aircraft Sales of Venice, Fla., said that, according to the flight recorder that was retrieved after the crash, the pilot had told controllers that he was unfamiliar with the area and had asked them to give him clearance.

National Transportation Safety Board senior investigator Richard Childress said Tuesday that the pilot did not have detailed maps that would have warned of the 3,566-foot mountain.

Childress is barred by NTSB rules from revealing his conclusions about the cause. His report and findings have been forwarded to NTSB officials in Washington who are expected to rule on the probable cause in coming weeks.

The jet took off from Brown Field at 1:40 a.m. on March 16, 1991, under visual flight rules, but apparently carried only less-detailed charts used for instrument flight rules, Childress said.

However, Duncan said the plane took off under instrument flight rules, meaning it was under direct supervision of air traffic controllers. Lower-performance aircraft often fly under visual flight rules, he said.

Duncan conceded that the pilot, Don Holms, did not have detailed maps of the area, but said that, because he was under instrument flight rules, Holms was relying on air traffic controllers for information.

“This was a jet that didn’t need those sort of maps,” Duncan said. “That’s what the aviation people are there for. We’re supposed to get this kind of service form the government.”

It isn’t illegal for a pilot to fly by visual rules without a detailed chart, said Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector Don Smith.

“There’s a regulation that’s kind of a catchall that says he’s got to familiarize himself with all available information pertinent to the flight,” Smith said.

“Whether or not an accident might be resulting from the fact that he didn’t have a chart would have to be determined in court, perhaps by a judge (based on) expert testimony,” he said.