Saturday, July 31, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Crash report points to pilot
Air Force says flier hid health problems
By KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
The civilian pilot of an Air Force transport plane that crashed March 16 suffered a fatal heart attack before the twin-engine Beechcraft plunged into the ground as it approached Tonopah Air Force Auxiliary Airfield, killing four other Las Vegas men, officials said Friday.
A statement from the Air Force Materiel Command said the pilot, David D. Palay Sr., 57, had high blood pressure and had failed to report it in addition to denying to Federal Aviation Administration physical examiners that he was taking medications.
An autopsy found that Palay, a Vietnam War veteran, had masked his medical condition in violation of federal policy and had taken "inappropriate medications," according to a summary of the accident investigation.
"There was clear and convincing evidence that the mishap pilot suffered incapacitation due to sudden cardiac death during the approach to land that resulted in the ... aircraft impacting the ground," investigators reported.
"A substantially contributing factor was that the mishap pilot, in violation of federal policy and directives, willfully ingested inappropriate medications, suppressed significant medical information and deceived flight medical examiners in the presence of a deteriorating and dangerous health condition," the investigators reported.
Palay was taking four contract workers with a Las Vegas company, JT3 LLC, from a classified airstrip on Nellis Air Force Range to the Tonopah Test Range when the Air Force Beechcraft KA 1900 crashed about 5 a.m. on March 16, about seven miles southeast of the Air Force's Tonopah airfield.
Besides Palay, the others killed were Derrick L. Butler, Michael A. Izold, Daniel M. Smalley and Roy A. Van Voorhis.
Tonopah Air Force Auxiliary Airfield is located about 125 miles northwest of the Las Vegas Valley. The workers were supporting testing of the F/A-22 Raptor, according to the Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
"Six and a half miles from the runway the mishap pilot reported the runway lights in sight," the executive summary stated, adding the plane was making a turn as it went down.
"Upon impact the aircraft broke apart and released fuel that immediately engulfed the cockpit and cabin areas in fire and dense smoke," according to the summary.
Sources familiar with classified activities on the Nellis range have said the Beechcraft 1900 was one of several transport planes that shuttle workers from McCarran International Airport to the secret, Groom Lake installation and the Tonopah Test Range.
