Pilot in Fatal Crash Had Low Training Marks

The pilot of an American Eagle Jetstream that crashed in North Carolina last December had received low training marks and was once recommended for dismissal from another airline, federal investigators disclosed Thursday.

Capt. Michael Patrick Hillis, 29, was one of 15 people killed in the Dec. 13 accident as the plane approached the Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Five aboard the plane survived.

The cockpit voice recorder showed that Hillis and co-pilot Matthew Ian Sailor were worried about a possible engine malfunction before the crash. But the National Transportation Safety Board’s massive report found no evidence of engine failure.

Sounds on the cockpit voice recorder are consistent with operation of both engines, the report said, and engineers found no faults that would have prevented engine operation. The report says that the way the propellers were bent in the crash indicates they were turning at the time.

But the study of the crew found problems with Hillis, including a recommendation for dismissal from Cincinnati-based Comair, which permitted him to resign instead.

In 1991, when Hillis applied for a job at Flagship Airlines in Nashville, operator of the plane that crashed, he said he left Comair because he wanted to move closer to Memphis, where he was taking classes, the report disclosed.

The safety board interviewed the Comair pilot who recommended the dismissal, and he told the agency that Hillis “had below average piloting skills that required my constant attention.”

He said he was concerned that Hillis would “freeze up or get tunnel vision” in an emergency.

Hillis had been a charter pilot from 1985 to 1990. He joined Comair Jan. 8, 1990, and resigned Jan. 3, 1991. He was hired by Flagship four days later.

At Flagship, Hillis received unsatisfactory ratings during some training but eventually was assigned as a pilot. The Federal Aviation Administration concluded that at the time of the accident he was fully qualified to fly the aircraft.

The FAA tape recording of conversations between the plane and the air traffic control tower at Raleigh-Durham, also released Thursday, showed nothing unusual.