WPCNR Westchester Wings. By John F. Bailey. April 25, 2005:  WPCNR News has learned from reliable sources that the ill-fated Cessna airplane inbound for Westchester County Airport approximately 3:30 P.M. Saturday afternoon was below the minimum altitude to which it could have descended safely  while on final approach to Westchester County Airport Runway 16, moments before the aircraft crashed,  killing the flight instructor and his student. 

Westchester County Airport, Looking Northwest. Rye Lake is at left. The Cessna that crashed Saturday afternoon went down approximately 1/4 of a mile from the threshold of Runway 16 in the upper right of the photograph. Photo by WPCNR News.

The National Transportation Safety Board's investigation continues into Saturday afternoon's crash of a single-engine Cessna 172 airplane about 2 miles northeast of Westchester County Airport. The student pilot and his flight instructor received fatal injuries, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces and fire. The airplane was returning to Westchester from Albany, NY, and was flying under instrument flight rules. An instrument flight plan had been activated for the flight, which means the student and instructor were following a specific route as cleared by air traffic control, while being tracked on radar by FAA controllers.

WPCNR has learned that a weather observation taken about 20 minutes before the accident recorded visibility at the airport as being only 1/2-mile in fog. At the time of the weather observation, there also was an overcast cloud ceiling of only 200 feet above the ground. The wind was recorded as being from 190 degrees at 12 knots, gusting to 16 knots, which would have resulted in a right crosswind when landing on runway 16.

WPCNR also has learned that the FAA air traffic controller who was handling the flight radioed a "minimum safe altitude warning" (MSAW) alert to the flightcrew while the airplane was established on its final approach course. Air traffic control computers generate visual cues on controller's radar screens and also trigger aural warnings if airplanes drop below certain predetermined safe altitudes.

The last radio clearance sent to the student and instructor by the air traffic controller was the MSAW alert, indicating that they were a lower altitude than was prescribed at that point during the approach to the runway.