Plane in fatal crash had special permit

The Hansa HFB320 corporate jet that Grand Aire founder Tahir Cheema was flying from suburban St. Louis to Toledo when he and a copilot were killed in a Nov. 30 crash was operating under a special "ferry permit" issued to planes that might be in need of repair.
Ferry permits are issued by the Federal Aviation Administration's regional offices and give the owners or operators of aircraft permission to make a special one-way trip with aircraft that might have mechanical or other issues.

The permits are issued by the FAA's regional offices after an on-site, certified mechanic verifies the planes are airworthy.
Many times, the permits are issued with special conditions attached, such as stating that the flight must happen during the day or in good weather.

 But the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the fatal crash that occurred shortly after takeoff, refused yesterday to provide The Blade with details about Mr. Cheema's ferry permit
- including the name of the mechanic who certified the plane airworthy for the trip.

Mr. Cheema's ferry permit is considered evidence by the NTSB investigation, and will be withheld from public release until after the agency completes its crash investigation, said Elizabeth Cory, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

"The basis of a ferry permit is that it's saying the aircraft is OK to fly from point A to point B. But they normally have a number of restrictions," she said.
NTSB investigator Jim Silliman, who was reportedly working at the crash site west of the Spirit of St. Louis Airport yesterday, could not be reached for comment.

He has declined comment in the past about the investigation.

The Grand Aire corporate jet took off Nov. 30 about 9:15 p.m. Toledo time in rain that would later turn to snow. Witnesses said it sounded as if the engines on the 35-year-old, German-made Hansa jet stopped running shortly after takeoff.

Mr. Cheema, 50, of Perrysburg, and his copilot, 40-year-old Eko Pinardi of Fort Wayne, Ind., died when the jet slammed into trees on the edge of Howell Island on the Missouri River.

The crash and Mr. Cheema's death punctuated continuing safety problems that have plagued the Swanton-based airline, which last year had two air cargo planes crash on the same day. It is the only time in U.S. aviation history that has occurred other than the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Three pilots, including Grand Aire's chief pilot, were killed in April 2003 when their cargo plane crashed in Oak Openings Metropark just short of Toledo Express Airport. Hours later, two other pilots were injured when their plane went down in the Mississippi River near downtown St. Louis, shortly after reporting the aircraft was low on fuel while circling for a second landing approach.

The Hansa jet, which sat for eight months at Spirit of St. Louis Airport while Mr. Cheema tried to sell it, was repaired twice during the day of its final flight Nov. 30. The first repair was for a battery problem, and the second repair, undertaken after an aborted takeoff, was to unclog the air speedometer, called a pitot static tube, a source previously told The Blade.

Midcoast Aviation, the on-site maintenance company that serviced the jet, would not comment on the repairs.

Although he took off from the Spirit airport in Chesterfield, Mo., Mr. Cheema received his ferry permit from the FAA's Detroit-area office, near where he used to operate his air cargo business at Custer Airport in Monroe, Ms. Cory said.

The Detroit-area FAA office is where Grand Aire's operating certificates for its planes are held and is considered to be the company's home FAA office.

When Mr. Cheema relocated his business from Custer to Toledo Express in 1999, the FAA relocated his "certificate management office" to one in Ohio.
But Mr. Cheema requested that his "certificate management office" be returned to the Detroit area, Ms. Cory said.

The FAA honored his special request, but the agency would not tell The Blade why. An FAA official who did not want to be identified told The Blade it's not unusual for a ferry permit to be issued by the office where the company's certificates are held.

But the source also said normal procedure is to obtain the permit from the FAA regional office nearest where the aircraft involved is located.

In the case of Mr. Cheema's Hansa jet, that would have been the office at Spirit of St. Louis Airport.
 

link