SAFETY BOARD RELEASES FACTUAL REPORT ON DEADLY CRASH

A report by the National Transportation Safety Board says both wings of an airplane that crashed in a field eight miles west of Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport in February 1991 twisted from the fuselage while the plane was in flight. The plane "broke up" in mid-air, it said.

The report, referred to as a "factual" report, contains results of an investigation of the crash but does not give a probable cause. A NTSB spokesman said Wednesday a final report containing a probable cause will be issued later this year after the NTSB board reviews crash reports.

After examining a copy of the factual report, Cape Girardeau Airport manager and pilot Mark Seesing said it indicates the aircraft was subjected to severe stress just before the crash. Seesing was at the crash site the following day and saw wreckage of the wings, which were spread over 600 feet from the main wreckage site.

The crash of the single-engine Piper Cherokee claimed the life of the pilot and lone occupant, Perryville City Alderman Robert V. Pirrie, 52. Pirrie was on an instrument flight from Columbia to the Cape Girardeau airport after he was forced to divert from the Perryville airport because of bad weather.

The plane went down in a field about one-half mile east of County Road 233, three to four miles west of Dutchtown. The crash occurred as Pirrie was preparing to make an instrument landing approach to runway 10 at the airport.

Seesing said: "As a pilot, the factual report tells me the pilot got into an unusual attitude. The report says the airplane was flying on a heading of 140 degrees in a southeasterly direction and descending from 3,200 feet as the pilot was attempting to intercept the (Dutch) localizer beacon, which would turn the aircraft on a 104-degree heading and onto the electronic glide slope indicator for runway 10 at the airport."

Seesing said for whatever reason Pirrie apparently overshot the localizer beam and was attempting to make a left turn northward to intercept the localizer a second time when the aircraft broke up.

"It looks to me as though he was trying to correct back into that configuration for the localizer and glide slope to pick up both the localizer and glide slope," Seesing said. "He must have overbanked the aircraft. He could have had some vertigo or some other special disorientation and got the aircraft into a tight turn or something, and over-stressed the aircraft. That's what it looks like. The outboard wings of the aircraft were literally twisted off the fuselage."

Seesing emphasized he was speaking strictly as a pilot when he speculated Pirrie may have put the aircraft into too tight a turn, subjecting the wings to extreme stress.

He said the NTSB report says the wings were twisted and torn off while the aircraft was in mid-air traveling at over 120 mph.

According to the report, instruments in the cockpit indicated the aircraft was on a heading of 330 degrees in a northwesterly direction when it impacted, indicating that Pirrie was headed north to try to intercept the Dutch localizer, Seesing said.

The report says the propeller, engine and nose of the airplane were buried to a depth of eight feet in the muddy ground. The fuselage and cabin area were destroyed and compressed by the impact with the ground.

The report said: "The wings exhibited leading edge compression back to the main wing spar, and the main spar was displaced aft. The outboard sections of both wings, including ailerons, were not located at the main wreckage site. The outboard sections were located along a path that extended south-southeast to a point about 600 feet from the main wreckage. Both wing separations occurred in the vicinity of the main wing spar splice. Both outboard wing sections exhibited diagonal buckling from the leading edge inboard and aft."

Investigators said the outboard section of the left wing of the aircraft was located about 600 feet from the main wreckage site, on the south side of a stand of trees. All other pieces of wreckage were located between the main wreckage and the left wingtips, within the trees.

The report said Pirrie made contact with the airport tower at around 4;45 p.m., to get current weather. At the time of the crash, there was a 600-foot overcast ceiling at the airport and runway visibility of 2 miles.