Pilot Lost Control in Fatal Crash, Agency Says

The National Transportation Safety Board has ruled that the plane crash that killed four firefighters on a snowboarding outing last year was caused by the San Clemente pilot’s inability to maintain control in dangerous conditions.

The final report, released Friday, listed the probable cause as Michael Chantry’s inability to control the aircraft after flying into hilly terrain and losing spatial orientation--the physical sense of the location of the plane and direction of flight.

Chantry, 36, and three other firefighters, John Jefferies III, 25, of Santa Ana; Daniel Alleman, 27, of Perris; and Donald Butts, 28, of Irvine; were killed in the Jan. 19, 1999, crash near Chino Hills. The four were going to Lake Tahoe for a snowboarding vacation.

The report also listed dark nighttime conditions, poor weather and inadequate evaluation of the weather as factors in the crash.

Warren Morningstar, spokesman for the Air Safety Foundation, a division of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. of Frederick, Md., said although the board has made its conclusion, it is not absolute.

“The key word is ‘probable,’ ” he said. “We can infer an awful lot of things, but the bottom line is, we never know with absolute certainty what caused the accident.”

Chantry was a veteran pilot with more than 400 hours of flying time, the report stated. However, he did not have the instrument rating necessary to fly in foggy and overcast conditions.

Weather reports for the time of the accident show the sky was overcast at 1,100 feet. The plane flew up to 2,400 feet, the NTSB report said, then descended and crashed at 1,200 feet.