By Leslie Linthicum
Albuquerque Journal
Copyright 2007 Albuquerque Journal
ROSWELL, N.M. — It does not appear the air ambulance that crashed just after takeoff near Ruidoso had engine or propeller failure before it came down in the trees in the Lincoln National Forest.
The plane tore a 1,100-footlong scar on a hillside and burned, ending its short flight about four miles from the Sierra Blanca Regional Airport where it took off Sunday night, according to National Transportation Safety Board senior investigator Arnold Scott.
“It’s quite a long wreckage path. That plane is shredded,” said Scott, who spent Monday night and Tuesday at the crash site near Devil’s Canyon.
Despite the condition of the wreckage, Scott said he was able to find the tail, nose and two wings and determine that the Beechcraft King Air E-90 did not break up in flight.
He said debris that was drawn into the engine as it tore through the forest was charred, leading him to conclude that the engines were hot and operating at the time of the crash.
And the propellers were “just chewed all to hell,” Scott said, indicating that they were rotating as the plane came down. “So, I don’t really see a power problem at this point,” Scott said.
“The weather was good, so I don’t really see a weather problem,” he added.
The plane came to a rest at the south end of a crash-landing scar and was pointing away from the airport, indicating it crashed in a southeasterly direction. “It would appear that he was headed in that direction,” Scott said.
One of the vexing questions is why the plane crashed southeast of the airport when its destination was to the northwest.
The airport worker who watched the plane depart told investigators that it took off on an eastbound runway and banked north toward Albuquerque, its destination. Another witness told an FAA investigator that the plane banked north, then turned south. When that witness was interviewed by the NTSB, Scott said, she did not say she saw the plane turn south.
The airport runway is at 6 degrees, and a satellite tracked the airplane at 7 degrees - or very slightly to the south - on takeoff, Scott said.
“What happened after, we don’t know,” Scott said. “I think we’ll be able to get to the bottom of it.”