Monday, August 23, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Crash prompts policy changes

Air Force revises requirements in wake of fatal plane crash

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This year's fatal crash of a twin-engine plane shuttling workers to the Tonopah Test Range prompted Air Force officials to change their procedures for using civilian pilots who routinely have landed at remote, unmanned airfields on the Nellis range.

A spokesman for the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, said the crash, among other things, led to a ban on single-pilot flight operations, and requirements that tower and ground personnel be on hand for all scheduled missions.

"We're now using the military aircraft protocol of using two pilots, and the Nellis Air Force Base range flight operations are now always available to support and track shuttle aircraft," said the spokesman, Dave Levingston.

Those procedures took effect April 1 and May 4, respectively, he said.

The actions stem from an investigation into the crash that killed four contract workers and a civilian pilot, who suffered a fatal heart attack while approaching Tonopah Air Force Auxiliary Airfield before dawn March 16.

An unclassified, 27-page report on the accident blames pilot David Palay Sr. for not telling Air Force authorities about medication he was taking for high blood pressure. Palay had a heart attack as the plane approached the airfield from about seven miles away and 3,000 feet above ground.

Palay, a 57-year-old Vietnam veteran and highly experienced pilot, "was not directed toward the same system of medical scrutiny as his military counterparts," the report states.

He was cleared to fly under a Federal Aviation Administration physical but not one required of Air Force pilots. Since the crash, all civilian pilots have undergone Air Force flight physicals, Levingston said.

Investigators also raised questions about shuttle flight operations on the sprawling Nellis Air Force Range.

Palay, with no co-pilot on board, was allowed to head for the Tonopah airfield after he dropped off 15 passengers at the secret installation along Groom Lake, widely known as Area 51.

The runway lights had been switched off and "Tonopah tower and base operations were unmanned," states the report signed by Brig. Gen. Chris Anzalone, president of the accident investigation board.

The report states later that procedures at the time allowed for pilots to fly "autonomously," or independently, to the Tonopah airfield under visual flight rules with the tower and base operations unmanned.

During a span of six minutes, from 3:52 a.m. when the plane was 24 miles southeast of the Tonopah airfield until 3:58 a.m. when Palay radioed that he had the runway lights in sight, he had tried to no avail to activate the runway lights from the cockpit.

He finally had to radio an air traffic controller at another location who in turn telephoned the Tonopah Fire Department at the airfield to switch on the runway lights.

Nevertheless, Levingston said, "There was nothing unusual about that circumstance. That was a very short period of time."

Although the plane crashed and burned just seven miles from the airfield, about 125 miles northwest of the Las Vegas Valley, it took emergency crews two hours to respond to the scene.

Levingston said: "First of all it was 4 a.m., and it wasn't visible from the base until the sun came up and a plume of smoke could be seen.

"I don't think they were looking for him," he said about the aircraft. "It was a routine mission in a very small airplane that would have come and gone without much notice."

Investigators concluded that despite a two-hour lag, "any rescue attempt would not have been successful" because the cabin filled with smoke and flames in less than a minute after impact.

Besides Palay, the others killed were Derrick L. Butler, Michael A. Izold, Daniel M. Smalley and Roy A. Van Voorhis.

An autopsy conducted at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., determined that Palay stopped breathing before the plane caught on fire because, unlike the others, there was no soot in his lungs. His cause of death was severe coronary artery disease.

Palay's autopsy turned up a cocktail of nervous system stimulants, including d-methamphetamine and over-the-counter allergy medications.

His family physician, according to the report, told investigators that Palay was taking nadolol and guanfacine for high blood pressure.

Nadolol reduces the heart rate, in turn lowering blood pressure. Likewise, guanfacine reduces the heart rate and relaxes vessels so blood can flow more easily.

The doctor said he never prescribed any medication for Palay that would test positive for stimulants such as methamphetamine.

Between 1988 and 2003, Palay had made 44 visits to the doctor's office. All but nine were for high blood pressure.

Unbeknownst to Air Force flight examiners and in violation of federal policies and directives, Palay had ingested inappropriate medications and deceived them about his dangerous health condition, the report states.