Training, procedures probed over Moorabbin Airport mid-air crash

Investigators are focusing on airport procedures and student pilot training as they probe a fatal mid-air crash in August.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s preliminary report released today said the investigation would centre on pilots’ “situational awareness”, and has so far found no evidence of mechanical faults in either plane.
The report reveals pilot Akash Ananth, 24, on his third solo flight, had no chance of surviving the crash, 3km northwest of the airport, when his Cessna A150 descended “almost vertically” into the back yard of a Cheltenham house.
Schoolchildren watched the horror unfold, as the plummeting craft missed the Cheltenham East Primary School by just 60m.
Shortly before the tragic series of events, there were six other planes waiting to land and Mr Ananth had conducted a “touch and go” on the airport’s runway, the report says.
He had been doing circuits before the apparent aborted landing.
Earlier reports suggested the trainee pilot from the Royal Victoria Aero Club, was instructed by air traffic control to turn left away from Moorabbin airport.
But the ATSB says there was no radio communication between the pilot and control tower during the manoeuvre.
The report says the Piper Warrior, also piloted by an Indian student, was preparing to join the queue for landing planes when the Cessna appeared on a collision course.
The Piper’s pilot made a desperate bid to bank hard right and down, out of the Cessna’s way, but was not enough to avoid the crash, the report says.
The Cessna’s left wing was crushed and part of the Piper’s left fuselage was torn away, leaving the left tailplane a twisted wreck.
Fuel spewed from the other plane involved as an instructor grabbed the controls of a Piper Warrior from his student and guided the badly damaged craft back to the airport.
Mr Ananth’s plane rolled three times before slamming into a garage roof and concrete courtyard, part of the plane landing on a neighbouring roof.
The report notes that while there are six airports using similar procedures to Moorabbin Airport, it asks pilots to enter a landing control zone at 1000 feet, not 500 feet.
22/10/08 Matthew Schulz/Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia